US to Stop Providing Money to Global Vaccine Alliance Gavi: RFK Jr.

‘In its zeal to promote universal vaccination, it has neglected the key issue of vaccine safety,’ Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Washington in a file image. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The United States will not provide money to a global vaccine organization called Gavi until the group changes the way it responds to vaccine safety issues, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a fundraiser for the organization on June 25.

“There’s much that I admire about Gavi, especially its commitment to making medicine affordable to all the world’s people. Gavi has done that part of its job very well,” Kennedy said in recorded remarks played at the summit. “Unfortunately, in its zeal to promote universal vaccination, it has neglected the key issue of vaccine safety.”

The United States has provided $8 billion to Gavi since 2001. The United States is one of the organization’s largest funding sources.

That investment must be justified, according to Kennedy.

“I’ll tell you how to start taking vaccine safety seriously: Consider the best science available, even when the science contradicts established paradigms. Until that happens, the United States won’t contribute more to Gavi,” he said.

Gavi said in a statement that the group “fully concurs with the Secretary for Health and Human Services on the need to consider all available science, and remains committed to continuing an evidence-based and scientific approach to its work and investment decisions, as it always has done.”

Gavi says on its website that it helps vaccinate more than 50 percent of the children in the world against various diseases.

It said in a separate statement that it is enacting reforms, including restructuring to reduce costs.

The organization’s pledging summit took place Wednesday in Brussels. It was co-hosted by the European Union and the Gates Foundation.

The Gates Foundation said in a statement this week that it will give $1.6 billion to Gavi over the next five years, calling the alliance “one of the most effective mechanisms for delivering lifesaving vaccines to children and preventing disease in the world’s most vulnerable communities.”

The United States committed $300 million to Gavi in the funding bill for fiscal year 2025, but the Trump administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2026 does not include funding for the group.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the top minority member on the Senate Health Committee, lamented Kennedy’s announcement during a hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He asked Susan Monarez, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about the development.

“I believe the global health security preparedness is a critical and vital activity for the United States,” she said.

“I think vaccines save lives. I think that we need to continue to support the promotion and utilization of vaccines,” she added later, promising Sanders that if she receives confirmation, she will look into the matter.

A vaccine advisory panel whose members were all chosen by Kennedy was also meeting on Wednesday. The panel announced it would be examining the effects of the CDC’s childhood immunization schedule as well as vaccines that have not been reviewed for seven years and consider whether to change the current recommendations for Hepatitis B vaccines.

Trump previously ordered officials to withdraw from several other international groups, including the World Health Organization (WHO), over concerns about their goals.

Kennedy said after meeting with Argentinian officials in May that the United States and Argentina—both of which withdrew from WHO earlier this year—are focused on “the creation of an alternative international health system based on gold-standard science and free from totalitarian impulses, corruption, and political control.”