California Joins Breakaway Public Health Alliance in Rebuke of ‘Extremists’ at CDC

California is joining 13 other states to create an alliance aimed at coordinating public health, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday in a direct rebuke of the Trump administration and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s dramatic overhaul of the nation’s public health systems.

The move comes as public health experts grow increasingly concerned about Kennedy’s transformation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he’s fired top officials, slashed research funding, changed vaccine recommendations and gutted the leadership of a key federal immunization committee and replaced them with novices.

Newsom also noted the deep health care cuts President Trump and congressional Republicans have made this year in announcing the new alliance.

“The American people deserve a public health system that puts science before politics,” Newsom said in a statement. “As extremists try to weaponize the CDC and spread misinformation, we’re stepping up to coordinate across states, protect communities, and ensure decisions are driven by data, facts, and the health of the American people.”

The new partnership is meant to coordinate public health leadership to improve communication, share information and position states to respond quickly to new threats. It includes the governors of Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland and North Carolina, plus the U.S. territory of Guam.

It comes just weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom also announced California would band together with Oregon and Washington to issue vaccine recommendations separate from the federal government’s. That move came in response to the Trump administration’s inconsistent guidance on vaccines.

Newsom called the new Governors Public Health Alliance, a nonpartisan hub, though all the participating governors are Democrats.

But he said the alliance is being financially supported by GovAct, a nonpartisan, nonprofit initiative whose advisory board includes both Democratic and Republican former governors.