California Governor Gavin Newsom has accused Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of turning the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into a political tool for medical quackery and has formed a new coalition to defy the Health Secretary on vaccines.
Days after CDC director Susan Monarez was forced out of her job after resisting controversial policies pushed by Kennedy, Newsom joined forces with the governors of Oregon and Washington to create a new West Coast Health Alliance to counter the “destruction” of the agency’s credibility.
“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 Democrat Governor 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.”
Newsom, who gained notoriety in recent weeks by becoming Donald Trump’s most prolific online trollers, said the alliance would coordinate vaccine recommendations across the three states.
The aim is to provide residents with scientific data about vaccine safety and efficacy, and issue guidance for respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19 and the flu.
“This will allow residents to receive consistent, science-based recommendations they can rely on—regardless of shifting federal actions,” the group said in a statement.
The creation of the alliance mirrors a similar partnership formed by the Western states during COVID.
But it comes at a tumultuous time at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where several top scientists resigned in disgust last week after Monarez was ousted less than one month after she was confirmed by the Senate to lead the agency.
Jim O’Neill, the deputy secretary of Health and Human Services, was installed as acting CDC director despite having no background as a physician or a scientist.
Nor does Kennedy, who was handpicked by Trump after the former Democrat-turned-independent presidential candidate promised to support him at last year’s election.
Kennedy has since come under fire for making sweeping changes to vaccine policies, including withdrawing federal recommendations for COVID shots for pregnant women and healthy children, and replacing the CDC’s expert advisory panel with anti-vaccine activists and other hand-picked advisers.
Amid calls for him to resign, Kennedy doubled down this week, publishing a Wall Street Journal op-ed Tuesday defending his chaotic overhaul of the CDC and accusing the agency of “dysfunction”.
This led to what he claimed was “irrational policy during COVID: cloth masks on toddlers, arbitrary 6-foot distancing, boosters for healthy children, prolonged school closings, economy-crushing lockdowns, and the suppression of low-cost therapeutics in favor of experimental and ineffective drugs.”
“The American people no longer believe the CDC has their best interests at heart,” Kennedy said.
“President Trump has asked me to restore that trust and return the CDC to its core mission.”
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