BREAKING: GAVI Vaccine Alliance Secures Whopping $11.9 Billion from Donors – Despite US Ambush at Pledging Event
Infectious Diseases 25/06/2025 • &
The introduction of the pentavalent vaccine in Nigeria, is estimated to save the lives of at least 30,000 children annually.

In an harsh reprimand at the global vaccine pledging summit Wednesday, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. attacked Gavi’s record on vaccine safety and said the United States was halting support for the alliance, until it could “re-earn” the public trust.

He charged that Gavi had stifled “free speech and legitimate questions” during the COVID pandemic and had continued to make “questionable recommendations” encouraging pregnant women to receive  COVID vaccines – advise that has save women’s lives and those of their unborn children, according to the World Health Organization.

Despite the US ambush, Gavi later announced that it had well exceeded its $9 billion pledging goal – with a record number of donors commiting to the tune of $11.9 billion for the coming five years (2026-30).

In his stunning pre-taped video message, Kennedy said he admired Gavi’s commitment to “making medicine affordable to all the world’s people” but that the United States would only re-engage after Gavi had “re-earned the public trust” on issues like vaccine safety.

Kennedy lashed out, in particular, against the Gavi policy of support for traditional diptheria, tetanus and whole cell pertussis vaccines (DTPw) as compared to newer DTaP (acellular pertussis) jabs that most developed countries have shifted to, and which cause fewer side effects.

“All currently available evidence suggests that the DTPw vaccine may kill more children from other causes than it saves from diptheria, tetanus and pertussis…” Kennedy said, citing what he said was a landmark 2017 peer-reviewed study by top experts.

“When the science was inconvenient today, Gavi ignored the science. I call upon Gavi to re-earn the public trust and to justify the $8 billion that America has provided in funding since 2001…. Consider the best science available even when the science contradicts established paradigms. Until that happens, the United States won’t contribute more to Gavi. Business as usual is over.”

But Kennedy’s reference to the evidence around the safety of DPTw vaccines was quickly challenged by experts.

“The study quoted by Kennedy is based on data from a non-randomized study collected 42 years ago on a small sample of children in Guinea-Bissau,” said British paediatrician Anthony Costello, former WHO director of maternal, child and adolescent health, and now a professor of University College London (UCL), referring to the retrospective study on data collected from one urban community in the 1980s.

Gavi – DPTw vaccine is more effective for infants in high-risk settings

In a reply issued just after Kennedy’s address, Gavi stated that while the DTaP vaccine does have fewer side events (which it described as minor), “evidence also suggests it offers less long-lasting protection, requiring more regular booster shots.”

Such boosters are usually highly impractical, or impossible, in low- and lower-middle income settings where Gavi vaccine support is focused.

“Having reviewed all available data, including any studies that raised concerns, global immunisation experts continue to recommend DTPw for infants in high-risk settings,” the Gavi statement continued. “The disease burden for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis in lower-income countries is much higher than in high-income countries, and health systems are far less equipped to offer frequent booster doses…

“By contrast, DTaP is more commonly used in high-income countries, where the disease burden is far lower and healthcare systems can support booster doses to extend protection.  In 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, such as fever or swelling at the injection site (which are signs the immune system is responding).

“The DTPw vaccine has been administered to millions of children around the world for decades, and is estimated to have saved more than 40 million lives over the past 50 years,” Gavi said, citing a recent Lancet study.

“Gavi’s utmost concern is the health and safety of children,” Gavi said. It’s new five-year plan aims to protect 500 million children from preventable diseases, saving 8-9 million lives, the organization said.

Gavi seeking $9 billion amidst projections that 2030 vaccine targets will be missed

Kennedy’s address had been long anticipated at the pledging summit, where Gavi was seeking $9 billion to ramp up vaccinations, particularly for “zero-dose” children, in line with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.  The summit comes against news that 2030 childhood immunisation targets will be missed unless substantial improvements are made.

Prior to leaving office, former US President Joe Biden had pledged $1.58 billion to the global pledging round, for about $300 million a year. But in March, the Trump administration suggested those funds would not be allcould be pared back and there was no funding for Gavi in the massive US budget bill now before Congress. Kennedy’s long-known record on vaccine hesistancy also compounded the doubts. Even so, the complete cut off in funding seemed to take many by surprise.

Only countries in the “high-income super region” are projected to reach the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2030 immunisation target of halving the number of zero-dose children compared to 2019, according to a report published in The Lancet, also on Wednesday.

“Global immunisation goals for 2030 will not be met without targeted, equitable immunisation strategies, alongside primary healthcare strengthening and efforts to tackle vaccine misinformation and hesitancy,” according to a media release from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). which conducted the analysis, based on the 2023 Global Burden of Disease study.

Coverage of 90% or greater for each of the life-course vaccines  – diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, measles vaccines, and pneumococcal vaccine – is the central target for 2030. Only 18 of 204 countries have already met this target.

In 2023, some 15.7 million zero-dose children received no DTPw or DTaP vaccines in their first year of life, and over half lived in just eight countries.

Nigeria tops the list with the largest number of unvaccinated children (2.5 million), followed by India (1.4 million), the Democratic Republic of Congo (882,000), Ethiopia (782,000), Somalia (710,000), Sudan (627,000), Indonesia (538,000) and Brazil (452,000).

By proportion, a mere 25.7% of Somalian children were vaccinated in 2023, by far the lowest percentage in the world, followed by 56.3% in South Sudan.

Vaccination rates were under 75% in Guinea, Central African Republic, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Mali and Madagascar.

“Successful vaccination programmes are built on understanding and responding to people’s beliefs, concerns, and expectations,” said lead author Dr Emily Haeuser. “Vaccination services must prioritise trust-building, engage community leaders, and tailor interventions with more culturally appropriate local strategies to improve vaccine confidence and uptake.”

Gates support remains strong

The summit, co-hosted by the European Union and the Gates Foundation, sought support for Gavi amidst a broader global health funding crisis – due to the sharp decline in Overseas Development Assistance for health systems and services, since Donald Trump assumed the US presidency in January.

Ahead of the Gavi pledging event, the Global Summit: Health & Prosperity through Immunisation, the Gates Foundation announced it would commit $1.6 billion over the next five years.

“For the first time in decades, the number of kids dying around the world will likely go up this year instead of down because of massive cuts to foreign aid. That is a tragedy,” warned Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation. “Fully funding Gavi is the single most powerful step we can take to stop it.”

Despite the funding hiatus, the US government recently put forward Mark Lloyd as its representative to the Gavi board. Lloyd is the assistant administrator for Global Health at the US Agency for International Development. A long-time conservative activist for the Tea Party, he was a USAID religious freedom advisor in the previous Trump administration and was criticized for anti-Islamic comments. 

The US is in the midst of one of its worst measles outbreaks in 30 years, and Kennedy recently fired the 17-person entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and replaced it with eight people comprising mostly of vaccine sceptics.

Kennedy faces heat in the US, including from Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who has called for the meeting of the new ACIP – also scheduled for Wednesday – to be delayed.

 “Wednesday’s meeting should not proceed with a relatively small panel, and no CDC Director in place to approve the panel’s recommendations,” said Cassidy on X.

“The meeting should be delayed until the panel is fully staffed with more robust and balanced representation – as required by law – including those with more direct relevant expertise. Otherwise, ACIP’s recommendations could be viewed with skepticism, which will work against the success of this Administration’s efforts.”

Updated 16.6.2025

Image Credits: GAVI/2013/Adrian Brooks.

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