As federal public health collapses under Trump, states are improvising
Measles is back with a vengeance, health insurance premiums are skyrocketing, and as Stat reported this week, American food safety could be on the verge of a breakdown. Meanwhile, the agencies that protect public health, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are being gutted of funding and experiencing mass layoffs. Against this backdrop, messaging at the federal level has taken a sometimes anti-scientific tone, such as implying Tylenol or vaccines can cause autism.
In response to this, many states are abandoning federal leadership and forging their own path. Less than a week after an advisory committee at the CDC changed a recommendation on when infants should receive the hepatitis B vaccine, California announced it was launching the Public Health Network Innovation Exchange. The regional alliance, state officials said, would be led by former CDC health officials. In a media release, the state elaborated that PHNIX would serve as a counterpoint to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump administration’s anti-science public health policies. It would focus on “innovation,” “developing advanced technology,” and “funding frameworks” for public health preparedness and response.
In September, California, Oregon and Washington formed a West Coast Health Alliance to provide unified health information, of which the latest initiative builds upon. In the Northeast, seven states, including New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, came together to form the Northeast Public Health Collaborative to make its own vaccine recommendations.
More recently, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed legislation to expand an executive order empowering the state’s Department of Public Health to offer transparent and science-based vaccine guidelines through its own Immunization Advisory Committee. The formation of so-called micro health alliances marks a new and uncharted chapter in public health, leaving open-ended questions about what this means for the future of public health.
“The trend of these multi-state public health alliances that are mostly framed in opposition to the federal government, in combination with declining resources, staffing and support for public health from the federal government itself, indicate the future of public health in the U.S. looks more fractured and challenging than ever,” Josh Michaud, the associate director of global health and public health policy at KFF, told Salon.
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/23/as-fede...provising/
Measles is back with a vengeance, health insurance premiums are skyrocketing, and as Stat reported this week, American food safety could be on the verge of a breakdown. Meanwhile, the agencies that protect public health, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are being gutted of funding and experiencing mass layoffs. Against this backdrop, messaging at the federal level has taken a sometimes anti-scientific tone, such as implying Tylenol or vaccines can cause autism.
In response to this, many states are abandoning federal leadership and forging their own path. Less than a week after an advisory committee at the CDC changed a recommendation on when infants should receive the hepatitis B vaccine, California announced it was launching the Public Health Network Innovation Exchange. The regional alliance, state officials said, would be led by former CDC health officials. In a media release, the state elaborated that PHNIX would serve as a counterpoint to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump administration’s anti-science public health policies. It would focus on “innovation,” “developing advanced technology,” and “funding frameworks” for public health preparedness and response.
In September, California, Oregon and Washington formed a West Coast Health Alliance to provide unified health information, of which the latest initiative builds upon. In the Northeast, seven states, including New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, came together to form the Northeast Public Health Collaborative to make its own vaccine recommendations.
More recently, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed legislation to expand an executive order empowering the state’s Department of Public Health to offer transparent and science-based vaccine guidelines through its own Immunization Advisory Committee. The formation of so-called micro health alliances marks a new and uncharted chapter in public health, leaving open-ended questions about what this means for the future of public health.
“The trend of these multi-state public health alliances that are mostly framed in opposition to the federal government, in combination with declining resources, staffing and support for public health from the federal government itself, indicate the future of public health in the U.S. looks more fractured and challenging than ever,” Josh Michaud, the associate director of global health and public health policy at KFF, told Salon.
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/23/as-fede...provising/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
