California, Oregon and Washington ally on vaccines in rebuke to Trump's CDC

[SpankMe]

Source: The Guardian

The governors of California, Oregon and Washington announced on Wednesday the creation of a West Coast Health Alliance aimed at safeguarding access to vaccines, amid growing turmoil at the nation’s top public health agency under the leadership of Robert F Kennedy Jr.

The newly formed West Coast Health Alliance will coordinate health guidance across the three states, including evidence-based immunization recommendations. Officials say the effort is intended to provide residents with access to consistent and credible information about vaccines in the absence of reliable federal leadership.

According to the announcement, the alliance will release a set of shared principles in the coming weeks. While the states will share immunization recommendations, they will also pursue independent strategies based on their “unique laws, geographies, histories, and peoples” and with respect to Tribal sovereignty.

Public health officials in California, Oregon and Washington warned of an erosion of trust in vaccines.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/03/west-coast-alliance-trump-rfk-vaccines

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This health alliance should go far beyond vaccines. It should be a shadow version of the CDC and should compete with RFK Jr's horrific misinformation spewage in all areas of medicine. This could, and should, be a key element of what has been called "soft secession" where groups of states that can still think create quasi federal agencies that can provide sound policies and recommendations to counter the national government's bullshit. I hope this can be a start to new inter-state compacts where some federal functions are replaced by multi-state agreements. This health alliance should be hiring some of the CDC leaders who have been ousted. We need more Fauci's and fewer RFK Jr's.

[C_U_L8R]

1. The northeast states too.

Minus New Hampshire. Doing that live free and dying thing.

[BlueKota]

14. I certainly hope New York will participate!

If it comes to be.

[Mr.WeRP]

15. NY, NJ and PA are all involved with the New England states on this

NH is the only one who did not participate. The Northeast conference also included efforts to backfill the cuts to medicaid.

[BlueKota]

20. Thank you that's reassuring.

I am only 63 but I am hoping the fact that I am overweight, have high blood pressure, and was born with 25 percent of my left lung diaphragm paralyzed I will still be able to get a Covid Booster. I got Covid in 2020 and my doctor immediately prescribed Paxlovid. So hopefully I will qualify.

[wolfie001]

33. Damn that imbecile RFK Jr to hell

Flaming POS!

[BlueKota]

39. I agree. He's going to be responsible for many deaths.

Not that he gives a shit about that. I still can't believe he is a Kennedy. Other than a physical resemblance it seems he doesn't share a lot else in common with many of them.

[lostincalifornia]

2. Maybe that alliance can expand to other areas.

[Punx]

13. Like Canada

[BlueKota]

21. I want Canada to adopt New York

[DebbieCDC]

27. I want them to adopt Washington State!

[erronis]

3. There are a lot of regional information sharing groups. But this needs to expand into providing resources

such as regional drug purchasing alliances.

Of course this fracturing of the federal function is exactly what putin/thiel/rump-vance want. United we stand, ....

[LymphocyteLover]

22. well for now, we have to do this kind of shit

[GenThePerservering]

23. I don't think this will work the way they think it will, then

The powerhouses of this country are aligning and combining our strength. If we did NOT do that, then the axis of evil might get what they want because we would be all be tethered to the weakest (magat) states.

[Karasu]

25. Ensuring our health and survival is more important than worrying about what a bunch of fascists do or don't want us to

do. Unity isn't possible under fascism, least of all when people can no longer agree on settled science or a shared reality based on objective fact.

[NJCher]

36. Wholeheartedly agree

We’re not “under” fascism when we make such working alliances.

IMO—A better word would be transcending fascism.

I personally don’t care much if I’m unified with some red state.

[NJCher]

34. That would require too much thought

Of course this fracturing of the federal function is exactly what putin/thiel/rump-vance want. United we stand, ....

With them I don’t think planning goes much beyond impulse of the moment.

This is what’s called “thinking it through” and they have never been able to do that.

[CousinIT]

4. So I may have to fly to CA to get my flu and COVID shots.

Huh. Maybe I'll just stay there.

[Karasu]

5. Good. We need more of this. Fuck mindlessly complying with this unstable, incompetent fascist bullshit.

Last edited Wed Sep 3, 2025, 04:58 PM - Edit history (3)

Actually exercise all those states' rights the GOP used to pretend to give a fuck about until they got the fascist government they always dreamed of.

[BigmanPigman]

6. Every day I am glad I live in CA ,during the tRump years especially.

I wish they'd protect my ACA insur and tax credits. $1000 increase per month starting on Jan. 1, 2026.

[Auggie]

12. How soon is it until you're Medicare eligible?

[AllyCat]

7. So this will be the new source for accurate health information

Once online, I wonder if my nurses union can push for our hospital to use this as accurate information to give to patients.

I want to move to Cascadia. Anywhere there. I want to move.

[C Moon]

8. Nice!

[BadgerMom]

9. Gov. Lujan Grisham: Please get New Mexico included!!

[pfitz59]

10. The country is splitting apart

into 'sane' and 'insane' sectors.

