Northeastern governors, like their peers in the West, want to shore up public health and issue a stamp of approval for vaccines.

Seven northeastern U.S. states, including New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, have banded together to form a new public health coalition that will make its own vaccine recommendations in response to the Trump administration's changes to federal vaccine policy.

It is a voluntary regional coalition of public health agencies and leaders to "promote and protect evidence-based public health," the Pennsylvania Department of Health said. Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and New York City, in addition to Pennsylvania, are a part of the collaborative.

The coalition will work on issues like vaccines and infectious disease. It marks the latest move by states to take charge of public health.

"In public health, we are always stronger together. Pathogens know no borders," said Dr. Manisha Juthani, the Connecticut commisioner of public health and an infectious disease specialist.

Rhode Island Department of Health, in collaboration with several other departments of health, officially announced the Northeast Public Health Collaborative today.

Dr. Susan Monarez, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a Senate panel on Wednesday that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called C.D.C. employees “corrupt” and accused them of “killing children” during a tense private meeting before she was fired.

The announcement came as a powerful federal advisory committee met to reconsider several vaccine recommendations.

Health officials in Massachusetts are recommending that all adults in the state, as well as children between 6 months and 2 years old, receive the COVID vaccine.

Pennsylvania's membership in the Northeast Public Health Collaborative will address broad public health concerns, including emergency preparedness and access to vaccines. The move is largely seen as a rebuke to the Trump Administration's dismantling of public health policies.

The group was formed as a response to upheaval at the U.S. CDC where Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is carrying out his decades-long campaign to limit vaccines. It hopes to share resources to ensure vaccine access while planning responses to public health emergencies.

Health organizations across the country face shrinking budgets. Federal agencies responsible for emergency preparedness are being restructured and consolidated. The health of millions of Americans depends on how cities and counties prepare for and respond to the next health crisis.