Western states launch vaccine alliance amid CDC shake-up

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(The Center Square) – The states of California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii are launching the West Coast Health Alliance to provide immunization recommendations to their residents amid concerns of federal politicization of science.

The partnership will launch health guidelines informed by “trusted scientists, clinicians, and other public health leaders,” according to a press release.

In a joint statement, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek claim Trump’s mass firings within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and “blatant politicization of the agency” are direct assaults on Americans’ health and safety.

“The CDC has become a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science, ideology that will lead to severe health consequences,” the three governors wrote in a statement. “California, Oregon and Washington will not allow the people of our states to be put at risk.”

Hawaii joined the alliance roughly 24 hours after the launch on Wednesday.

The announcement comes as a result of multiple actions taken by the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services since Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was appointed by President Donald Trump this year.

Most recently, the White House appointed Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill as interim director at the CDC. O’Neil – who is not a physician – replaces former CDC Director Susan Monarez. Her lawyers claim she had been fired for refusing “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.”

The three West Coast states previously condemned Kennedy and the Department of Health and Human Services in June when Kennedy removed all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. 

The Department of Health and Human Services remains steadfast that the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is the scientific body guiding immunization recommendations in the U.S.

“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,” said Health and Human Services Press Secretary Emily Hilliard in an email to The Center Square. “[Health and Human Services] will ensure policy is based on rigorous evidence and Gold Standard Science, not the failed politics of the pandemic.”

State Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, chair of the Washington State Republican Party, noted the alliance announcement does not challenge the CDC’s numbers or state that the CDC is wrong.

Walsh added that Washington, Oregon and California previously created a pact in April 2020 that closely coordinated the rollout of COVID-19 policies.

“That ‘Pact’ proved to be ineffectual – more press release than action. Five years later, Ferguson seems to be simply following [former Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s] ineffectual footsteps,” Walsh told The Center Square. “I suspect this latest ‘Alliance’ will be the same. It's not a serious law or policy. It's just an excuse to snipe at Donald Trump and Robert Kennedy Jr.”

The West Coast Health Alliance states are expected to finalize shared principles to strengthen public confidence in vaccines and in public health.