SACRAMENTO — 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 Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention Director Susan Monarez for refusing what her legal professionals referred to as “the harmful politicization of science,” Newsom employed 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 Inexperienced of Hawaii to type the West Coast Well being Alliance, a regional public well being company, whose steerage the governors stated would “uphold scientific integrity in public well being as Trump destroys” the CDC’s credibility. Newsom argued establishing the unbiased alliance was very important as Kennedy leads the Trump administration’s rollback of nationwide vaccine suggestions.
Extra not too long ago, California grew to become the first state to hitch a world outbreak response community coordinated by the World Well being Group, adopted by Illinois and New York. Colorado and Wisconsin signaled they plan to hitch. They did so after President Trump formally withdrew the US from the company on the grounds that it had “strayed from its core mission and has acted opposite to the U.S. pursuits in defending the U.S. public on a number of events.” Newsom stated becoming a member of the WHO-led consortium would allow California to reply quicker to communicable illness outbreaks and different public well being threats.
Though different Democratic governors and public well being leaders have overtly 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 ultimate time period as governor. Members of the scientific group have praised his effort to construct a public well being bulwark in opposition to the Trump administration’s slashing of funding and scaling again of vaccine suggestions.
What Newsom is doing “is a superb thought,” stated Paul Offit, an outspoken critic of Kennedy and a vaccine professional who previously served on the Meals and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee however was eliminated underneath Trump in 2025.
“Public well being has been turned on its head,” Offit stated. “We have now an anti-vaccine activist and science denialist as the pinnacle of U.S. Well being and Human Providers. It’s harmful.”
The White Home didn’t reply to questions on Newsom’s stance and Well being and Human Providers declined requests to interview Kennedy. As an alternative, federal well being officers criticized Democrats broadly, arguing that blue states are collaborating in fraud and mismanagement of federal funds in public well being applications.
Well being and Human Providers spokesperson Emily Hilliard stated the administration goes after “Democrat-run states that pushed unscientific lockdowns, toddler masks mandates, and draconian vaccine passports in the course of the COVID period.” She stated these strikes have “fully eroded the American individuals’s belief in public well being businesses.”
Public well being 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 unfold misinformation.” He has excoriated federal officers 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 Home is unleashing “chaos” on America’s public well being system in backing out of the WHO.
The governor declined an interview request, however Newsom spokesperson Marissa Saldivar stated it’s a precedence of the governor “to guard public well being and supply communities with steerage rooted in science and proof, not politics and conspiracies.”
The Trump administration’s strikes have triggered monetary uncertainty that native officers stated has decreased morale inside public well being departments and left states unprepared for illness outbreaks and prevention efforts. The White Home final 12 months proposed chopping Well being and Human Providers 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, equivalent to entry to meals, housing and schooling, had been axed.
The Trump administration introduced that it could claw again greater than $600 million in public well being funds from California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota, arguing that the Democratic-led states had been funding “woke” initiatives that didn’t replicate White Home priorities. Inside days, the states sued and a decide briefly blocked the lower.
“They hold immediately canceling grants after which it will get overturned in court docket,” stated Kat DeBurgh, govt director of the Well being Officers Assn. of California. “Loads of the harm is already carried out as a result of counties already stopped doing the work.”
Federal funding has accounted for greater than half of state and native well being division budgets nationwide, with cash going towards combating HIV and different sexually transmitted infections, stopping continual 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 Well being Information.
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 harm all
Los Angeles County public well being director Barbara Ferrer stated if the federal authorities is allowed to chop that $600 million, the county of practically 10 million residents would lose an estimated $84 million over the following two years, along with different grants for prevention of HIV and different sexually transmitted infections. Ferrer stated the county relies on practically $1 billion in federal funding yearly to trace and stop communicable illnesses and fight continual well being situations, together with diabetes and hypertension. Already, the county has introduced the closure of seven public well being clinics that supplied vaccinations and illness testing, largely due to funding losses tied to federal grant cuts.
“It’s an ill-informed technique,” Ferrer stated. “Public well being doesn’t care whether or not your political affiliation is Republican or Democrat. It doesn’t care about your immigration standing or sexual orientation. Public well being must be accessible for everybody.”
A single case of measles requires public well being staff to trace down 200 potential contacts, Ferrer stated.
The U.S. eradicated measles in 2000 however is near shedding that standing because of vaccine skepticism and misinformation unfold by vaccine critics. The U.S. had 2,281 confirmed circumstances final 12 months, probably the most since 1991, with 93% in individuals who had been unvaccinated or whose vaccination standing was unknown. This 12 months, the extremely contagious illness has been reported at colleges, airports and Disneyland.
Public well being officers hope the West Coast Well being Alliance might help counteract Trump by constructing belief by evidence-based public well being steerage.
“What we’re seeing from the federal authorities is partisan politics at its worst and retaliation for coverage variations, and it places at extraordinary danger the well being and well-being of the American individuals,” stated Georges Benjamin, govt director of the American Public Well being Assn., a coalition of public well being professionals.
Sturdy vaccine schedule
Erica Pan, California’s high public well being officer and director of the state Division of Public Well being, stated the West Coast Well being Alliance is defending science by recommending a extra strong 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 concerning the state of public well being, significantly the uptick in measles. “We’re sliding backwards,” Pan stated of immunizations.
Sarah Kemble, Hawaii’s state epidemiologist, stated Hawaii joined the alliance after listening to from pro-vaccine residents who wished assurance that they might have entry to vaccines.
“We had been getting plenty of questions and anxiousness from individuals who did perceive science-based suggestions however had been questioning, ‘Am I nonetheless going to have the ability to go get my shot?’” Kemble stated.
Different states led largely 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 Well being Collaborative.
Hilliard, of Well being and Human Providers, stated that at the same time as Democratic governors set up vaccine advisory coalitions, the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices “stays the scientific physique guiding immunization suggestions on this nation, and HHS will guarantee coverage is predicated on rigorous proof and gold commonplace science, not the failed politics of the pandemic.”
Influencing crimson states
Newsom, for his half, has permitted a recurring annual infusion of practically $300 million to assist the state Division of Public Well being, in addition to the 61 native public well being businesses throughout California, and final 12 months signed a invoice 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 health care provider and senior fellow on the libertarian Cato Institute, stated decentralization might be helpful. That’s as a result of native media campaigns that replicate totally different political ideologies and group priorities might have a greater likelihood of influencing the general public.
A KFF evaluation discovered some crimson states are becoming a member of blue states in decoupling their vaccine suggestions from the federal authorities’s. Singer stated some docs in his dwelling state of Arizona want to extra liberal California for vaccine suggestions.
“Science is rarely settled, and there are plenty of areas of this nation the place there are variations of opinion,” Singer stated. “This might help us problem our assumptions and study.”
KFF Well being Information is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is without doubt one of the core working applications at KFF — the unbiased supply for well being coverage analysis, polling and journalism.
