In 2025, Washington state, Oregon, California, and Hawaii formed the West Coast Health Alliance to ensure public health recommendations in the four-state region are guided by science, effectiveness, and safety. To develop its recommendations, health officers, who are all physicians, and subject matter experts from each of the alliance states review guidelines from credible national chapters from organized medicine. The WSMA supports and disseminates updated assessments from the alliance through our member and public communications.
For its latest recommendation, the West Coast Health Alliance strongly supports that hepatitis B vaccination continue to be routinely offered to all newborns, with the first dose of the vaccine given within 24 hours of birth for newborns weighing at least 2,000 grams (4 pounds, 7 ounces), followed by completion of the vaccine series. This recommendation aligns with trusted national medical organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and comes in response to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recent vote to end the universal recommendation for hepatitis B vaccination.
The recent change in ACIP vaccine recommendations follows other concerning actions from our federal health agencies. During the Thanksgiving holiday week, the WSMA joined the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Department of Health, the West Coast Health Alliance, and many other leading medical, health, and patient advocacy groups to communicate on X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and its website that vaccines are not linked with autism. The effort came in response to content on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention being revised to feature rhetoric that does not reflect the best-available science.
To help our rapid response on social media, the WSMA relied on its most recent social media toolkit, which is dedicated to patient-friendly messages advocating for vaccine safety and other evidence-based health guidance. This week, we’ve updated the toolkit to include messaging supporting hepatitis B vaccination of newborns. If you or your organization uses social media, you can help us spread the word by sharing these messages through your accounts.
The WSMA is actively working to highlight trusted, evidence-based health messages in the public arena as part of our AMA-driven “Your Care Is at Our Core” campaign to restore patient trust and the patient-physician relationship. Learn more on the WSMA website.