With concern continuing to grow nationally over announcements made by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, states are working to align regional vaccine guidance.
Following a number of decisions and announcements that drew public controversy, most recently the CDC’s updated guidance which downplays the effectiveness of COVID vaccines, several groups of states have met in recent weeks to discuss regional or state-specific compacts to align health and vaccination guidelines.
Just this year, the CDC updated previous guidelines; it now discourages pregnant women, children and adults without medical conditions that could make COVID worse from receiving a vaccine or booster. That advice counters widespread consensus from medical and pediatric organizations that the vaccines are significantly more safe than a case of the virus even among healthy individuals.
It’s under that backdrop that the New Haven Register reported Connecticut public health officials recently met with public health officials in seven other northeastern states to discuss the prospect of making regional recommendations and guidance outside of federal health agencies.
In a statement, the Connecticut Department of Public Health referenced federal health restructuring and cuts as a reason for the meeting, with local officials working together to find the best route forward for public health advice. Other state officials said the effort will focus on evidence-based findings.
This year, Connecticut Senate Democrats passed legislation, introduced by Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, allowing the state Department of Public Health to develop an advisory committee related to CDC and FDA recommendations, should they vary from widely accepted public health recommendations. The bill also created accounts to fund state communications during public health emergencies and address unexpected shortfalls in public health funding.
CT Insider noted that Connecticut’s Department of Public Health has already issued guidance for health care workers different from federal guidelines; while the federal authorities said workers who test positive for COVID without symptoms can keep working, Connecticut recommends three days of isolation after exposure.
Connecticut and the northeast are not alone. The governors of California, Oregon and Washington, Axios reported, will develop their own vaccine guidelines under the newly formed West Coast Health Alliance, utilizing evidence-based recommendations from national medical organizations to develop advice to the public.
The University of Minnesota also launched the Vaccine Integrity Project earlier this year, led by public health experts to better defend and promote vaccination.
These shifts come under increasingly questionable conditions for health advice in the United States. Just this year, Kennedy Jr. announced a desire to send people with addiction, as well as people who take medication for ADHD, depression, anxiety and other conditions, to potentially mandatory “healing farms,” according to Salon.
ProPublica reported that Kennedy is championing a $50 million study to “identify the causes of autism,” despite the Trump administration shutting down numerous studies within HHS this year that were already researching the issue and despite significant worries that the study will blame vaccines using previously debunked research. KFF reported that the measles outbreak in Texas early this year killed a child before public health workers were able to make contact with Centers for Disease Control professionals under Kennedy’s leadership and the Trump administration.
