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Pledging communication about vaccines that will be “grounded in science, not ideology,” the governors of California, Washington and Oregon announced Wednesday they will form a West Coast Health Alliance to begin coordinating public health guidelines separate from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Goodman, 9/3)

Vaccine policy has begun to fracture along state and political lines in the United States, with some states breaking away from guidelines set by the Trump administration and others going even further to loosen vaccine requirements. “In the absence of federal leadership, we will have 50 states doing 50 different things,” Kyle McGowan, a former chief of staff at the CDC during the first Trump administration, said in a text message. “We saw this during the early stages of COVID as well with states just doing what they hoped was right because of the chaos at the federal level.” (Sun and Weber, 9/4)

Colorado officials on Wednesday issued public health orders aimed at making it easier for Coloradans to receive a COVID vaccine booster this fall. The orders essentially create a standing prescription allowing for any Coloradan ages 6 months or older to receive a COVID shot if they or their parents choose. (Ingold, 9/3)

Some Pennsylvanians will be able to more easily get a COVID-19 vaccine from their pharmacists this fall because the state Board of Pharmacy voted Wednesday to change how its policies are guided. The Board of Pharmacy met Wednesday and voted to revise its rules to allow Pennsylvania pharmacists to follow the vaccine recommendations of medical authorities other than the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee. (Koscinski, 9/3)

Under Governor Maura Healey’s direction, the Department of Public Health (DPH) issued a standing order Wednesday to ensure that anyone in Massachusetts over the age of 5 can get a COVID-19 booster shot despite federal limitations. The standing order authorizes pharmacists in Massachusetts to administer the COVID vaccine to “all eligible persons.” Standing orders for physicians to determine eligibility and record administration of the vaccine can be found on the DPH’s website. (Zullo, 9/3)

Children in Florida will no longer be required to receive vaccines against preventable diseases including measles, mumps, chickenpox, polio and hepatitis, said Joseph Ladapo, the state’s surgeon general, on Wednesday in a speech during which he likened vaccine mandates to “slavery”. Ladapo, hand-picked for the role by Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, is a longtime skeptic of the benefit of vaccines, and has previously been accused of peddling “scientific nonsense” by public health advocates. (Luscombe, 9/3)

Mehmet Oz, the celebrity doctor who oversees Medicaid and Medicare for the Trump administration, on Wednesday threw his support behind Florida’s effort to end mandatory vaccinations in schools. In an interview on “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” the Fox News host asked Oz whether he agrees with officials who want to make Florida the first state in the nation to end childhood vaccine requirements and whether Oz would “recommend the same thing to your patients.” “I would definitely not have mandates for vaccinations,” the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator told MacCallum. (Fortinsky, 9/3)