New Jersey has joined a coalition of Northeast states to collaborate on public health issues — including vaccine recommendations — as turmoil engulfs the nation's top health agency and vaccine policies are being rolled back in Washington.

The new Northeast Public Health Collaborative, which officials announced Sept. 18, follows a similar alliance of western states in a public rebuke to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. and his much-criticized handling of major health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration.

A news release announcing the group does not mention Kennedy or any federal health agency, but it comes on the day a key federal panel is meeting on vaccine recommendations for hepatitis B and measles, mumps and

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