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gavi
RFK Jr. Ripped Over 'Reckless and Deadly' Halt on US Support for Global Child Vaccine Program
"Kennedy is either misinformed or lying," said one critical physician, "but either way, children will die as a result."
Jun 25, 2025
In an incendiary stunner delivered via a prerecorded video statement played Wednesday to attendees of the global vaccine summit in Brussels, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the United States is suspending financial contributions to the lifesaving organization as it aims to vaccinate hundreds of millions of children around the world.
Kennedy—described by a coalition of green groups during his quixotic 2024 presidential campaign as "a dangerous conspiracy theorist and science denier whose agenda would be a disaster for our communities and the planet"—accused Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance of having "ignored the science" on childhood vaccination.
"The U.S. is turning its back on women and children at risk of death and disability."
"When vaccine safety issues have come before Gavi, Gavi has treated them not as a patient health problem, but as a public relations problem," Kennedy alleged in his video message, without providing any evidence to support his claim. "In its zeal to promote universal vaccination, it has neglected the key issue of vaccine safety."
"I'll tell you how to start taking vaccine safety seriously: Consider the best science available, even when the science contradicts established paradigms," he added. "Until that happens, the United States won't contribute more to Gavi."
Gavi responded to Kennedy's allegations in a statement asserting that the organization's "utmost concern is the health and safety of children."
"Any decision made by Gavi with regards to its vaccine portfolio is made in alignment with recommendations by [the World Health Organization's] Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), a group of independent experts that reviews all available data through a rigorous, transparent, and independent process," Gavi added. "This ensures Gavi investments are grounded in the best available science and public health priorities."
@drneilstone.bsky.social
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— Physicians for a Healthy Democracy (@physiciandemocracy.medsky.social) June 25, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Gavi's Health and Prosperity through Immunization summit—which is co-hosted by the European Union and the Gates Foundation, with Global Citizen as a key partner—seeks to secure $9 billion to fund the immunization of 500 million more children, a move Gavi says will prevent 8-9 million deaths over the next five years.
"Over the past 25 years, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has helped to immunize more than a billion children, meaning one-eighth of humanity has received a vaccine funded by Gavi," the organization said. "Today we help give half the world's children access to vaccines every single year."
"The scale is massive, and so is the impact," Gavi added. "Since we were founded in 2000 child mortality in the lower-income countries we work with has halved, with Gavi's vaccines averting more than 18 million deaths."
Since taking office in January, Kennedy—a prolific purveyor of conspiracy theories including one that vaccines cause autism—has restricted Covid-19 vaccine access and fired everyone on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) vaccine advisory panel and replaced them with his own controversial picks.
On Wednesday, Kennedy announced that the panel will review the long-standing U.S. childhood vaccination schedule, raising concerns about possible ideology-driven revisions. This, as a new study published in the peer-reviewed British medical journal The Lancet sounded the alarm over flagging global childhood vaccination rates driven by inequality, Covid-era disruptions, and misinformation.
Dr. Tom Frieden, who led the CDC during the Obama administration, said on the social media site Bluesky that "Secretary Kennedy's statement to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is literally sickening."
"Sickening because millions of children's lives are in the balance because of Mr. Kennedy's fringe beliefs and misinformation on vaccines," Frieden added. "Sickening because the U.S. is turning its back on women and children at risk of death and disability. And sickening because it reflects the invasion of anti-vaccination falsehoods into life-and-death programs."
Dr. Ashish Jha, former President Joe Biden's coronavirus response coordinator, slammed Kennedy's decision as "terrible but totally predictable."
"Gavi helps poor kids around the world get vaccinated against polio and measles and other life-threatening diseases," Jha said. "This is just mind-bogglingly awful."
Gavi works in close partnership (operationally and financially) with governments around the world to distribute life-saving vaccines to children. Their work has saved nearly 20 million lives since 2000.Kennedy is either misinformed or lying, but either way children will die as a result.
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— Dr. Stephanie Psaki (@spsaki.bsky.social) June 25, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Canadian health law and policy expert Timothy Caulfield said on the social media site X: "Just horrible. Sickening. Evil."
"This decision will kill children," Caulfield added. "We all knew RFK Jr. was the worst person for this job. He's lived up to the hype. The f*cking worst."
Liza Barrie, director of Public Citizen's Global Vaccines Access Campaign, called Kennedy's suspension of Gavi funding "reckless and deadly."Barrie continued:
The Trump administration is turning its back on a program that has helped vaccinate more than a billion children and save over 17 million lives—while Kennedy spreads lies about science, safety, and one of the world's most effective public health efforts. The facts are clear. Gavi exists to get vaccines to children who need them most. It works with governments in lower-income countries, health workers, and communities to stop deadly diseases. Because of Gavi, millions of children who would have died are alive today.
