Here’s who can — and who should — get COVID shots in Mass.

All adults and young children in Massachusetts should get a COVID-19 vaccine to protect themselves and their loved ones from illness. That’s the message from Gov. Maura Healey, whose administration split from the federal government this week and issued its own recommendations for COVID shots.

Doctors, including those at the Massachusetts Medical Society, praised the move. COVID is far from the crisis it was several years ago during the height of the pandemic, but it still poses a risk of severe symptoms and long-term illness.

COVID has been on the upswing and remained at a “high” level in Massachusetts and nationally this month, according to wastewater data tracked by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Massachusetts public health officials recommended the vaccine for all adults, particularly those 65 and older and people with preexisting medical conditions that put them at higher risk of becoming more severely ill. Adults 65 and older should receive two doses of the latest version of the COVID vaccine, administered six months apart, according to the state guidance, while most other adults should receive one dose. State officials said that pregnant people should be vaccinated to protect themselves and their babies after birth.

“We all have people in our lives who are vulnerable,” Healey told reporters at the State House on Wednesday. “We want to make sure that they have accurate information, that they have science-backed information, and they're getting the word from medical experts. That's what this is about.”

State health officials said children between 6 and 23 months old should receive the vaccine. That means a primary series of shots for unvaccinated children, and a booster for kids in this age group who previously received the vaccine.

Dr. Robbie Goldstein, the state's public health commissioner, said young children face a risk similar to older adults for COVID-related hospital visits.

“It's really important that those young children, those young babies, get the vaccine to protect themselves going into the respiratory virus season,” he said.

Children older than 2 who have certain medical conditions also should be vaccinated, state officials said, while healthy children aged 2 to 18 may receive the vaccine if their parents or guardians desire it. The vaccine is less critical for this age group of healthy kids because they're at lower risk of severe disease, according to the state guidance.

As federal health officials, led by U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., weaken vaccine recommendations, some states are going their own way. A group of western states — California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii — have issued their own COVID vaccine guidelines.

In Massachusetts, Healey said she decided to act because Kennedy has repeatedly questioned vaccine safety and had already recommended against COVID vaccination for pregnant people and children, alarming experts and raising concerns about access.

Kennedy has made a career of criticizing vaccines. He has downplayed COVID vaccines'success in reducing sickness and death, and warned about their risks, despite evidence that the vaccines are safe. Kennedy also fired the head of the CDC and purged a panel of experts who help set federal vaccine policy, replacing them with his own appointees.

“I didn't start this,” Healey said. “Because [President] Donald Trump put a conspiracy theorist in charge of HHS, we are where we are, and it's most unfortunate. They started this by completely dismantling public health in this country.”

Goldstein said the recommendations are based on state and national COVID data and expertise from three professional medical societies: the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

The vaccine recommendations were developed by public health leaders in a coalition of states — Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Massachusetts — that came together earlier this year in response to the Trump administration's federal health care changes.

“There was a process to come to these recommendations,” Goldstein said. “It's a process backed by science and evidence. It's a process that should be trusted.”

Goldstein has experience with vaccines and vaccine policy: He’s an infectious diseases doctor who also worked at the CDC during the Biden administration.

This varies from state to state. In Massachusetts, state officials issued a standing order this month for pharmacies to make COVID vaccines available. They also required insurance plans subject to state rules to continue paying for COVID shots  —as well as other state-recommended vaccines — without charging patients.

A national health insurance trade group also said this week that health plans would continue covering vaccines that were recommended by federal health officials as of Sept. 1 — before Kennedy's handpicked Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met to discuss changes to national vaccine policy.

A CDC advisory panel voted on Friday afternoon to recommend COVID vaccinations for adults 65 and older. But the group's advice for people younger than 65 differed from the Massachusetts guidelines.

The panel said patients 64 and younger should talk to a health care professional about their individual risks and benefits before deciding to get the vaccine. The group also said those conversations should emphasize that the benefits of vaccination are greater for those facing a higher risk of severe illness from COVID.

The panel stopped short of recommending that a prescription be required for COVID shots.

The CDC's acting director has the final say on the agency's vaccination guidelines.

Editor's note: This post has been updated to reflect the vote by the CDC advisory panel.