As COVID cases surge in California amid the spread of a new variant, health officials in California, Oregon, and Washington announced a regional plan Wednesday to align vaccine policies with guidance from national medical organizations.
The West Coast Health Alliance will provide vaccination guidelines for residents and ensure access to reliable information on vaccine safety and efficacy, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Office said in a statement. State officials said they acted in response to what they called the “destruction” of scientific integrity at the nation’s top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“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,” said Newsom.
The announcement comes as the CDC undergoes mass terminations and resignations of doctors and scientists under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic with no formal training in medicine or public health.
Fallout over federal COVID vaccine policies has continued in recent days. On Wednesday, Florida announced it would end all vaccine mandates in the state, including for children. Last week, the White House fired CDC director Susan Monarez, stating she was not “aligned with” President Trump’s agenda. In a statement, Monarez’s lawyers said she had been targeted for refusing “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.”
That same day, the Food and Drug Administration narrowed eligibility for COVID vaccines, potentially creating new barriers to access.
Public health officials from California, Oregon, and Washington issued another joint statement in June, condemning Kennedy’s ousting of all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
In a statement, Kennedy said he removed the committee members to “avoid conflicts of interest” related to vaccines.
“Some would try to explain this away by blaming misinformation or antiscience attitudes,” Kennedy said.
Some of Kennedy’s replacements have made baseless claims about vaccines, appear to have little experience with vaccine science, and have previously been paid as expert witnesses in lawsuits against a vaccine manufacturer. A study published last month in the journal JAMA, reported in Reuters, found that the 17 ousted committee members had the lowest rates of financial conflicts in almost 25 years.
In their latest statement, public health leaders from California, Oregon, and Washington criticized the federal government for undermining public health expertise.
“The dismantling of public health and dismissal of experienced and respected health leaders and advisors, along with the lack of using science, data, and evidence to improve our nation’s health are placing lives at risk,” said Dr. Erica Pan, director of the California Department of Public Health.
Earlier this year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine published a report citing the rise of online platforms as a breeding ground for scientific misinformation, which can dissuade people from following public health measures.
A 2023 study published in the European Journal of Epidemiology estimated that at least 232,000 people in the U.S. could have been prevented from dying from COVID between May 2021 and September 2022, had they received the recommended initial doses of the vaccine.
