State to roll out its own vaccine rules

California breaks from the CDC with new guidance after a wave of COVID cases.

- BY MELODY GUTIERREZ

AL SEIB Los Angeles Times GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM signed a law Wednesday allowing California to create its own vaccination guidelines.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Wednesday giving California the power to set its own immunization schedules based on state health experts and independent medical groups—a sharp break from decades of reliance on guidance from the federal government.

The move came the same day that California and its West Coast allies issued joint recommendations for COVID-19, flu and RSV vaccines, part of a regional alliance formed to counter what they say is a politicized U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Our states are united in putting science, safety, and transparency first - and in protecting families with clear, credible vaccine guidance," said the governors of California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii, which make up the West Coast Health Alliance.

The healthcare clash comes after a wave of COVID cases and as the annual flu season nears. For decades, the CDC has been the nation's trusted authority on vaccines setting childhood immunization schedules, guiding which shots adults should receive and shaping state health policies across the country.

But at the direction of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Trump ally, the CDC fired top leadership, lost senior scientific advisors and remade its vaccine advisory committee with members who the Associated Press found spread misinformation and conspiracy theories about immunizations. That committee, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, is set to meet Thursday and Friday to review and potentially change vaccine recommendations.