By I. Edwards HealthDay Reporter<\/b>
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FRIDAY, June 27, 2025 (HealthDay News) \u2014 The United States will stop sending money to Gavi, a global group that helps vaccinate children in low-income countries, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr<\/a>. said Wednesday.<\/p>\n The decision was made public in a video shared at a Gavi<\/a> summit in Brussels. In it, Kennedy said Gavi has not done enough to address vaccine safety \u2014 though he gave no proof of that claim, The Washington Post <\/em>said in a report.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen vaccine safety issues have come before Gavi, Gavi has treated them not as a patient health problem, but as a public relations problem,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n He also referenced a study suggesting the DTP vaccine \u2014 which protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis \u2014 may raise the risk of child death. But Gavi strongly denied that claim.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIn places where access to hospitals is limited and disease risk is high, the stronger protection from DTwP against these life-threatening diseases far outweighs the temporary side-effects this vaccine may cause,” Gavi said in a statement.<\/p>\n 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 <\/em>said.<\/p>\n The group supports vaccines for about 20 infectious diseases, including measles<\/a>, malaria, HPV<\/a> and Ebola.<\/p>\n With a large demand for vaccines, Gavi works with manufacturers to secure lower prices and helps countries pay for those doses.<\/p>\n The United States was Gavi\u2019s third-largest donor, providing about 12% of the group\u2019s funding last year, right behind the United Kingdom and the Gates Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kennedy\u2019s announcement was met with harsh criticism from health officials.<\/p>\n \u201cThe RFK decision will cause children to die,\u201d Prabhat Jha<\/a>, 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<\/em>.<\/p>\n Atul Gawande<\/a>, former head of global health at the U.S. Agency for International Development, called the decision a \u201ctravesty and a nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis pull out will cost 100s of thousands of children\u2019s lives a year \u2014 and RFK Jr. will be personally responsible,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Bill Gates<\/a>, whose foundation helped create Gavi, asked Congress to reverse the decision, saying it would lead to \u201cdevastating consequences: more sick kids who fall behind in school, more overcrowded hospital wards, and eventually more grieving parents.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, other countries stepped up. At Wednesday\u2019s summit, donors pledged more than $9 billion to Gavi. The Gates Foundation alone committed $1.6 billion.<\/p>\n A study funded by Gavi and published in The Lancet<\/a><\/em> this week warned that while the World Health Organization\u2019s (WHO) vaccine efforts have saved millions of lives, progress is stalling.<\/p>\n The reasons include poor access, the COVID-19<\/a> pandemic and a lot of vaccine misinformation.<\/p>\n Kennedy recently reshaped the U.S. vaccine advisory board. He fired all 17 staff members<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n The new group plans to review the childhood vaccine schedule and rethink hepatitis B vaccine guidelines, The Post <\/em>said.<\/p>\n More information<\/strong><\/p>\n Learn more about Gavi’s mission<\/a>.<\/p>\n