[Queso Delicioso]

42. That was my first thought as well.

At least, that some states are starting to go their own way. On the one hand I hate it, but on the other, it's a matter of self-preservation.

[Fil1957]

11. Hopefully this is the beginning of a trend...

[róisín_dubh]

16. I should be able to get one in PA...

Thanks to Gov Shapiro and the State Board of pharmacy. So far I can’t schedule it with CVS, but I’ll just go there tomorrow and ask for it. I’m a former smoker and can’t get it in the UK yet.

[wolfie001]

32. Great Governor y'all got there!

[Hekate]

17. I sincerely hope this medical alliance will include stockpiling of mifepristone and other women's health needs

This is such good news

[NJCher]

37. It probably will

I think my state, NJ, did it in the past.

[Aristus]

18. I'm so proud to be a Washingtonian!

I wonder if this is a possible step toward the establishment of the Republic of Cascadia.

[Mysterian]

19. So glad I moved to Washington

There is some sanity here.

[wolfie001]

31. Not in the eastern half

"Alabama" haters out there for the most part. We have them here in the far east and west in Maryland. Orange fat imbecile has his cult in every state. 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵

[Mysterian]

41. I'm east of the Cascades

Still sane and fuck the fascists. I'll be here to help drive them the fuck out.

[wolfie001]

43. Keep up the good fight!

[tinrobot]

24. West Coast best coast once again.

So glad I live here.

[HappyLarge]

26. I dearly hope Gov Green is planning on Hawaii joining.

I have elderly patients and small children. It’s a combo that need immunizations.

[The Roux Comes First]

28. One of the Few Times in My Life I Have Hailed "State's Rights"!

And it is in the sincere hope that this will be a short-term band-aid until we end the insanity of the Greed Party, who already as individual states are receiving far more federal welfare than their tax contributions warrant.

[samnsara]

29. I love my state. During Covid the west coast states also had an alliance...

.. I will never move from the west coast unless its to canada

[wolfie001]

30. These 3 states can be a haven for intellect and science in the face of tRUMPian Nazism

I suggest they start mobilizing and getting their message out! To the world! 💙 From Maryland!!!

[oasis]

35. RFK Jr. is such a miserable wretch. He wants

most Americans to wallow in similar misery. He has a demonic personality.

[Paladin]

38. OUTSTANDING move, Western Governors!

This ought to serve as an anti-Rfk jr. template, all over the country. Far and away trump's worst appointment (although there's plenty of competition).

[LetMyPeopleVote]

40. MaddowBlog-To circumvent RFK Jr. on vaccines, Democrats and blue states start getting creative

Ideally, the United States wouldn’t have a patchwork public health system, but the Trump administration hasn’t left blue states with much of a choice.

The list of blue states (or at least states led by Dems) circumventing RFK Jr and Trump on vaccines and public health keeps growing:
- California
- Oregon
- Washington
- Massachusetts
- Illinois
- New Mexico
- Pennsylvania

This shouldn't be necessary, but here we are. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-09-04T13:02:43.631Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/circumvent-rfk-jr-vaccines-democrats-blue-states-start-getting-creativ-rcna229022

Ideally, the United States wouldn’t have a patchwork public health system, with different vaccine recommendations depending on where Americans live. But with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. taking a sledgehammer to the federal system, once-trusted public health departments reeling under politically imposed chaos and Republican-led states moving in radical and dangerous directions, the national system that has existed for decades without controversy has been rendered unsustainable.

And so, reality-based officials are having to get creative.

NBC News reported, for example, on three West Coast states forging a new public health alliance to provide “credible information” about vaccine safety to the public.

The governors of California, Oregon and Washington announced Wednesday that they were working to provide unified recommendations to ‘ensure residents remain protected by science, not politics.’ The action comes after months of upheaval at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including the firing of the agency’s director last week.

The Democratic governors — Washington’s Bob Ferguson, Oregon’s Tina Kotek and California’s Gavin Newsom — warned that the public would likely face “severe” consequences if the CDC becomes “a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science.”,,,,,,

What’s more, they’re not alone. The New Republic’s Greg Sargent reported last week:

Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s health department in Illinois is currently exploring the possibility of purchasing Covid-19 vaccines in bulk straight from manufacturers in response to the mess in Washington, a senior Illinois health official confirms to me. Meanwhile, a coalition of mostly blue states led by Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey is planning to coordinate on the purchase and distribution of pediatric vaccines, should the federal government restrict access to them, according to a source familiar with ongoing discussions.

Indeed, The Boston Globe reported this week that Healey “essentially wrote a prescription for Covid shots for every person in the state over the age of 5, a move that would blunt potential federal restrictions on Covid boosters.”....

Dr. Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota vaccine expert who heads a project to help states and professional societies make science-based vaccine recommendations, told the Globe this week, “This is one of the most dangerous times that public health has faced in the last 50 years.”