US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the organization “ignored science” and “lost public trust,” and the country is drawing support from Vaccine Alliance Gavi.
A video of Kennedy's short speech was on display at the Gavi conference in Brussels on Wednesday. There, the organisation that paid to vaccinate more than 1 billion children through routine immunization programs hoped to raise at least US$9 billion over the next five years.
Longtime vaccine skeptic Kennedy has accused Gavi of silence of “opposition” and “legitimate questions” about vaccine safety, referring to Gavi's partnership with the World Health Organization during Covid-19. His speech also raised questions about diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccines.
“The greatest concern is the health and safety of children,” Gavi said in a statement Thursday, adding that decisions on vaccines to purchase will be made in accordance with recommendations issued by the WHO expert vaccine group.
Some US doctors criticized the decision. Dr. Paul Offit, director of the vaccine center at the Philadelphia Children's Hospital, said it was “incredibly dangerous,” and warned that refund vaccinations put millions of children at risk.
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Gavi is a public-private partnership that includes Who, Unicef, The Gates Foundation and The Worldbank, with its vaccination program estimated to have saved 18 million lives. The United States has long been one of its biggest supporters. Before President Donald Trump's re-election, the country had pledged US$1 billion until 2030.
In just under four minutes, Kennedy called for “justify the US$8 billion that America has provided US$8 billion since 2001,” saying, “Even if that science contradicts its established paradigm, we must consider the best science available.” Kennedy said the US will not contribute more to Gavi until that happens.
The Health Secretary focused on the Covid-19 vaccine. This is recommended by Gavi and other health officials for pregnant women, saying it is at a higher risk of severe illness. Kennedy called it a “suspecting” recommendation. His U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently stopped recommending it.
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He also criticized Gavi for funding the deployment of vaccines to prevent diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough in poor countries, and said he saw a study that concluded that young girls who received the vaccine were more likely to die from all other causes than children who were not immune.
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Gavi said scientists reviewed all available data, including all studies that raised concerns, and said Diphtheria, Tetanus and pertussis vaccines “play an important role in helping to halve childhood mortality.”
Several observational studies have shown that vaccinated girls have higher mortality rates compared to unvaccinated children, but there is no evidence that deaths are caused by the vaccine. However, Offitt said the research cited by Kennedy was unconvincing, and studies examining the link between vaccination and death did not prove causal.
“There is no biological mechanism here for why (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis vaccine) causes more children to die,” Offit said.
Offit also called Kennedy's decision to withdraw support from Gavi “incredibly shortsighted and selfish” and said it would put the US on high risk of an outbreak of disease imported from elsewhere.
“If you're talking about “America's first” stance, this isn't very smart,” Offit said.
Kennedy's recorded speech to Gabi came on the same day his reconstructed US Vaccine Advisory Committee met for the first time. He fired the 17 member panel earlier this month and replaced it with a group of seven, including several vaccine skeptics.
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