U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sent a prerecorded video speech for attendees of Gavi’s high-level pledging conference today in Brussels, stating that the U.S. won’t contribute to the organization anymore until it works to “re-earn the public trust.” But some are questioning whether the Trump administration can do this — as Congress is tasked with allocating funding to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
Kennedy’s video announcement, seen by Devex, comes after months of uncertainty on whether the U.S. government would fulfill a pledge made by former U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration last June to provide at least $1.58 billion in order to support Gavi’s work from 2026 through 2030.
The U.S. reneging on that pledge is a major blow to the leading international organization tasked with providing vaccines to lower-income countries.
About the author
Sara Jervingsarajerving
Sara Jerving is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE News, and Bloomberg News among others. Sara holds a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was a Lorana Sullivan fellow. She was a finalist for One World Media's Digital Media Award in 2021; a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2018; and she was part of a VICE News Tonight on HBO team that received an Emmy nomination in 2018. She received the Philip Greer Memorial Award from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2014.
