Throughout 2025, California was at the center of state-level efforts to depart from new public health guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., primarily those having to do with infectious diseases and vaccines.
California was involved in the creation of the West Coast Health Alliance and the Governors Public Health Alliance, both of which stated they would rely on evidence-based health guidance, arguing this was counter to how the federal government was currently proceeding.
After the Trump administration carried out layoffs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and alienated agency leadership, Newsom promptly hired two top leaders from the agency – former director Susan Monarez and former chief medical officer Debra Houry.
In January, Newsom traveled to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum, where he met with World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. There, he committed California to becoming the first state to join the WHO's Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, right as the U.S. officially exited the organization.
California, with a population of about 40 million, is known for its especially robust public health infrastructure. This uniquely positions it to lead a public health system opposing the Trump administration's policies.
But John Swartzberg, an infectious disease physician and emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, cautioned that decades of inadequate funding have diminished the state's capabilities somewhat.
While California can do "very well" on its own, Swartzberg said "it could do a lot better if it was working in concert with the rest of the United States, as opposed to the Balkanized structure we're in the process of creating now."
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