Democratic governors form a public health alliance in a rebuke of Trump

"A group of Democratic state governors has launched a new alliance aimed at coordinating their public health efforts They're framing 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 isn't doing its job in public health. "At a time when the federal government is telling the states, 'you're on your own,' governors are banding together," Maryland Governor Wes Moore said in a statement."

"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 mandates, including for toddlers, at the height of the pandemic, are the ones who "destroyed public trust in public health." "The Trump Administration and Secretary Kennedy are rebuilding that trust by grounding every policy in rigorous evidence and Gold Standard Science not the failed politics of the pandemic," Nixon said."

A group of Democratic governors formed the Governors Public Health Alliance to coordinate public health efforts across states, including data sharing, threat messaging, emergency preparedness and policy alignment. The alliance is presented as a rebuke to the Trump administration and to federal public-health leadership viewed as inadequate. Initial membership includes governors of 15 states plus Guam, all Democrats, including leaders of populous states and several considered possible 2028 presidential candidates. The formation intensifies partisan conflict over pandemic-era measures and vaccine guidance after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s advisers declined to recommend COVID-19 vaccinations, leaving the choice to individuals.

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