The New Yorker:

The U.S. intends to end its financial support for the international vaccine alliance, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., announced this week. (He says the organization, Gavi, “ignored the science” in its work immunizing children worldwide.) We spoke with Atul Gawande, a surgeon who writes about medicine and public health for The New Yorker.

How bad is it?

Gawande: This is extremely bad, which is saying a lot, after the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the cutting of U.S. funding to the World Health Organization. Kennedy is taking his attack on childhood vaccines global.

I served as the U.S. representative on the Gavi board when I led global health at U.S.A.I.D. during the last Administration, so I have had a direct view of Gavi’s operations and impact.

Gavi has lowered the cost of lifesaving vaccines across the world through its negotiations with manufacturers; it has vaccinated a billion children, saving nearly nineteen million lives so far. The U.S. helped found Gavi, and it provides fifteen per cent of its budget. Pulling that funding will mean that seventy-five million children do not receive vaccinations. According to Gavi’s estimates, more than a million are likely to die as a result. Kennedy should bear personal responsibility for these consequences. Furthermore, Gavi’s funding is mandated by Congress and directed to U.S.A.I.D., which is in Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s purview now, not Kennedy’s. So, if neither the G.O.P. nor Rubio acts to stop this inhumane decision, they will also share responsibility for the massive loss of children’s lives. Of all the global health programs cut, this one will likely mean more deaths than any.

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