California, Oregon and Washington announced plans on Wednesday to form a “health alliance” that would coordinate vaccine recommendations for the three states.
The alliance is intended to provide residents with scientific data about vaccine safety and efficacy, and to issue guidance on vaccines for respiratory illnesses like Covid and the flu, as well as an array of childhood immunizations.
The move comes at a time of unparalleled turmoil at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal agency responsible for issuing vaccine guidance for the whole country.
In a joint statement, governors of the three states said that the C.D.C. had become “a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science, ideology that will lead to severe health consequences.” The agency has lost thousands of employees since January, most recently its director.
The governors said the new alliance would protect against what they called the “politicization of science” by helping families, medical providers and vaccine manufacturers plan for the future using “consistent, science-based recommendations they can rely on — regardless of shifting federal actions.”
The announcement did not address an array of brewing questions. Among them: whether health insurance plans would cover the cost of vaccines that were recommended by states but not by the federal government; whether primary care doctors and pharmacies could face repercussions for providing them; and whether states may continue to require certain vaccinations if they are no longer recommended by the C.D.C.
Western states formed a similar working group during the peak of the Covid pandemic to boost public confidence in vaccines. States in the Northeast have recently gathered to discuss coordinating their own vaccine recommendations.
In June, the governors of California, Oregon and Washington jointly condemned Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to dismiss all 17 vaccine experts on the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The secretary went on to appoint vaccine skeptics to several of the posts and to end $500 million in federal funding for mRNA vaccines, a category that includes several of the most widely used and effective Covid shots.
Federal vaccine policies have been changing rapidly since Mr. Kennedy was appointed. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration limited its approval of updated versions of Covid shots to people who are 65 or older or who have a medical condition that puts them at higher risk of severe illness. No one else would be eligible for the new shots under the F.D.A. approval, even if they lived with someone at high risk.