In early September 2025, California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii announced a coordinated public health partnership, the West Coast Health Alliance, aimed at safeguarding access to vaccines and ensuring that immunization guidance for residents is driven by science rather than politics.
The alliance is an independent collaboration of state health leaders and governors. It characterizes itself as a protection against what its backers describe as recent politicization and instability at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to the Washington State Department of Health (DOH), “The West Coast Health Alliance is a newly announced partnership between Washington, California, Oregon and Hawaii. The states work together to align evidence-based health policies, share data and issue joint recommendations. These recommendations draw on guidance from trusted national medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Family Physicians, and are grounded in safety, efficacy, transparency, access and trust.”
The Alliance has published the vaccine recommendations for the 2025-26 respiratory-virus season as a baseline for member states. Washington State further builds on this with guidance regarding state-specific needs. The DOH issued an order advising all citizens six months and older to stay up to date on the COVID-19 vaccinations.
Furthermore, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson’s official website explained that earlier this June, Washington, California and Oregon condemned U.S Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to remove all 17 board members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
Emily Atar, a physician’s assistant and health science educator, shared some of her thoughts about the CDC’s changes. “If the current restructuring of the CDC leads to greater accountability and a renewed focus on gold-standard science, that could strengthen public health. But if it moves us further from scientific integrity and toward politicized decision-making, that’s deeply concerning. Unfortunately, there seems to be more evidence that the latter is happening in this current political climate right now,” she stated.
KFF Health News recorded some shocking statistics about the CDC’s current status. They explained, “Thus far this year, the administration has cut staff at HHS by over 20,000 (with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, losing about 3,000 workers – a quarter of its staff).”
Additionally, the government has “sought to pull back funding for state and local health departments, implemented new, more restrictive recommendations for some vaccines and questioned long-standing scientific data and public health guidance.”
Kennedy, one of the U.S.’s most prominent vaccine skeptics, announced in May that it was no longer recommended by the government for children or pregnant women to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Despite President Trump’s officials statement that anyone who is a legal adult may receive any vaccine they ask for, and that federal guidelines do not force anyone to be deprived of them.
Dr. Jake Scott, a clinical associate professor of infectious diseases at Stanford Medicine, stated in an X post that describing vaccines as available is misleading. He claimed that “Insurance won’t cover off-label use ($150+ costs), pharmacies can’t administer [vaccines] without CDC recommendations you haven’t issued and you eliminated Pfizer for under-5s entirely.”
He explained, “Available with barriers isn’t accessible.”
Furthermore, when asked about the availability of accurate medical advice, Emily Atar said, “There’s certainly no shortage of information available about vaccines and health topics — the challenge lies in discerning which sources are scientifically sound. In today’s media environment, credible experts who rely on evidence-based methods are often drowned out by personalities with large platforms but little to no scientific training or expertise. Unfortunately, that can lead to the spread of misinformation that aligns more with personal beliefs or profit motives than with established science.”
Although, critics of the alliance argued that multiple overlapping authorities could confuse providers and insurers and that Democratic run states’ strict guidelines in the COVID era completely eroded the American people’s trust in public health agencies.
Still, for residents of the four states, the alliance promised continuity: clearer local recommendations, coordinated campaigns and explicit commitments to base decisions on evidence.
