Washington, Oregon, California & Hawaii form West Coast Alliance

The West Coast states of Washington, Oregon and California, and Hawaii, have joined together and formed the West Coast Health Alliance. The governors of the four states say the alliance is to address the now “undermined independence” of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Hawaii joined the alliance a day later.

The push began in June when Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert Kennedy fired all17 members of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Health officials in the four states expressed concern about the firing.

A joint statement on the creation of the alliance from California Governor Gavin Newsom, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek and Washington Governor Bob Ferguson is sharply critical of President Donald Trump.

“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 statement said. “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.”

Ferguson added his own comments in his own news release.

“Public health at its core is about prevention — preventing illness, preventing the spread of disease, and preventing early, avoidable deaths,” Washington’s governor wrote. “We stand firmly with trusted medical professionals and organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, as well as fellow West Coast health agencies — whose guidance remains rooted in rigorous research and clinical expertise. Our commitment is to the health and safety of our communities, protecting lives through prevention, and not yielding to unsubstantiated theories that dismiss decades of proven public health practice.”

Hawaii Governor Josh Green also issued a statement.

“Hawaii is proud to stand with our West Coast partners to ensure public health decisions are grounded in science, not politics,” Green said. “As an island state, we understand how critical it is to protect our communities from preventable disease. By joining the West Coast Health Alliance, we’re giving Hawaii’s people the same consistent, evidence-based guidance they can trust to keep their families and neighbors safe. Using science as our guiding star, Hawaii had the highest vaccination rate and lowest mortality rate of virtually any other state or region across the globe.”

Here is a statement on what the alliance is hoping to accomplish. “In the coming weeks, the Alliance will finalize shared principles to strengthen public confidence in vaccines and in public health. While each state will independently pursue strategies shaped by their unique laws, geographies, histories, and peoples, these shared principles will form the foundations of the Alliance,” the governor’s statement said. “Importantly, the three states affirm and respect Tribal sovereignty, recognizing that Tribes maintain their sovereign authority over vaccine services.”