Blue states are setting up a shadow public-health alliance to counter RFK Jr.

The Wall Street Journal – Wednesday, October 15, 2025
By Betsy McKay

The public-health resistance to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is growing.

Governors across 15 states including New York, California and North Carolina are forming a new public-health alliance to detect and respond to disease threats, saying federal-funding cuts and policy changes by the Trump administration are putting their citizens at risk and forcing them to find alternatives.

The state leaders, all Democrats, will join forces to help one another prepare for pandemics, track infectious diseases, write public-health guidelines, share expertise on preventive care and buy vaccines and supplies in bulk.

“In light of the assaults on science and medicine coming out of Washington, governors have to step up and lead,” said Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York. “We really have no choice.”

The Governors Public Health Alliance is the latest and so far the largest move to create an alternative public-health universe outside the federal government. More doctors, policymakers and state leaders are alarmed by cuts in federal funding for global and domestic health programs, as well as public-health expertise at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many have grown wary of changes to federal health guidance since Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, became health and human services secretary.

New limitations set by the Food and Drug Administration and a vaccine-advisory panel backed by Kennedy on who are recommended for the Covid-19 vaccine prompted some governors to issue emergency orders clarifying that pharmacists may administer the vaccine without a doctor’s prescription.

“We have to show that we will continue supporting science, supporting medical research, supporting our institutions, supporting access to vaccinations, and we believe in science,” Hochul said.

The 15 governors represent about 115 million people, or about a third of the U.S. population. They said they hoped to recruit more governors, particularly Republicans, to address health concerns they said traditionally have been considered nonpartisan. A nonprofit group, GovAct, will coordinate the alliance, with philanthropic funding.

“It’s really just about public health,” said Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. The more expertise that is cut from federal agencies such as the CDC and the FDA, he said, the more states will need to find ways to re-create capabilities to protect the public’s health.

A spokesman for HHS said the agency will ensure that policy set by the vaccine-advisory panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, “is based on rigorous evidence and Gold Standard Science, not the failed politics of the pandemic.” He added that past government initiatives had changed Americans’ perspective on public health. “Democrat-run states that pushed unscientific school lockdowns, toddler mask mandates, and draconian vaccine passports during the COVID era completely eroded the American people’s trust in public health agencies,” the spokesman said.

The alliance is forming as a shutdown of the federal government has led to further cuts in federal public health. Approximately 600 employees at the CDC were laid off in the past few days, including staff at its Washington, D.C., office that supplies information about the agency and public-health matters to Congress.

“HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative entities to streamline the agency for the American people,” the HHS spokesman said.

While the federal government sets policies and funds public-health programs across the country, most public-health authority in the U.S. is with states. They decide which immunizations children are required to have to enter school and which measures to take to stop the spread in their states of an infectious disease. More than three-quarters of CDC funding goes to state and local health departments.

Many federal funding cuts are in legal limbo, tied up in court challenges. But state public-health departments have still been affected by some cuts, as well as the impacts of changes in vaccine recommendations and now the federal government shutdown. Maine officials asked the CDC in September for help with a response to an outbreak of HIV and hepatitis C. The request was approved, but the state learned Friday that the CDC can’t send teams because of the shutdown, said a spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Maine’s governor isn’t among the 15 in the alliance.

If Washington cuts back further, “I think many states will find that it’s more efficient and cost effective” to work together, said Polis, whose state, Colorado, got help from the Agriculture Department and the CDC to battle outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian flu in poultry and dairy cattle, as well as a handful of human cases. Now, he said, “Given the federal diminished capabilities, we’re not sure what type of support they can provide in that kind of crisis.”

Disease risks are growing, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said. “We’ve had cases of measles and pertussis,” he said. “We normally don’t have that.”

He said he is worried that the U.S. is even less prepared now for another pandemic. “It’s not just the lack of infrastructure, it’s also the lack of research” for newer tools such as mRNA vaccines, said Green, who is a physician.

The governors said they would share intelligence and data, disease-fighting strategies and expertise. North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said in a statement he hopes “to learn from each other and share timely information, ideas, and workable solutions to address the biggest health problems Americans face today.”

Hochul said her state would share with other states—led by both Democrats and Republicans—information on health threats that it identifies in its advanced laboratories.

“Whether it’s the next pandemic or foodborne illness outbreak, the cost of inaction is just too high,” she said.

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