Angela Hart
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has positioned himself as a nationwide public well being chief by staking out science-backed insurance policies in distinction with the Trump administration.
After Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez for refusing what her legal professionals known as “the dangerous politicization of science,” Newsom hired her to assist modernize California’s public well being system. He additionally gave a job to Debra Houry, the company’s former chief science and medical officer, who had resigned in protest hours after Monarez’s firing.
Newsom additionally teamed up with fellow Democratic governors Tina Kotek of Oregon, Bob Ferguson of Washington, and Josh Green of Hawaii to kind the West Coast Health Alliance, a regional public well being company, whose steerage the governors said would “uphold scientific integrity in public health as Trump destroys” the CDC’s credibility. Newsom argued establishing the unbiased alliance was important as Kennedy leads the Trump administration’s rollback of nationwide vaccine suggestions.
More not too long ago, California grew to become the first state to join a world outbreak response community coordinated by the World Health Organization, adopted by Illinois and New York. Colorado and Wisconsin signaled they plan to affix. They did so after President Donald Trump formally withdrew the United States from the company on the grounds that it had “strayed from its core mission and has acted contrary to the U.S. interests in protecting the U.S. public on multiple occasions.” Newsom mentioned becoming a member of the WHO-led consortium would allow California to reply sooner to communicable illness outbreaks and different public well being threats.
Although different Democratic governors and public well being leaders have brazenly criticized the federal authorities, few have been as outspoken as Newsom, who’s contemplating a run for president in 2028 and is in his second and closing time period as governor. Members of the scientific group have praised his effort to construct a public well being bulwark towards the Trump administration’s slashing of funding and scaling again of vaccine suggestions.
What Newsom is doing “is a great idea,” mentioned Paul Offit, an outspoken critic of Kennedy and a vaccine professional who previously served on the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee however was eliminated below Trump in 2025.
“Public health has been turned on its head,” Offit mentioned. “We have an anti-vaccine activist and science denialist as the head of U.S. Health and Human Services. It’s dangerous.”
The White House didn’t reply to questions on Newsom’s stance and HHS declined requests to interview Kennedy. Instead, federal well being officers criticized Democrats broadly, arguing that blue states are taking part in fraud and mismanagement of federal funds in public well being applications.
HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard mentioned the administration goes after “Democrat-run states that pushed unscientific lockdowns, toddler mask mandates, and draconian vaccine passports during the covid era.” She mentioned these strikes have “completely eroded the American people’s trust in public health agencies.”
Public Health Guided by Science
Since Trump returned to workplace, Newsom has criticized the president and his administration for engineering insurance policies that he sees as an affront to public well being and security, labeling federal leaders as “extremists” making an attempt to “weaponize the CDC and spread misinformation.” He has excoriated federal officials for erroneously linking vaccines to autism, warning that the administration is endangering the lives of infants and younger youngsters in scaling again childhood vaccine suggestions. And he argued that the White House is unleashing “chaos” on America’s public well being system in backing out of the WHO.
The governor declined an interview request. Newsom spokesperson Marissa Saldivar mentioned it’s a precedence of the governor “to protect public health and provide communities with guidance rooted in science and evidence, not politics and conspiracies.”
The Trump administration’s strikes have triggered monetary uncertainty that native officers mentioned has diminished morale inside public well being departments and left states unprepared for illness outbreaks and prevention efforts. The White House final yr proposed reducing HHS spending by $33 billion, together with $3.6 billion from the CDC. Congress largely rejected these cuts final month, though funding for applications specializing in social drivers of well being, akin to entry to meals, housing, and schooling, were axed.
The Trump administration introduced that it will claw again more than $600 million in public well being funds from California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota, arguing that the Democratic-led states have been funding “woke” initiatives that didn’t mirror White House priorities. Within days, the states sued and a choose temporarily blocked the reduce.
“They keep suddenly canceling grants and then it gets overturned in court,” mentioned Kat DeBurgh, govt director of the Health Officers Association of California. “A lot of the damage is already done because counties already stopped doing the work.”
