Oregon, Washington, California form health care alliance to protect vaccine access

This story was originally published by Oregon Public Broadcasting

The democratic governors of Oregon, Washington and California are forming a new public health partnership aimed at preserving access to vaccines.

The partnership, called the Western Health Alliance, will develop its own immunization guidelines “informed by respected national medical organizations,” according to a news release Wednesday from Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“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,” the governors said in a joint prepared statement.

Their announcement comes after a week of chaos at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last week, the White House fired CDC Director Susan Monarez, who was appointed by President Trump, after she refused to approve vaccine policies preferred by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Several of the agency’s top career scientists also resigned in protest. On Monday, nine former directors of the CDC, who worked under both Republicans and Democrats, condemned Kennedy’s leadership of the agency in an op-ed in The New York Times.

Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, responded with an op-ed of his own in the Wall Street Journal, saying he’s “restoring the public’s trust in the CDC” and vaccine science broadly by eliminating bias and conflicts of interest.

“Vaccines are among the most powerful tools in modern medicine; they have indisputably saved millions of lives,” Dr. Sejal Hathi, head of the Oregon Health Authority, said in the announcement. “But when guidance about their use becomes inconsistent or politicized, it undermines public trust at precisely the moment we need it most.”

Last week, the FDA approved the new round of COVID-19 vaccines, but limited their availability to only those who are considered high-risk.

The CDC’s advisory committee on immunization practices is set to meet this month to discuss recommendations for who should get the shot, providing needed guidance to pharmacists across the country. Earlier this summer, Kennedy removed all 17 members from the advisory committee and has replaced them with members who have criticized vaccines and spread misinformation about them.

On Monday, President Donald Trump suggested on his social media website Truth Social that drugmakers like Pfizer should prove to the public that COVID-19 vaccines were effective because controversy was affecting the CDC. In a press release last week, Pfizer included a link to a presentation from May on its vaccine efficacy.

Syringes are prepared for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine at a clinic in Lubbock, Texas.

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Mary Conlon

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AP

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The alliance’s formation is not the first time West Coast states have partnered on public health endeavors. In 2020, the three formed the “Western States Pact” to review federal vaccine recommendations and coordinate pandemic restrictions. Oregon, Washington and California were three of the final states to lift their mask mandates.

The states also have a history in responding to national health care policy changes. As legal cases that threatened abortion medication moved through the courts, the states all developed their own stockpiles of the drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol.

Tensions between the states and the Trump administration have been rising in other areas over the past month as well. The president has frequently said he wanted to see more immigration enforcement in so-called sanctuary states like Oregon and Washington after a notable presence in California. Newsom has also taken to mocking President Trump on social media in recent days.

The three Democratic governors offered few specifics Wednesday as to how they hope the Western Health Alliance could influence which vaccines will be available in their states.

The Food and Drug Administration is tasked with approving new vaccines, and state legislatures generally determine which vaccines are required for school attendance.

One possibility would be bulk vaccine purchasing agreements, with more than 50 million people living in the three states combined.