OLYMPIA, Wash. – The West Coast Health Alliance (WCHA)—established by the governors of Washington, Oregon, California and recently joined by Hawaii—has issued unified vaccination guidelines in defiance of turmoil at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under the leadership of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
For the 2025-2026 respiratory virus season, the WCHA has officially recommended the COVID-19 vaccine for all people older than 65 and younger than 23 months, with exceptions for those with risk factors.
The full list of recommendations is available on this website.
The alliance’s recommendations are entirely decided by Health Officers, who are all medical doctors, and subject experts from each of the WCHA states. They review guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Family Physicians to issue recommendations.
The alliance was on September 3, following the less than one month into her tenure, as well as the firing of all 17 members of the CDC vaccine advisory committee.
