U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the country is ending support for the international vaccine alliance Gavi. Kennedy spoke Wednesday at a Gavi meeting in Brussels. He criticized the organization for “ignoring science” and losing public trust. The move garnered criticism from doctors, who said defunding vaccines would put millions of children at risk. Gavi is a public-private partnership including WHO, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation and the World Bank. It has paid for more than 1 billion children to be vaccinated through routine immunization programs. The U.S. has contributed $8 billion to Gavi since 2001.
