Trump Administration Funding Cuts to GAVI Will Kill Millions of Children
Washington D.C. — The Trump Administration plans to end financial support for GAVI, the global vaccine alliance that helps low- and middle-income countries vaccinate children and scale back efforts to combat malaria, according to a document obtained by the New York Times.
Liza Barrie, Public Citizen Campaign Director for Global Vaccines Access, issued the following statement:
“The Trump administration’s decision to end U.S. funding for Gavi will cost more than a million children’s lives, make America less secure. It abandons 25 years of bipartisan commitment to global immunization and undermines the very systems that help prevent deadly outbreaks from reaching our own doorsteps.
“Vaccines are the most cost-effective public health tool ever developed. Through Gavi, the U.S. has helped immunize a generation of children as part of a global effort that has saved 19 million lives. Now, the administration is walking away from a $2.6 billion pledge—jeopardizing routine vaccinations for 75 million children over the next five years.
“This isn’t fiscal responsibility. It’s a political decision to let preventable diseases spread—to ignore science, lend legitimacy to anti-vaccine extremism, and dismantle the infrastructure that protects us all. In their shocking incompetence, the Trump administration will do it all without saving more than a rounding error in the budget, if that.
“Congress has authority over foreign assistance funding. The administration’s attempt to unilaterally walk away from its Gavi commitment raises serious legal questions and should be challenged. Lawmakers must stand up for the rule of law, and for the belief that the value of a child’s life is not determined by geography.”