Robert F Kennedy Jr will be “personally responsible” for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children after he refused to renew US funding for a global vaccines body, public health experts said.
The US health secretary said Wednesday that the United States would halt funding for Gavi, the vaccine alliance that has immunised more than one billion children since 2000, in a statement that has also been criticised for spreading disinformation on vaccine safety.
Gavi is a partnership between public bodies and the private sector that works to provide vaccines in many of the world’s poorest countries. It has prevented an estimated 18.8 million deaths, and hosts global emergency stockpiles against Ebola, yellow fever, meningitis and cholera. The US has long been one of its major funders, and provided around 13% of its budget.
Gavi announced after a pledging event on Wednesday that it had secured more than $9bn in donations for the next five years, and would continue to chase the $11.9bn total it required.
But in a video played at the event, Kennedy said the US would no longer contribute to the organisation until it had worked to “re-earn the public trust”.
He criticised Gavi’s actions during the Covid-19 pandemic, suggested it should not recommend Covid-19 vaccines for pregnant women, and said it had “neglected the key issue of vaccine safety”.
Gavi set out a detailed rebuttal to Kennedy’s claims, stressing that its “utmost concern is the health and safety of children”.
Atul Gawande, a former senior official at USAID, wrote online: “This pull out will cost 100s of thousands of children’s lives a year — and RFK Jr will be personally responsible.”
Gavi’s own estimates, reported by the New York Times, suggest the loss of US support may mean 75 million children miss out on routine vaccinations over the next five years and 1.2 million die as a result.
The UK government has also been criticised for lowering its funding for Gavi, although its £1.25bn ($1.7bn) pledge still made it Gavi’s top donor country. Other major donors include the Gates Foundation, which committed $1.6bn, and the European Union a combined €2 billion ($2.3bn).
In his video, Kennedy particularly criticised “whole cell” DTP vaccines provided by Gavi, which protect against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (whooping cough).
The US and many richer countries, including the UK, have switched to a newer version that causes fewer short-term reactions but does not remain effective for as long, requiring more boosters. The World Health Organization says both types have “excellent safety records”.
Dr Tom Frieden, president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives and a former CDC director, said: “Many countries choose to continue the whole cell vaccine. They may have decided this because their populations have a greater risk of serious illness, they have healthcare systems less able to deal with serious pertussis infections, or may simply have made the opposite decision – more short-term adverse reactions, better protection against pertussis.
“Calling this choice not ‘taking vaccine safety seriously’ is misinformation, plain and simple.”
Seth Berkley, former chief executive of Gavi, said in a post on LinkedIn that Kennedy’s claims were “a mix of misinformation and some disinformation” and “disingenuous”, adding: “It is irresponsible to provide disinformation from a position of political power.”
A major study partly funded by Gavi and published in The Lancet this week found vaccine coverage had stalled or reversed globally, driven by persistent health inequalities and rising levels of misinformation and hesitancy.