Three West Coast states are forming a public health alliance to provide "credible information" about vaccine safety in response to the turmoil within the Trump administration.
The announcement heralds a shift from the federal vaccine recommendation system that has been in place for decades to a patchwork structure that varies from state to state.
The governors of California, Oregon and Washington announced Wednesday that they were working to provide unified recommendations to "ensure residents remain protected by science, not politics." The action comes after months of upheaval at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including the firing of the agency's director last week.
Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, Tina Kotek of Oregon and Bob Ferguson of Washington warned that there will be severe consequences if the CDC becomes "a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science."
"President [Donald] 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 statement said.
Critics were concerned that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, would use his role to threaten access to immunization drugs, though he promised he would not during confirmation hearings.
Over the summer, Kennedy gutted a 17-person independent vaccine advisory committee at the CDC. He replaced it with a group that included vaccine skeptics and people critical of the Covid vaccines.
The Food and Drug Administration approved a new strain for the Covid vaccine in May, but Kennedy announced last month that the CDC would not recommend that doctors administer the shots to the general public as they have in the past. Kennedy's new recommendation would be only for adults ages 65 and above, as well as a small group of high-risk people.
Even those people may struggle to obtain the new vaccine, as the newly replaced panel has yet to meet and offer clarified guidance, causing delays at pharmacies nationwide.
The news release announcing the West Coast Health Alliance on Wednesday criticized the CDC’s dismantling, saying there is an absence of consistent, science-based federal leadership in public health. It said the alliance's shared principles will be finalized "in the coming weeks."
Without clarity from the federal government, individual states may begin to craft their own public health orders. New Mexico’s Health Department announced last week that it was ordering pharmacies to “remove potential barriers and ensure access to COVID-19 vaccines."
The decision came after some pharmacies said they could not administer the new versions of the Covid shots until the CDC advisory panel met and issued its official guidance.
Health and Human Services criticized Democrat-run states in a statement for pandemic policies that "eroded the American people’s trust in public health agencies." It also defended the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
"ACIP remains the scientific body guiding immunization recommendations in this country, and HHS will ensure policy is based on rigorous evidence and Gold Standard Science, not the failed politics of the pandemic," the statement said.
More chaos unfolded at the CDC in recent days after the White House said it was firing Director Susan Monarez after she refused to resign. Attorneys for Monarez said she "refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts [and] chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda."
Her dismissal sparked a mass exodus of top CDC officials. Nine former directors and acting directors accused Kennedy of endangering Americans in an essay Monday in The New York Times.
“During our respective C.D.C. tenures, we did not always agree with our leaders, but they never gave us reason to doubt that they would rely on data-driven insights for our protection, or that they would support public health workers,” they wrote.
They urged Congress to “exercise its oversight authority” over HHS and called on state and local governments and philanthropic givers to fill in the gaps where possible.
Kennedy defended his decisions, including gutting the CDC, in his own guest essay published in the Times on Tuesday. He accused the CDC of having squandered public trust for decades.
He wrote that the organization should focus on infectious diseases and that other programs focused on chronic diseases, such as diabetes or heart conditions, should be moved away from the CDC.
"The CDC must restore public trust — and that restoration has begun,” Kennedy wrote.
