California joins bicoastal governors’ alliance to shore up public health
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- California joins Governors Public Health Alliance to share data and experts.
- Alliance will coordinate vaccine guidance and counter White House misinformation.
- Move follows CDC staff layoff notices and builds bipartisan state public health bloc.
California is joining a coalition of governors from both coasts, Illinois, and Guam that will offer its own public health recommendations and combat White House misinformation, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday.
The Golden State and 13 other states will join the Governors Public Health Alliance to share data and experts and communicate about threats to public health and safety. The news comes a day after the American Federation of Government Employees said 600 union members, nearly a quarter of the staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, received layoff notices.
Newsom has struck out on his own in recent months, working around the White House by offering to cut deals with foreign countries to evade President Donald Trump’s tariffs and ally with other western states to shore up public health resources and offer vaccine recommendations as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has dismissed dozens of experts and doubted the efficacy of inoculating against childhood diseases.
Former Gov. Jerry Brown took a similar approach by convening the Under2 Coalition with foreign allies and climate scientists after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords in 2017.
“California is proud to help launch this new alliance because the American people deserve a public health system that puts science before politics,” Newsom said in a Wednesday 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.”
While the Governors Public Health Alliance is bipartisan, its initial gubernatorial members representing Illinois, Guam, North Carolina, New York, Washington, Hawaii, Colorado, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon are all Democrats.
The alliance is supported by the Governors Action Alliance, a nonpartisan organization that has recently supported state leaders pushing back against White House attempts to dismantle AmeriCorps and seize control of the California National Guard to protect immigration agents carrying out deportation raids in Los Angeles.
