GENEVA (AN) — Global health leaders say U.S. plans to terminate financial support for an organization that provides vaccines to the world's poorest countries would have disastrous consequences for millions of children.
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, says it helped vaccinate over 1 billion children in the past 25 years, preventing over 17.3 million deaths. In the next 5 years it plans on protecting at least 500 million children from tuberculosis, malaria and other preventable diseases, and saving 8-9 million more lives.
"Without continued support by the U.S. and other donors," World Health Organization officials said on Friday, "the world is at risk of a dangerous backsliding in immunization coverage – meaning more zero-dose children, more disease outbreaks, more diseases crossing borders, more threats to health and more children who never reach even their 5th birthday."
The U.S. has contributed or pledged $5.17 billion of Gavi's $21.4 billion funding for 2021-2025. The Trump administration intends to end grants worth $2.6 billion through 2030, according to a copy of a spreadsheet and other documents obtained by The New York Times.
Melinda French Gates, whose foundation's $1.813 billion over five years makes it Gavi's fourth-biggest contributor behind the U.S., U.K., and Germany, says U.S. support for Gavi has been critical for a quarter-century.
"It breaks my heart to think that more than a million children in low-income countries could die over the next five years because of this decision," she said. "The world’s success in immunizing children is one of the greatest achievements in history. It’s also one of the hardest-won."
The billionaire philanthropist noted many people go to great lengths to spread life-saving vaccines for children. "Leaders must reconsider the plan to end support for Gavi," she said. "Unraveling one of the most effective systems in global health would be an absolutely devastating choice."
Helping countries become self-sufficient
The planned cuts to Gavi's funding is part of the Trump administration's drive to halt 83% or at least $54 billion of the United States' foreign aid contracts and dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, the agency responsible for coordinating most of those contracts.
Dr. Sania Nishtar, a Pakistani cardiologist who serves as Gavi's CEO, calls the U.S. one of Gavi's oldest and strongest partners.
"Together we have helped cut child mortality in half, immunized a whole generation of children, helped keep our world safe," she said, adding Gavi's work also "shined a light on how to do development well: contributing to broader economic growth, societal cohesion and – importantly – helping countries get to a stage when they no longer need our help."
Under the Geneva-based Gavi organization's programming, nations must pay for part of the vaccines and increase that share as their income levels increase. The organization's founding members include the World Health Organization, UNICEF and Gates Foundation, which targeted vaccine-preventable diseases by widening access to vaccines among poor children.
Vaccination accounts for 40% of the worldwide improvement in infant survival over the past half-century, WHO officials say, and, in large part due to Gavi's success, more children now live to see their first birthday and beyond than at any other time in human history.
"Decades of progress have made many vaccine-preventable diseases a rarity in the lives of families. Cuts in the investments to Gavi pose a massive threat to unravel this progress. Infectious diseases do not stop at borders," the officials said in an agency statement.
"Where there are pockets of un- and under-immunized children and adults, measles and other diseases can easily spread, as we’re seeing in the U.S. and around the world. This puts all lives at risk, costs individuals and governments substantial resources to respond to outbreaks and stretches already scarce health system resources."
