The new partnership is meant to coordinate public health leadership to improve communication, share information and position states to respond quickly to new threats. It includes the governors of Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland and North Carolina, plus the U.S. territory of Guam.
It comes just weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom also announced California would band together with Oregon and Washington to issue vaccine recommendations separate from the federal government’s. That move came in response to the Trump administration’s inconsistent guidance on vaccines.
Newsom called the new Governors Public Health Alliance nonpartisan hub, though all the participating governors are Democrats.
But he said the alliance is being financially supported by GovAct, a nonpartisan, nonprofit initiative whose advisory board includes both Democrat and Republican former governors.