The Left Coast announces its own coordination on vaccine policy. Do the Governors know that the feds are paying for most of their public health ?

They may be in for a rude awakening.

Original URL: https://merylnass.substack.com/p/the-left-coast-announces-its-own

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/us/western-health-alliance.html

… In a joint statement, governors of the three states said that the C.D.C. had become “a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science, ideology that will lead to severe health consequences.” The agency has lost thousands of employees since January, most recently its director.

The governors said the new alliance would protect against what they called the “politicization of science” by helping families, medical providers and vaccine manufacturers plan for the future using “consistent, science-based recommendations they can rely on — regardless of shifting federal actions.”

The announcement did not address an array of brewing questions. Among them: whether health insurance plans would cover the cost of vaccines that were recommended by states but not by the federal government [NO-Nass]; whether primary care doctors and pharmacies could face repercussions for providing them [Yes, liability for injuries—Nass]; and whether states may continue to require certain vaccinations if they are no longer recommended by the C.D.C. [They have not previously but this is possible—except parents would be required to pay for them, and according to federal law you cannot force citizens to buy anything—Nass]

Western states formed a similar working group during the peak of the Covid pandemic to boost public confidence in vaccines.…

Blue states’ announcements will only raise Kennedy’s profile in the rest of the not-totally-woke country, which is most of us.

The CDC made sure to practically own state health departments by issuing them many grants and contracts to perform the duties CDC wanted performed.

This also allowed CDC to NOT collect complete national data sets by not paying some states for them. This could then justify CDC’s “modeling” of disease rates, vaccine efficacy etc., based on the claim that the states would not give them all the data they needed.

CDC should stand for “Centers for Disease Messaging Control” though I have suggested other names in the past. Or “Conniving, Disease-mongering and Captured.” I’m sure you have better names.

Here is the skinny on federal payments to health departments:

CDC’s Funding for State and Local Public Health: How Much and Where Does it Go?

Federal funding has long been a major source of support for public health efforts across the United States, estimated to account for more than half of state and local health department budgets. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the primary public health agency of the federal government, provides much of this funding, helping to support public health systems and activities across the country. However, CDC and other federal health agencies are being targeted by the Trump administration for downsizing and budget cuts, reductions that could impact the amount of funding available for public health. To better understand how much CDC funding is provided to state and local jurisdictions, we analyzed FY 2023 funding obligation data (see Methods and Appendix 1). Among the key findings:

  • In FY 2023, CDC obligated almost $15 billion to state and local jurisdictions. While most (62% or $9.2 billion) was from CDC’s regular budget, a significant share (38% or $5.7 billion) was from time-limited, supplemental funding for COVID-19 and public health infrastructure rebuilding.

  • Of the $9.2 billion in regular budget obligations, half ($4.7 billion or 51%) was for the Vaccines for Children program, a mandatory program that provides vaccines at no cost for children who are uninsured or underinsured and other eligible children (4% was for additional mandatory programs). The remaining $4.1 billion (45%) was discretionary funding supporting a range of programs including HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STI and TB Prevention, Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Public Health Preparedness and Response, and Injury Prevention and Control.

  • Both red and blue states benefit from CDC funding, with states that voted for President Trump in 2024 receiving the majority of funding (56%), compared to states that voted for Kamala Harris (44%); on a per capita basis, states voting for Harris received slightly more compared to those that voted for Trump ($46 vs $43 per capita).

  • The top five state recipients also represent a mix of red and blue states (California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Georgia), as do the top five states by funding per capita (District of Columbia, Alaska, Maryland, Vermont, and Wyoming).

  • By region, Southern states received the largest share of funding (43%) followed by the West (22%), Midwest (19%), and Northeast (17%); the South also ranked first in funding per capita.

Funding cuts, therefore, could have a significant impact on the amount of funding available to states and local jurisdictions for public health activities. Such cuts, coupled with the expected end in supplemental funding for COVID-19 and public health infrastructure support, could also represent a double whammy, affecting both red and blue states, and especially states in the South. While state and local governments could potentially fill some of the gap left by federal dollars, they may also be facing their own budget constraints and other cuts in federal funding, leaving the future of the nation’s public health infrastructure capacity uncertain.


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