Maryland Gov. Wes Moore speaks Sept. 27 at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Awards dinner in Washington.
Cliff Owen/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Cliff Owen/AP
A group of Democratic state governors launched a new alliance aimed at coordinating their public health efforts
They present it as a way to share data, messages about threats, emergency preparedness and public health policy — and as a rebuke to 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 the states, ‘you are on your own,’ governors are coming together,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore said in a statement.
The group’s formation opens a new chapter in a partisan battle over public health measures that has been intensified by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s advisers refusing to recommend COVID-19 vaccinations, instead leaving the choice up to the individual.
Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in an email that Democratic governors who imposed school closures and mask requirements, including for toddlers, at the height of the pandemic were the ones who “destroyed public trust in public health.”
“The Trump Administration and Secretary Kennedy are restoring that trust by basing every policy on rigorous evidence and gold standard science – not failed pandemic policy,” Nixon said.
The first members are all Democrats
The Governors Public Health Alliance bills itself as a “nonpartisan coordinating center,” but the initial members are all Democrats — the governors of 15 states plus Guam.
Among them are the governors of the most populous blue states, California and New York, and several governors considered possible 2028 presidential candidates, including Gavin Newsom of California, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Moore of Maryland.
The idea of uniting for public health is not new to Democratic governors. They formed regional groups 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 preserve access to COVID-19 vaccines.
The new alliance is not intended to supplant those efforts, nor the coordination already provided by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, its organizers say.
Former CDC director among advisors
Dr. Mandy Cohen, who was CDC director under former President Joe Biden and before that head of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, is among a bipartisan group of advisers to the alliance.
“The CDC has provided a lot of expertise and support,” she said. “And I think now that some of that is gone, it’s important for states to make sure that they’re sharing best practices and coordinating, because the problems haven’t gone away. The health threats haven’t gone away.”
Other efforts have also emerged to try to fill roles the CDC held before the ouster of a director, as well as other restructurings and downsizing.
The Governors Public Health Alliance is supported by GovAct, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, donor-funded initiative that also includes projects to protect democracy and another hot-button partisan issue, reproductive freedom.