Kennedy claims that Gavi ignored science are entirely false. Gavi's recommendations are grounded in global evidence and reviewed by independent experts. His suggestion otherwise fuels the same disinformation that has already led to deadly measles outbreaks and the resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases, including polio.
"This isn't about protecting children. It's about abandoning them," Barrie added. "Choosing to walk away from a program that saves lives—knowing full well what the consequences will be—isn't just reckless. It's cruel."
Barrie urged Congress to protect the funding for Gavi already allocated in this year's federal budget, "which the Trump administration is now trying to claw back through its rescission proposal."
"The United States must not walk away from global vaccine access," Barrie stressed. "Not now, not ever. Turning away would be a choice to let disease spread and let children die."
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Trump Administration Slammed for Slashing $12 Billion in Funding for State Health Services
"These are not people who want to make America healthy," said one advocate for people with disabilities. "They want to make the sick disappear."
Mar 26, 2025
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services canceled more than $12 billion in federal funding for state health departments across the nation, money that is used to track infectious diseases and provide mental health services, addiction treatment, and other critical care.
NBC News reported Wednesday that $11.4 billion of the canceled grants were earmarked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for state and community health departments, nongovernmental organizations, and international recipients following the Covid-19 pandemic. Around $1 billion worth of grants are being pulled from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
"The Covid-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a nonexistent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago," Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement. "HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President [Donald] Trump's mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again."
This is just stunning. HHS has abruptly canceled more than $12 billion in federal grants to states that were being used for tracking infectious diseases, mental health services, addiction treatment and other urgent health issues.
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— Charles Ornstein ( @charlesornstein.bsky.social) March 26, 2025 at 1:36 PM
However, experts point to the certainty of future pandemics—like an avian flu strain that mutates to pass between humans—in urging public health policy planners to maintain or even increase preparedness and response funding.
NBC News reported that the 13 agencies overseen by HHS were sent notices starting Monday, which informed them that they have 30 days to reconcile their expenditures.
For some state and community healthcare providers, the effects of the cuts were immediate.
There was an abrupt $11B cut to local/state public health (PH) infrastructure yesterday. I don't think people realize what this means: -Want an updated system to check your immunizations instead of digging through docs? PH no longer able to carry out upgrades to immunization information systems
— Katelyn Jetelina ( @kkjetelina.bsky.social) March 26, 2025 at 11:34 AM
As The New York Times reported:
In Lubbock, Texas, public health officials have received orders to stop work supported by three grants that helped fund the response to the widening measles outbreak there, according to Katherine Wells, the city's director of public health.
On Tuesday, some state health departments were preparing to lay off dozens of epidemiologists and data scientists. Others, including Texas, Maine, and Rhode Island, were still scrambling to understand the impact of the cuts before taking any action.
In interviews, state health officials predicted that thousands of health department employees and contract workers could lose their jobs nationwide. Some predicted the loss of as much as 90% of staff from some infectious disease teams.
"We learned yesterday that the federal government has unilaterally terminated approximately $226 million in grants to Minnesota Department of Health related to the Covid-19 pandemic," Minnesota Commissioner of Health Dr. Brooke Cunningham said in a statement. "This termination is effective immediately and impacts ongoing work and contracts. This action was sudden and unexpected."
Lori Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told CBS News that much of the funding would have expired soon anyway.
"It's ending in the next six months," she said. "There's no reason—why rescind it now? It's just cruel and unusual behavior."
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment communications director Kristina Iodice told NBC News, "We are concerned that this sudden loss of federal funding threatens Colorado's ability to track Covid-19 trends and other emerging diseases, modernize disease data systems, respond to outbreaks, and provide critical immunization access, outreach, and education—leaving communities more vulnerable to future public health crises."
The first Trump administration was widely criticized for shortcomings in these fields. A congressional panel issued a 2022 report accusing top administration officials of "failed stewardship" and a "persistent pattern of political interference" that undermined the nation's response to Covid-19, which to date has killed more than 1.2 million people in the United States and is still claiming hundreds of lives each week, according to CDC figures.
Wednesday's reportingd came as HHS, CDC, and other critical agencies braced for more cuts and layoffs ordered by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his aides are also "nearing their final decisions on a sweeping restructuring of the department," CBS News reported last week.
Last month, Senate Democrats demanded answers from Kennedy regarding the purge of more than 5,000 HHS workers after the agency "blindly followed" a "baseless directive" by Trump and DOGE that the lawmakers said is "blatantly undermining Americans' health and safety."
As Common Dreams reported Wednesday, public health experts have also condemned the administration's decision to terminate funding for Gavi, the global vaccine alliance—a move critics warned could result in the deaths of over 1 million children in the Global South.
