By Martha Bellisle | Associated Press
SEATTLE — The Democratic governors of Washington state, Oregon and California announced Wednesday that they have created an alliance to establish their own recommendations for who should receive vaccines because they believe the Trump administration is putting Americans’ health at risk by politicizing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The announcement came the same day that Florida said it will phase out all childhood vaccine mandates. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to curb vaccine requirements and other health mandates that evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic in his state.
The differing responses come as COVID-19 cases rise and as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has restructured and downsized the CDC and attempted to advance anti-vaccine policies that are contradicted by decades of scientific research. Concerns about staffing and budget cuts were heightened after the White House sought to oust the agency’s director and some top CDC leaders resigned in protest.
“The CDC has become a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science, ideology that will lead to severe health consequences,” the governors said in a joint statement.
“The dismantling of public health and dismissal of experienced and respected health leaders and advisers, along with the lack of using science, data, and evidence to improve our nation’s health are placing lives at risk,” California State Health Officer Erica Pan said in the news release.
Washington state Health Secretary Dennis Worsham said public health is about “preventing illness, preventing the spread of disease, and preventing early, avoidable deaths.”
“Vaccines are among the most powerful tools in modern medicine; they have indisputably saved millions of lives,” Oregon Health Director Sejal Hathi said. “But when guidance about their use becomes inconsistent or politicized, it undermines public trust at precisely the moment we need it most.”
Partnership seeks expert medical advice
The three states plan to coordinate their vaccine recommendations and immunization plans based on science-based evidence from respected national medical organizations, according to a joint statement from Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew G. Nixon shot back in a statement Wednesday that “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 said the 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.”
Public health agencies across nation start vaccine efforts
Meanwhile, public health agencies across the country have started taking steps to ensure their states have access to vaccines after U.S. regulators came out with new policies that limited access to COVID-19 shots.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s health department said last week it is seeking advice from medical experts and its own committee on COVID-19 vaccines and other immunizations for the fall respiratory season.
The health department plans to provide residents “with specific guidance by the end of September to help Illinois health care providers and residents make informed decisions about vaccination and protecting themselves and their loved ones,” Health Director Sameer Vohra said in a statement.
New Mexico said it was updating its protocols to allow the state’s pharmacists to consider recommendations from the state’s health department when administering vaccines rather than just the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
“This order will remove obstacles to vaccination access” when it goes into effect by the end of next month, Health Secretary Gina DeBlassie said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said at his request, the State Board of Pharmacy voted to protect access to COVID-19 vaccines for those most in need and make it available at CVS pharmacies across the state.
“Health care decisions should be up to individuals — not the federal government and certainly not RFK Jr.” Shapiro said in a statement. “My administration will continue to protect health care access for all Pennsylvanians.”
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has directed health officials to ensure access to updated COVID-19 vaccines. The state’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ned Calonge issued an order to allow pharmacists to provide COVID-19 vaccines without individual prescriptions. The order takes effect on Friday.
Last month, public officials from eight Northeast states met in Rhode Island to discuss coordinating vaccine recommendations. The group included all the New England states except for New Hampshire, as well as New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat who has been critical of federal cuts to public health funding and restrictions on vaccines, said her state was leading the bipartisan coalition.
“We’re going to make sure that people get the vaccines they need — no matter what the Trump Administration does,” she said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the Connecticut Department of Public Health said Wednesday that cross-border meetings “are nothing new.”
“Public health challenges extend beyond state lines, making collaboration essential for effective response and prevention efforts,” the agency said in a statement. Last month’s meetings allowed the states to “share numerous public health best strategies to meet the needs of our states at a time of federal health restructuring and cuts.”
States have come together before
The West Coast Alliance isn’t the first time Democratic-led states have banded together to coordinate policies related to public health.
In the first months of the coronavirus pandemic, states formed regional alliances to gain buying power for respirators, gloves and other personal protective equipment for frontline workers and to coordinate reopening their largely shuttered economies.
Governors in the Northeast and West Coast — all but one of them Democrats — announced separate regional groups in 2020 hours after Trump said on social media that it would be his decision when to “open up the states.”
Associated Press writers Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.