Responding to the federal government’s shifting guidance on vaccines and turmoil at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, health officials in California, Oregon and Washington state have formed a new West Coast Health Alliance.
The alliance's goal is to "ensure residents remain protected by science, not politics," according to a joint announcement on Sept. 3 from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson.
The three Democratic governors said the alliance will provide recommendations to residents on immunizations and ensure the public gets credible information on vaccine safety and efficacy. The governors called the alliance a unified response to what they called the Trump administration’s "destruction" of the CDC, the federal agency responsible for vaccine guidance.
"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 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."
