U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before the Senate Committee on Appropriations hearing on the Department of Health and Human Services budget, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Summary US to halt funding over safety claims

Gavi defends its vaccine safety

Gavi’s pledging summit in Brussels aims to raise $9 billion for 2026-30

June 25 (Reuters) – The U.S. will no longer contribute funding to Gavi, a global alliance that helps buy vaccines for the world’s poorest children, because it ignores safety, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Wednesday, without providing evidence.

In a video statement seen by Reuters and shown at a Gavi fundraising event in Brussels, Kennedy – a long-time vaccine skeptic – also accused Gavi of making questionable recommendations around COVID-19 vaccines, and raised concerns about the DTPw (diphtheria-tetanus-whole cell pertussis) vaccine.

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Gavi said in a statement that safety was key, and that it acts in line with World Health Organization recommendations. It has full confidence in the DTPw vaccine, which has contributed to halving child mortality in the countries it supports since 2000, the statement continued.

“I call on Gavi today to re-earn the public trust, and to justify the $8 billion that America has provided in funding since 2001,” Kennedy said in the video, saying Gavi should consider all available science.

“Until that happens, the United States won’t contribute more,” he said.

The details of the video were first reported by Politico.

Gavi said it “fully concurs with the Secretary for Health and Human Services on the need to consider all available science, and remains committed to continuing an evidence-based and scientific approach to its work and investment decisions, as it always has done.”

Gavi leaders, donors and countries it works with are in Brussels for the organization’s pledging summit, where the alliance aims to raise $9 billion for its work from 2026-30.

Kennedy said in the video that he admired much of Gavi’s work, particularly its efforts to make medicines affordable worldwide.

“Unfortunately, in its zeal to promote universal vaccination, it has neglected the key issue of vaccine safety,” he added.

“Gavi’s utmost concern is the health and safety of children,” the group’s statement responded.

Several key figures also defended Gavi’s commitment to safety in speeches at the summit, including its board Chair Jose Manuel Barroso and Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation, which is hosting the summit alongside the European Union.

“Gavi prioritizes saving lives, and it’s done with incredible scientific rigor,” said Gates. “We’re constantly looking at safety.”

The Trump administration has previously indicated that it planned to cut its funding for Gavi, around $300 million annually, as part of a wider pullback from international aid.

President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Susan Monarez, was asked about the Gavi decision at a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

“I believe the global health security preparedness is a critical and vital activity for the United States,” she said.

“I think that we need to continue to support promotion of utilization of vaccines,” she continued, adding that she was not involved in that decision-making and would look into it if confirmed.

Other donors, including Germany , Norway, and the Gates Foundation, have already pledged money in recent days for Gavi’s future work.

Reporting by Mariam Sunny and Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Jennifer Rigby in London; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Arun Koyyur, Mark Porter and Cynthia Osterman

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“I call on Gavi today to re-earn the public trust and to justify the $8 billion that America has provided in funding since 2001,” he said. “And I’ll tell you how to start taking vaccine safety seriously: Consider the best science available, even when the science contradicts established paradigms. Until that happens, the United States won’t contribute more to Gavi.”

In response to the video, Gavi said its “utmost concern is the health and safety of children.”

“Any decision made by Gavi with regards to its vaccine portfolio is made in alignment with recommendations by WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), a group of independent experts that reviews all available data through a rigorous, transparent, and independent process,” the group said.

Gavi leaders are in Brussels Wednesday for the organization’s pledging summit, where they are hoping to raise $9 billion for the 2026 to 2030 period. This will allow another 500 million childhood vaccinations and save at least 8 million lives by 2030, Gavi’s plan said.

Going into the summit, the question of the U.S. pledge was one of the hottest ones. While an early pledge of $1.58 billion under former President Joe Biden has been announced, it was unclear whether Kennedy was going to commit to it. The Trump administration previously signaled it planned to cut its funding for Gavi, amounting to around $300 million annually.

During his speech, Kennedy accused Gavi and the World Health Organization of working together during the Covid-19 pandemic to “recommend best practices for social media companies to silence dissenting views, to stifle free speech and legitimate questions during that period.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doesn’t want government scientists to publish their work in the world’s leading medical journals.

In the Ultimate Human podcast on Tuesday, the secretary of health and human services accused the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and The Lancet of being “corrupt” and in the pocket of major pharmaceutical companies.

“Unless those journals change dramatically, we are going to stop [National Institutes of Health] scientists from publishing in them and we’re going to create our own journals in-house,” Kennedy said. The NIH is the world’s largest funder of health research.