Federal funding has accounted for more than half of state and native well being division budgets nationwide, with cash going towards preventing HIV and different sexually transmitted infections, stopping persistent illnesses, and boosting public well being preparedness and communicable illness response, in line with a 2025 evaluation by KFF, a well being info nonprofit that features KFF Health News.
Federal funds account for $2.4 billion of California’s $5.3 billion public well being finances, making it troublesome for Newsom and state lawmakers to backfill potential cuts. That cash helps fund state operations and is significant for native well being departments.
Funding Cuts Hurt All
Los Angeles County public well being director Barbara Ferrer mentioned if the federal authorities is allowed to chop that $600 million, the county of almost 10 million residents would lose an estimated $84 million over the subsequent two years, along with different grants for prevention of HIV and different sexually transmitted infections. Ferrer mentioned the county depends upon almost $1 billion in federal funding yearly to trace and stop communicable illnesses and fight persistent well being situations, together with diabetes and hypertension. Already, the county has announced the closure of seven public health clinics that supplied vaccinations and illness testing, largely due to funding losses tied to federal grant cuts.
“It’s an ill-informed strategy,” Ferrer mentioned. “Public health doesn’t care whether your political affiliation is Republican or Democrat. It doesn’t care about your immigration status or sexual orientation. Public health has to be available for everyone.”
A single case of measles requires public well being staff to trace down 200 potential contacts, Ferrer mentioned.
The U.S. eliminated measles in 2000 however is near shedding that standing on account of vaccine skepticism and misinformation unfold by vaccine critics. The U.S. had 2,281 confirmed cases last year, essentially the most since 1991, with 93% in individuals who have been unvaccinated or whose vaccination standing was unknown. This yr, the extremely contagious illness has been reported at schools, airports, and Disneyland.
Public well being officers hope the West Coast Health Alliance may also help counteract Trump by constructing belief by means of evidence-based public well being steerage.
“What we’re seeing from the federal government is partisan politics at its worst and retaliation for policy differences, and it puts at extraordinary risk the health and well-being of the American people,” mentioned Georges Benjamin, govt director of the American Public Health Association, a coalition of public well being professionals.
Robust Vaccine Schedule
Erica Pan, California’s high public well being officer and director of the state Department of Public Health, mentioned the West Coast Health Alliance is defending science by recommending a more robust vaccine schedule than the federal authorities. California is a part of a coalition suing the Trump administration over its resolution to rescind suggestions for seven childhood vaccines, together with for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, and covid-19.
Pan expressed deep concern in regards to the state of public well being, notably the uptick in measles. “We’re sliding backwards,” Pan mentioned of immunizations.
Sarah Kemble, Hawaii’s state epidemiologist, mentioned Hawaii joined the alliance after listening to from pro-vaccine residents who wished assurance that they might have entry to vaccines.
“We were getting a lot of questions and anxiety from people who did understand science-based recommendations but were wondering, ‘Am I still going to be able to go get my shot?’” Kemble mentioned.
Other states led principally by Democrats have additionally fashioned alliances, with Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and a number of other different East Coast states banding collectively to create the Northeast Public Health Collaborative.
HHS’ Hilliard mentioned that whilst Democratic governors set up vaccine advisory coalitions, the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices “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.”
Influencing Red States
Newsom, for his half, has accepted a recurring annual infusion of almost $300 million to help the state Department of Public Health, in addition to the 61 native public well being companies throughout California, and final yr signed a bill authorizing the state to problem its personal immunization steerage. It requires well being insurers in California to offer affected person protection for vaccinations the state recommends even when the federal authorities doesn’t.
Jeffrey Singer, a physician and senior fellow on the libertarian Cato Institute, mentioned decentralization could be helpful. That’s as a result of native media campaigns that mirror totally different political ideologies and group priorities could have a greater probability of influencing the general public.
A KFF evaluation discovered some purple states are becoming a member of blue states in decoupling their vaccine suggestions from the federal authorities’s. Singer mentioned some docs in his dwelling state of Arizona wish to extra liberal California for vaccine suggestions.
“Science is never settled, and there are a lot of areas of this country where there are differences of opinion,” Singer mentioned. “This can help us challenge our assumptions and learn.”
KFF Health News is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is likely one of the core working applications at KFF—an unbiased supply of well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism. Learn extra about KFF.
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