West Coast States Form New Health Alliance To Give Vaccine Advice, Saying CDC Is Now “A Political Tool”

In a joint statement released on September 3, the governors for California, Oregon, and Washington – Gavin Newsom, Tina Kotek, and Bob Ferguson – said: “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 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 primary aim of the new alliance is to provide the public with “consistent, science-based” health recommendations – starting with information and advice about vaccination.

In response to the news, US Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew G. Nixon said in a statement seen by AP that the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which develops the agency’s vaccine recommendations, “remains the scientific body guiding immunization recommendations in this country, and HHS will ensure policy is based on rigorous evidence and Gold Standard Science, not the failed politics of the pandemic.”

The West Coast team-up comes in the wake of months of vaccine-related controversies at the CDC.

In June, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – who oversees the CDC – sacked all 17 members of ACIP, refilling the panel with multiple members who have a history of vaccine skepticism. Later that month, the new panel endorsed fall flu vaccines, but only those without thimerosal – a preservative that has drawn attention from anti-vaxxers despite false claims about its alleged dangers being thoroughly debunked.

Kennedy also announced back in May that the CDC would no longer be recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and in pregnancy as part of the routine immunization schedule, breaking with previous advice and triggering six leading medical organizations to file suit against Kennedy and the heads of the CDC, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Late August also saw the firing of CDC director Susan Monarez over what her attorneys reportedly stated was her refusal “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives”, which was quickly followed by the resignation of several other key CDC leaders, some citing the changes in vaccine policy.

But those changes won’t necessarily make it everywhere. While the CDC makes national recommendations about vaccines, states can create their own guidance. The recommendations of the new West Coast alliance have yet to be announced, but other states have already diverged from the agency when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines in particular.

The New Mexico Department of Health, for example, announced on August 30 that it had “issued a public health order to help ensure all New Mexicans can access the COVID-19 vaccine,” deviating from a state law that prevents vaccines from being administered unless recommended by ACIP, with some pharmacies not issuing vaccines because of that. Colorado issued a similar order on September 3.

It’s just one example of the practical problems that people might encounter with differences on a state and federal level. Another is insurance, which some people rely on in order to cover the cost of vaccination. At the moment, most health insurers cover the COVID-19 vaccine, among others, but some do so on the basis of ACIP recommendations. Will that change if states and the CDC differ in their recommendations?

On top of that, while those behind the West Coast Health Alliance believe teaming up will help to make vaccine advice clearer for their own residents, some have expressed concern that states going their own way may well make things even muddier – something that could have significant consequences for the public’s trust in science.

“If you can’t trust the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, and with Robert F. Kennedy Jr as the head of H.H.S., you can’t trust the C.D.C. — as we always have up to this point — what do you do?” Dr Paul Offit said to The New York Times. Offit, who is the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and co-invented the rotavirus vaccine, was recently removed from the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee.

“What happens if one state says one thing and another says something else? I just think it will only add to the confusion. Science is losing its place as a source of truth, and that is a dangerous time. We’re seeing the results of that.”