"Investing in Gavi brings other benefits for our world and the American people," the alliance said. "Here's why: By maintaining global stockpiles of vaccines against deadly diseases like Ebola, mpox, and yellow fever, we help keep America safe. These diseases do not respect borders, they can cross continents in hours and cost billions of dollars."
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'Abhorrent. Evil. Indefensible.' Trump Cutting Vaccine Alliance Funds Could Kill 1.2 Million Children Worldwide
"This isn't fiscal responsibility. It's a political decision to let preventable diseases spread—to ignore science, lend legitimacy to anti-vaccine extremism, and dismantle the infrastructure that protects us all."
Mar 26, 2025
Public health experts and other critics on Wednesday condemned the Trump administration's decision to cut off funding to the global vaccine alliance Gavi, which the organization estimates could result in the deaths of over 1 million children.
"Abhorrent. Evil. Indefensible," Atlantic staff writer Clint Smith said on social media in response to exclusive reporting from The New York Times, which obtained documents including a 281-page spreadsheet that "the skeletal remains" of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) sent to Congress on Monday.
The leaked materials detail 898 awards that the Trump administration plans to continue and 5,341 it intends to end. A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, which runs the gutted USAID, confirmed the list is accurate and said that "each award terminated was reviewed individually for alignment with agency and administration priorities."
The United States contributes 13% of Gavi's budget and the terminated grant was worth $2.6 billion through 2030, according to the Times. Citing the alliance, the newspaper noted that cutting off U.S. funds "may mean 75 million children do not receive routine vaccinations in the next five years, with more than 1.2 million children dying as a result."
"The administration's attempt to unilaterally walk away from its Gavi commitment raises serious legal questions and should be challenged."
Responding to the Trump administration's move in a social media thread on Wednesday, Gavi said that U.S. support for the alliance "is vital" and with it, "we can save over 8 million lives over the next five years and give millions of children a better chance at a healthy, prosperous future."
"But investing in Gavi brings other benefits for our world and the American people. Here's why: By maintaining global stockpiles of vaccines against deadly diseases like Ebola, mpox, and yellow fever, we help keep America safe. These diseases do not respect borders, they can cross continents in hours and cost billions of dollars," Gavi continued.
The alliance explained that "aside from national security, investing in Gavi means smart economics too. Every dollar we invest in lower income countries generates a return of $54. This helps countries develop and communities thrive, taking away pressure to migrate in search of a better life elsewhere."
"The countries Gavi supports, too, see the benefit in our model: Every year they pay more towards the cost of their own immunisation program, bringing forward the day when they transition from our support completely," the group noted. "Our goal is to ultimately put ourselves out of business."
"For 25 years, the USA and Gavi have had the strongest of partnerships," the alliance concluded. "Without its help, we could not have halved child mortality, saved 18 million lives or helped 19 countries transition from our support (some becoming donors themselves). We hope this partnership can continue."
Many other opponents of the decision also weighed in on social media. Eric Reinhart, a political anthropologist, social psychiatrist, and psychoanalytic clinician in the United States, said, "A sick country insists on a sick world."
Dr. Heather Berlin, an American neuroscientist and clinical psychologist, sarcastically said: "Oh yes, this will surely end well. Good thing the U.S. has an invisible shield around it to protect us from 'foreign' diseases."
Some Times readers also praised the reporting. Dr. Jonathan Marro—a pediatric oncologist, bioethicist, health services researcher, and educator in Massachusetts—called the article "excellent but appalling," while Patrick Gaspard, a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and its action fund, said that it was "crushing to read this important story."
The newspaper noted that "the memo to Congress presents the plan for foreign assistance as a unilateral decision. However because spending on individual health programs such as HIV or vaccination is congressionally allocated, it is not clear that the administration has legal power to end those programs. This issue is currently being litigated in multiple court challenges."
Liza Barrie, Public Citizen's campaign director for global vaccines access, also highlighted that point in a Wednesday statement. She said that "the Trump administration's decision to end U.S. funding for Gavi will cost more than a million children's lives, make America less secure. It abandons 25 years of bipartisan commitment to global immunization and undermines the very systems that help prevent deadly outbreaks from reaching our own doorsteps."
"Vaccines are the most cost-effective public health tool ever developed," Barrie continued. "This isn't fiscal responsibility. It's a political decision to let preventable diseases spread—to ignore science, lend legitimacy to anti-vaccine extremism, and dismantle the infrastructure that protects us all. In their shocking incompetence, the Trump administration will do it all without saving more than a rounding error in the budget, if that."
"Congress has authority over foreign assistance funding," she stressed. "The administration's attempt to unilaterally walk away from its Gavi commitment raises serious legal questions and should be challenged. Lawmakers must stand up for the rule of law, and for the belief that the value of a child’s life is not determined by geography."
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