SACRAMENTO – California Gov. Gavin Newsom has positioned himself as a national public health leader by issuing science-backed policies unlike the Trump administration.
After becoming Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. you have been fired Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Susan Monarez rejected what her lawyers called “the dangerous politics of science,” Newsom he hired him to help modernize California’s public health system. He also offered the job Debra Houry, the agency’s former chief scientific and medical officer, had held he resigned in protest hours after Monarez was shot.
Newsom also teamed up with fellow Democratic governors Tina Kotek of Oregon, Bob Ferguson of Washington and Josh Green of Hawaii to form the organization. West Coast Health Alliance, regional public health agency, its guide said the governors “will uphold the integrity of science in public health as Trump undermines” the credibility of the CDC. Newsom said establishing an independent coalition was important as Kennedy led the Trump administration’s rollback of national vaccination recommendations.
Recently, California became the the first condition to join a global outbreak response network coordinated by the World Health Organization, followed by Illinois and New York. Colorado and Wisconsin have signed that they plan to join. They did this after President Trump made it official withdrew the United States to this agency on the grounds that it has “derailed from its primary mission and acted contrary to American interests in protecting the US public on numerous occasions.” Newsom said joining the WHO-led consortium will enable California to respond more quickly to infectious disease outbreaks and other public health threats.
While some Democratic governors and public health leaders have criticized the federal government, few have been as outspoken as Newsom, who is considering a 2028 presidential run and is in his second and final term as governor. Members of the scientific community praised his effort to build a public health bulwark against the Trump administration’s funding cuts and reduced vaccination recommendations.
What Newsom is doing is “a great idea,” said Paul Offit, a Kennedy critic and vaccine expert who once served on the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee but was removed under Trump in 2025.
“Public health has been thrown on its head,” Offit said. “We have an anti-vaccine activist and science denier as the head of US Health and Human Services. It’s dangerous.”
The White House did not respond to questions about Newsom’s position and Health and Human Services declined requests to interview Kennedy. Instead, health officials have widely criticized Democrats, saying green states are complicit in fraud and mismanagement of public health funds.
Health and Human Services spokeswoman Emily Hilliard said the administration is going after “Democrat-led states that have enforced non-scientific facility closures, infant mask mandates, and vaccine passports during the COVID-19 pandemic.” He said those measures “completely destroyed the trust of the American people in public health institutions.”
Science-led public health
Since Trump’s return to office, Newsom has criticized the president and his administration for engineering policies that he sees as an affront to public health and safety, calling agency leaders “fanatics” who are trying to “arm the CDC and spread disinformation.” You did it happy government officials by mistakenly linking vaccines to autism, to warn that The administration is putting the lives of infants and young children at risk in lowering childhood immunization recommendations. And he pointed out that the White House is creating “chaos” in the American public health system in funding the WHO.
The governor declined an interview request, but Newsom spokeswoman Marissa Saldivar said the governor’s top priority is “protecting public health and providing communities with guidelines based on science and evidence, not politics and conspiracy.”
The Trump administration’s actions have created financial uncertainty that local officials say has reduced morale in public health departments and left states unprepared for disease outbreaks and prevention efforts. The White House last year made a proposal to cut spending on Health and Human Services for $33 billion, including $3.6 billion from the CDC. Congress overwhelmingly rejected those cuts last month, although funding for programs focused on social health drivers, such as access to food, housing and education, was eliminated.
The Trump administration has announced it will back down over $600 million on public health funding from California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota, saying the Democratic-led states were funding “wake up” programs that don’t reflect the priorities of the White House. In a few days, the states sued and the judge temporarily blocked to cut.
“They keep canceling grants out of the blue and it’s overturned in court,” said Kat DeBurgh, executive director of the Health Officers Assn. of California. “A lot of damage has already been done because the districts have stopped working.”
Federal funds are calculated more than half of local and national health department budgets, with money going to fight HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, prevent chronic diseases, and improve public health preparedness and response to infectious diseases, according to a 2025 analysis by KFF, a non-profit health information that includes KFF Health News.
Federal funds account for $2.4 billion of California’s $5.3-billion public health budget, making it difficult for Newsom and state lawmakers to reverse potential cuts. That money helps fund state operations and is essential to local health departments.
Defunding hurts everyone
Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said that if the federal government is allowed to cut that $600 million, the county with nearly 10 million residents will lose an estimated $84 million over the next two years, in addition to other grants to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Ferrer said the county relies on nearly $1 billion a year to track and prevent communicable diseases and fight chronic health conditions, including diabetes and high blood pressure. Already, the district has announced the closure of seven community clinics which provided vaccinations and disease screening, mainly due to financial losses related to cuts in government grants.
“It’s a naive strategy,” said Ferrer. “Public health doesn’t care if you’re Republican or Democratic. It doesn’t care about your immigration status or your gender. Public health should be available to everyone.”
A single case of measles requires public health workers to trace about 200 people they may have come in contact with, Ferrer said.
The US eradicated moles in 2000 but it is close to losing that status due to vaccine skepticism and misinformation spread by vaccine critics. The US had it 2,281 cases were confirmed last year, the most since 1991, with 93% of the population unvaccinated or their vaccination status unknown. This year, this highly contagious disease has been reported schools, airports again Disneyland.
Public health officials hope the West Coast Health Alliance can help fight Trump by building trust through evidence-based public health guidance.
“What we’re seeing in the federal government is partisan politics at its worst and retaliation for policy differences, and it’s putting the health and well-being of the American people at risk,” said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Assn., a coalition of public health professionals.
A strict vaccination schedule
Erica Pan, California’s chief public health officer and director of the Department of Public Health, said the West Coast Health Alliance defends the science by recommending the stronger vaccination program than the federal government. California is part of the coalition suing the Trump administration for its decision to withdraw recommendations for seven childhood vaccines, including hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza and COVID-19.
Pan expressed great concern over the public health situation, especially the rise in measles. “We’re going backwards,” Pan said about vaccination.
Sarah Kemble, Hawaii’s state epidemiologist, said Hawaii joined the coalition after hearing from pro-vaccine residents who wanted assurances that they would be able to get vaccines.
“We were getting a lot of questions and concerns from people who understood the science-based recommendations but were wondering, ‘Will I still be able to get my gun?'” Kemble said.
Other states dominated by Democrats have also formed coalitions, with Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and several other East Coast states joining together to create a coalition. Northeast Public Health Collaborative.
Hilliard, of Health and Human Services, said that as Democratic governors are establishing vaccination advisory coalitions, the coalition. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices “It remains the scientific body that guides vaccination recommendations in this country, and HHS will ensure that policy is based on solid evidence and gold standard science, not the failed politics of this pandemic.”
Influence the red districts
Newsom, on the other hand, authorized an annual reinvestment of nearly $300 million to fund the Department of Public Health, as well as 61 local public health centers across California, last year as well. signed the bill authorizing the state to issue its own vaccination guidelines. It requires health insurance providers in California to provide patients with state-recommended vaccinations even if the federal government does not cover them.
Jeffrey Singer, a physician and senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, said decentralization could be beneficial. That’s because local media campaigns that reflect different political views and social priorities may have a better chance of influencing the public.
KFF’s analysis found that some red states are joining blue states to cut their vaccine recommendations from the federal government. Singer said some doctors in his home state of Arizona are looking to liberal California for vaccination recommendations.
“Science is not settled, and there are many places in this country where there are differences of opinion,” said Singer. “This can help us challenge our thinking and learn.”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on health issues and is one of the main applications KFF – an independent source of health policy research, polling and journalism.
