Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) announced a state-led initiative to modernize health infrastructure, hiring former CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez and CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry for the effort.
The program, called the Public Health Network Innovation Exchange (PHNIX), seeks to “drive public health innovation, strengthen collaboration across states and institutions, and improve how critical health information is communicated” in order to fill what it claims is the “vacuum left by the Trump administration’s systematic retreat from science and evidence-based public health.”
“The Public Health Network Innovation Exchange is expected to bring together the best science, the best tools, and the best minds to advance public health,” Newsom said in a statement. “By bringing on expert scientific leaders to partner in this launch, we’re strengthening collaboration and laying the groundwork for a modern public health infrastructure that will offer trust and stability in scientific data not just across California, but nationally and globally.”
“I am deeply excited to bring my experience in health technology and innovation to support PHNIX,” Monarez said of the initiative. “California has an extraordinary concentration of talent, technology, and investment, and this effort is about putting those strengths to work for the public good—modernizing how public health operates, accelerating innovation, and building a healthier, more resilient future for all Californians.”
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired Monarez in August.
Monarez’s attorneys criticized her departure, saying at the time, “First it was independent advisory committees and career experts. Then it was the dismissal of seasoned scientists. Now, Secretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk.”
“When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda,” the statement said. “For that, she has been targeted. Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired, and as a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign.”
