Three West Coast states are breaking away from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) over vaccine guidelines. The governors of California, Oregon and Washington announced a new West Coast Health Alliance to coordinate public health policy independently of the CDC.
The governors said in a statement: “The new alliance represents a unified regional response to the Trump administration’s destruction of the CDC’s credibility and scientific integrity.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the alliance will provide “guidance grounded in science, not ideology.”
The alliance plans to release its own guidance on childhood vaccines, flu and COVID shots in the coming weeks.
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Florida’s opposite stance
While California, Oregon and Washington have created their own alliance, Florida seems to be taking an opposite stance. On Wednesday, the Sunshine State announced that it is ending all vaccine mandates for children, a move endorsed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services told The New York Times in a statement that it will “ensure policy is based on rigorous evidence and gold standard science, not the failed politics of the pandemic.”
Shakeup at the CDC
All these changes come after last week’s shakeup at the CDC, when the Trump administration pushed out Director Susan Monarez. The move came after she reportedly clashed with Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccine policy.
Four top officials resigned in solidarity with her, and Monarez is working with her lawyers to fight the dismissal. Federal employees staged a mass walkout of CDC offices in protest, and over one thousand health workers signed on to a petition calling for RFK’s resignation.
Meanwhile, the White House announced Jim O’Neill, the deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, will step in as acting head of the CDC.
Who is in charge is not the only thing changing at the CDC. At the end of August, The Washington Post reported that at least 600 people were being laid off.
