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 attorneys known as “the damaging 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 steering the governors mentioned would “uphold scientific integrity in public well being as Trump destroys” the CDC’s credibility. Newsom argued establishing the impartial alliance was important as Kennedy leads the Trump administration’s rollback of nationwide vaccine suggestions.
Extra just lately, California turned the first state to affix a worldwide outbreak response community coordinated by the World Well being Group, adopted by Illinois and New York. Colorado and Wisconsin signaled they plan to affix. 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 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.
Though 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 last time period as governor. Members of the scientific neighborhood 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 good thought,” mentioned Paul Offit, an outspoken critic of Kennedy and a vaccine knowledgeable who previously served on the Meals and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee however was eliminated beneath Trump in 2025.
“Public well being has been turned on its head,” Offit mentioned. “We’ve 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 taking part in fraud and mismanagement of federal funds in public well being packages.
Well being and Human Providers spokesperson Emily Hilliard mentioned the administration goes after “Democrat-run states that pushed unscientific lockdowns, toddler masks mandates, and draconian vaccine passports throughout the COVID period.” She mentioned these strikes have “utterly eroded the American individuals’s belief in public well being companies.”
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 mentioned it’s a precedence of the governor “to guard public well being and supply communities with steering rooted in science and proof, 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 Home final yr 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 packages specializing in social drivers of well being, akin to entry to meals, housing and schooling, have 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 have been funding “woke” initiatives that didn’t replicate White Home priorities. Inside days, the states sued and a decide quickly blocked the reduce.
“They maintain all of a sudden canceling grants after which it will get overturned in court docket,” mentioned Kat DeBurgh, govt director of the Well being Officers Assn. of California. “Lots 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 persistent ailments, and boosting public well being preparedness and communicable illness response, in keeping with a 2025 evaluation by KFF, a well being data nonprofit that features KFF Well being Information.
Federal funds account for $2.4 billion of California’s $5.3-billion public well being price range, making it tough 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 damage 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 following two years, along with different grants for prevention of HIV and different sexually transmitted infections. Ferrer mentioned the county relies on almost $1 billion in federal funding yearly to trace and forestall communicable ailments and fight persistent well being circumstances, 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 mentioned. “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 needs to be out there for everybody.”
A single case of measles requires public well being employees to trace down 200 potential contacts, Ferrer mentioned.
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 yr, 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 faculties, airports and Disneyland.
Public well being officers hope the West Coast Well being Alliance can assist counteract Trump by constructing belief by way of evidence-based public well being steering.
“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,” mentioned 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, mentioned the West Coast Well being Alliance is defending science by recommending a extra sturdy vaccine schedule than the federal authorities. California is a part of a coalition suing the Trump administration over its choice 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, 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 needed assurance that they might have entry to vaccines.
“We have been getting quite a lot of questions and anxiousness from individuals who did perceive science-based suggestions however have been questioning, ‘Am I nonetheless going to have the ability to go get my shot?’” Kemble mentioned.
Different states led largely by Democrats have additionally shaped alliances, with Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and several other different East Coast states banding collectively to create the Northeast Public Well being Collaborative.
Hilliard, of Well being and Human Providers, mentioned that whilst 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 relies on rigorous proof and gold customary science, not the failed politics of the pandemic.”
Influencing pink states
Newsom, for his half, has permitted a recurring annual infusion of almost $300 million to assist the state Division of Public Well being, in addition to the 61 native public well being companies throughout California, and final yr signed a invoice authorizing the state to problem its personal immunization steering. It requires well being insurers in California to supply 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, mentioned decentralization may be useful. That’s as a result of native media campaigns that replicate completely different political ideologies and neighborhood priorities might have a greater likelihood of influencing the general public.
A KFF evaluation discovered some pink states are becoming a member of blue states in decoupling their vaccine suggestions from the federal authorities’s. Singer mentioned some docs in his residence state of Arizona wish to extra liberal California for vaccine suggestions.
“Science is rarely settled, and there are quite a lot of areas of this nation the place there are variations of opinion,” Singer mentioned. “This can assist 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 packages at KFF — the impartial supply for well being coverage analysis, polling and journalism.
