West Coast governors have formed a vaccine alliance to circumvent the Trump administration’s health agenda.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, and Washington Governor Bob Ferguson, all Democrats, formed the West Coast Health Alliance in an effort that they claim will protect residents with “science, not politics.”
“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 governors said in a joint statement. “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.”
According to the governors, the alliance will “help safeguard scientific expertise by ensuring that public health policies in California, Oregon, and Washington are informed by trusted scientists, clinicians, and other public health leaders,” a news release from Newsom’s office explains. The Democratic leaders will coordinate health guidelines by “aligning immunization recommendations informed by respected national medical organizations.”
“Importantly, the three states affirm and respect Tribal sovereignty, recognizing that Tribes maintain their sovereign authority over vaccine services,” the release declares.
Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew G. Nixon condemned the alliance, stating, “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.”
He noted that the Trump administration’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices “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.”
