Key Takeaways
The 性视界传媒 will stop funding Gavi, a group that helps provide vaccines to children worldwide
Experts warn the move will cause child deaths
Gavi has helped vaccinate over 1.1 billion children since 2000
FRIDAY, June 27, 2025 (HealthDay News) 鈥 The United States will stop sending money to Gavi, a global group that helps vaccinate children in low-income countries, 性视界传媒 Health and Human Services Secretary . said Wednesday.
The decision was made public in a video shared at a summit in Brussels. In it, Kennedy said Gavi has not done enough to address vaccine safety 鈥 though he gave no proof of that claim, The Washington Post said in a report.
鈥淲hen vaccine safety issues have come before Gavi, Gavi has treated them not as a patient health problem, but as a public relations problem,鈥 Kennedy said.
He also referenced a study suggesting the DTP vaccine 鈥 which protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis 鈥 may raise the risk of child death. But Gavi strongly denied that claim.
The group said it has full confidence in the DTP vaccine, which has played a major role in reducing child deaths in the countries it helps.
鈥淚n places where access to hospitals is limited and disease risk is high, the stronger protection from DTPw against these life-threatening diseases far outweighs the temporary side-effects this vaccine may cause," Gavi said in a statement.
Gavi is a public-private alliance that has helped vaccinate more than 1.1 billion children in 78 countries since 2000, preventing an estimated 18.8 million future deaths, The Post said.
The group supports vaccines for about 20 infectious diseases, including , malaria, and Ebola.
With a large demand for vaccines, Gavi works with manufacturers to secure lower prices and helps countries pay for those doses.
The United States was Gavi性视界传媒 third-largest donor, providing about 12% of the group性视界传媒 funding last year, right behind the United Kingdom and the .
Kennedy性视界传媒 announcement was met with harsh criticism from health officials.
鈥淭he RFK decision will cause children to die,鈥 , a professor in global health and epidemiology at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, said in an email to The Post.
, former head of global health at the 性视界传媒 Agency for International Development, called the decision a 鈥渢ravesty and a nightmare.鈥
鈥淭his pull out will cost 100s of thousands of children性视界传媒 lives a year 鈥 and RFK Jr. will be personally responsible,鈥 he wrote.
, whose foundation helped create Gavi, asked Congress to reverse the decision, saying it would lead to 鈥渄evastating consequences: more sick kids who fall behind in school, more overcrowded hospital wards, and eventually more grieving parents.鈥
Still, other countries stepped up. At Wednesday性视界传媒 summit, donors pledged more than $9 billion to Gavi. The Gates Foundation alone committed $1.6 billion.
A study funded by Gavi and published in this week warned that while the World Health Organization性视界传媒 (WHO) vaccine efforts have saved millions of lives, progress is stalling.
The reasons include poor access, the pandemic and a lot of vaccine misinformation.
Kennedy recently reshaped the 性视界传媒 vaccine advisory board. He from the committee that helps set vaccine rules for the CDC and replaced them with eight new members, some of whom were anti-vaccine advocates.
The new group plans to review the childhood vaccine schedule and rethink hepatitis B vaccine guidelines, The Post said.
More information
Learn more about Gavi's .
SOURCE: The Washington Post, June 26, 2025
What This Means For You
Public health officials say 性视界传媒 withdrawal from Gavi may lead to more child deaths worldwide.
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