This week, the states of Washington, Oregon and California announced they’ve developed an alliance to work together on issues related to vaccines and other public health issues. They say they can no longer trust the guidance they receive from federal health agencies.

It’s a turbulent time for an institution once considered among the most trustworthy in the U.S., but COVID changed that, says Washington Health Secretary Dennis Worsham, who visited Spokane this week.

This interview lightly edited for length and clarity.

Dennis Worsham: Public health, prior to that, has always been a trusted voice. You would oftentimes hear things like, we're going to use the public health approach, even if it wasn't a public health department doing that. I think COVID became very politicized. And of cours

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