Democratic governors form public health alliance in rebuke of RFK Jr., Trump : NPR

A group of Democratic state governors has formed a new alliance aimed at coordinating their public health efforts.

They see it as a way to share data, threat messaging, emergency preparedness and public health policy, and as a rebuke of President Donald Trump's administration, which they say is not doing its job on public health.

“At a time when the federal government is telling states, 'You're on your own,' governors are uniting,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement.

The group's formation opens a new chapter in a partisan fight over public health measures that has intensified as advisers to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have refused to recommend COVID-19 vaccinations, instead leaving the choice up to the individual.

Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in an email that Democratic governors who ordered school closures and mask mandates, including for toddlers, at the height of the pandemic are the ones who have “destroyed public trust in public health.”

“The Trump Administration and Secretary Kennedy are rebuilding that trust by basing every policy on rigorous evidence and the gold standard of science, not on failed pandemic policies,” Nixon said.

All original members are Democrats.

The Governor's Alliance for Public Health bills itself as a “nonpartisan clearing house,” but its original members are all Democratic governors of 15 states plus Guam.

They include the governors of the most populous blue states, California and New York, as well as several governors considered possible 2028 presidential candidates, including Gavin Newsom of California, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Moore of Maryland.

The idea of ​​uniting for public health is not new to Democratic governors. They formed regional teams to fight the pandemic during Trump's first term and launched new ones in recent months amid uncertainty over federal vaccine policy. States have also taken steps to maintain access to COVID-19 vaccines.

The new alliance is not intended to replace those efforts or the coordination already underway by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, organizers said.

Advisors include former CDC director

Dr. Mandy Cohen, who was CDC director under former President Joe Biden and before that the head of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, is on a bipartisan group of advisers to the alliance.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided important expertise and support,” she said. “And I think now that some of that has gone away, it's important for states to make sure they're sharing best practices and coordinating their efforts because the problems haven't gone away. The health risks have not gone away.”

There have been other efforts to try to fill the roles CDC held before the director was fired, as well as other restructurings and cuts.

The Governor's Public Health Alliance is backed by GovAct, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, donor-funded initiative that also has projects to protect democracy and another partisan issue: reproductive freedom.