California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii form health alliance in response to CDC changes on vaccine guidance
California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii announced the formation of a health alliance to guide residents on vaccines and immunizations because of what a joint statement called "the politicization of science" by the federal government.
A statement from California Governor Gavin Newsom, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, and Washington Governor Bob Ferguson on Wednesday said the West Coast Health Alliance "represents a unified regional response to the Trump administration's destruction of the U.S. CDC's credibility and scientific integrity."
On Thursday, Hawaii Governor Josh Green, M.D., announced his state would join the alliance.
"Hawaii is proud to stand with our West Coast partners to ensure public health decisions are grounded in science, not politics," said Green, a former emergency room doctor, in a prepared statement. "As an island state, we understand how critical it is to protect our communities from preventable disease. By joining the West Coast Health Alliance, we're giving Hawaii's people the same consistent, evidence-based guidance they can trust to keep their families and neighbors safe.
The governors say the alliance will provide unified recommendations on who should receive immunizations and offer information on vaccine safety and efficacy that is evidence-based.
"President Trump's mass firing of CDC doctors and scientists - and his blatant politicization of the agency - is a direct assault on the health and safety of the American people," the joint statement said. "The CDC has become a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science, ideology that will lead to severe health consequences. California, Oregon, and Washington will not allow the people of our states to be put at risk."
Andrew Nixon, spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, dismissed the announcement on Wednesday, telling the Associated Press that the agency would "ensure policy is based on rigorous evidence and Gold Standard Science, not the failed politics of the pandemic."
"Democrat-run states that pushed unscientific school lockdowns, toddler mask mandates, and draconian vaccine passports during the COVID era completely eroded the American people's trust in public health agencies," Nixon told the AP.
The announcement comes two days after nine former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention condemned Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s leadership in a New York Times op-ed over the Trump administration's firing of CDC director Susan Monarez and the resignation of other top CDC officials. Former Silicon Valley investor and deputy HHS Secretary Jim O'Neill was selected to serve as the acting director of the CDC.
In June, Kennedy removed all 17 members of the CDC's vaccine recommendations committee, calling it "little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine," and replaced them with advisers with a history of criticizing vaccine recommendations or questioning their safety.
The move was rebuked by top doctors' groups such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Last month, AAP began sharing new vaccine recommendations that differed from the U.S. government's advice for the first time in 30 years..
Kennedy has faced criticism for months over how he has used his platform as the head of the nation's public health agencies, including ordering changes to COVID-19 vaccine guidance, terminating bird flu vaccine research funding, forcing out federal vaccines and infectious diseases experts, and spreading myths about measles shots.
The announcement of the California/Oregon/Washington health alliance also comes on the same day that Florida announced it would be the first state to phase out all childhood vaccine mandates.
