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Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chiefs wrote a scathing op-ed this week criticizing RFK Jr.'s leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services. Today, as a response to what they describe as “the Trump administration’s destruction of the U.S. CDC’s credibility and scientific integrity,” the governors of California, Oregon, and Washington state launched a so-called “West Coast Health Alliance.” Under the pact, they’ll coordinate their states’ vaccine recommendations and “ensure residents remain protected by science, not politics.”
Anne W. Rimoin , professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, tells KCRW that with national guidance so fractured right now, the alliance will ultimately be helpful.
“What we know is that this alliance is being pulled together to be able to restore clarity [and] interest, to have science-based and evidence-based recommendations. What it may or may not mean in terms of vaccine accessibility or vaccine supply, we don't really know. … But the first step is having unified recommendations that are easily accessible to people,” she says.
Looking back on the COVID-19 pandemic, guidance was very state-specific, she points out, “so we've been here before. … This is not completely new.”
As Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to end all vaccine mandates in Florida, Rimoin says the decision reverses decades of progress in disease prevention, and it will put public health at great risk.
“An infection anywhere is potentially an infection everywhere. … We've seen measles spread throughout the country. … We've certainly seen this with COVID, with flu, with other infectious diseases. … When we see chinks in the armor in certain places, we will certainly see not only confusion, but also problems in terms of what people do in terms of being able to access vaccines.”
Right now, she’s still concerned about avian influenza, the spread of ticks and mosquitoes into new areas, and Chagas disease.
She explains Chagas: “It's a disease that … is a major public health risk in Latin America. … Somewhere around 300,000 people in the U.S. may currently have it and are unaware. It's a disease that's caused by a parasite that lives in this little insect called the kissing bug. And we certainly have species here in California that are known to carry this parasite. And what we're seeing is increasing cases. We're also seeing cases detected in wildlife — skunks, mice, even bats and raccoons in parts of the state.”
She continues, “This is a perfect example … that we live in an interconnected world. Animals, humans, insects, plants, we all live in a connected environment. And as a result, we can anticipate that the next big threat could come from anywhere. But also smaller, more localized threats are occurring as we see expansion of these vector habitats like the ticks and the mosquitoes and the kissing bugs, and certainly, as we see changes in agriculture and food systems.”
How prepared is LA County in countering emerging threats? That’s linked to funding, which has decreased, Rimoin says.
“LA County … maintains real-time surveillance systems, but certainly this diminishing federal and state support means fewer resources to act swiftly when we see signals of new cases of disease emerge. So I think that the key is … we need to have good disease surveillance. We need to have funding to be able to do this kind of disease surveillance, and to be able to get in front of infectious threats, not constantly chasing behind them.” |
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