Last week, the HHS released a report saying that overprescribed medications were the source of increased chronic diseases in children, blaming the pharmaceutical industry and a culture of fear for preventing doctors and scientists from studying these diseases’ root causes. And earlier this month, the Justice Department sent threatening letters to medical journals around the country, accusing them of partisanship.

“It has been brought to my attention that more and more journals and publications … are conceding that they are partisans in various scientific debates,” wrote Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia at the time, in a letter to the medical journal CHEST. According to NPR, the letters did not cite any evidence to back up Martin’s claims.

A veteran FBI agent who blew the whistle on alleged political bias during Donald Trump’s first presidency was arrested at New York’s JFK airport moments before boarding an international flight.

Johnathan Buma, a 15-year counterintelligence officer and eventual whistleblower, now faces charges of illegally disclosing classified information through a prospective tell-all book about his career.

Federal prosecutors allege Buma systematically harvested confidential materials from the bureau’s internal systems, printing approximately 130 files clearly marked with security warnings in October 2023 before going on leave.

He allegedly shared draft portions of a book manuscript via email that contained information about “the FBI’s efforts and investigations into a foreign country’s weapons of mass destruction (‘WMD’) program”, the filing reads.

During a Brooklyn federal court hearing on Tuesday, Buma was released on $100,000 bail, though the case will be handled in California federal court. He has not entered a plea.

The investigation into the FBI agent began during the Biden administration, when his home was raided in late 2023.

That year, Buma told Business Insider about what he described as differential treatment of politically sensitive cases. He described an incident during which he allegedly presented information about potential criminal actions involving Hunter Biden and the Ukrainian energy company Burisma to a supervisor at the Los Angeles field office – prompting his boss to advance the case. Then when he went to raise concerns in the same meeting that the former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani might have been compromised in a Russian counter-influence operation, Buma says his superior moved to immediately dismiss the matter altogether.

In a semi-redacted statement to the Senate in 2023, Buma explained how he was “at my wits’ end” and filed a whistleblower complaint in January 2022 alleging “numerous acts of intelligence suppression” related to his reporting on foreign intelligence matters. The complaint also claimed he faced retaliation for voicing his concerns, and he filed an Equal Employment Opportunities complaint later that year.

Following the October 2023 raid on Buma’s home, his attorney Scott Horton denied any wrongdoing and claimed no classified information was found.

Advocates for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda were gathered in Washington this week ahead of a senate committee hearing on Kennedy’s nomination to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – an event expected to put a spotlight on a number of hotly debated public and environmental health issues.

Kennedy is scheduled to testify before the Senate Committee on Finance on Wednesday and then will appear for questioning by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday. Senators are expected to press the nominee on his views on a wide range of issues that deeply divide Americans, including vaccines, farming practices, and food policies.

President Donald Trump’s nomination of Kennedy, a lifelong Democrat from California who ran against Biden and Trump for president as an independent, has been among Trump’s most controversial nominations, drawing opposition from both parties and from an array of powerful corporate and public health interests.

Critics say Kennedy lacks the credentials to lead HHS, which has sweeping authority over many key health and science agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And they say his positions on certain issues discount scientific research and would endanger public health.

But proponents insist that Kennedy is more than qualified given his long history as an environmental lawyer who was named one of Time Magazine’s “Heroes for the Planet” for his work cleaning up and protecting waterways, and as the founder of a group called Children’s Health Defense, which has the stated mission of “ending childhood health epidemics by eliminating toxic exposure” and holding “responsible parties accountable.”

Both sides were trying to make their voices heard in advance of Wednesday’s hearing, which was declared the “most important hearing of all Trump’s Cabinet picks” by Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, according to NBC News.

Coalitions of critics

Opponents include the American Public Health Association, which accuses Kennedy of “poor judgment” and “consistent disregard for scientific evidence,” and dozens of organizations that signed onto a Jan. 24 letter accusing Kennedy of “bizarre anti-public health views” that would unwind advancements against disease prevention.

The coalition of critics includes diverse interests such as the National Consumers League and Physicians for a Healthy Democracy. A conservative group associated with former Vice President Mike Pence has also been vocal in opposition, running ads against Kennedy.

Among the most prominent critics are those who accuse Kennedy of being “anti-vax” though Kennedy has repeatedly rejected the label and said he is not against the use of vaccines, but is against vaccine mandates and legislation that shields vaccine makers from legal liability.

“I am for vaccines. I am pro-vaccine. I had all my kids vaccinated. I think vaccines save lives,” Kennedy said in a 2017 interview. “Nobody is trying to get rid of vaccines here. I just want safe vaccines.”

In a 2024 interview, Kennedy reiterated that position, “I’m not anti-vaccine… I’m called that because it’s a way of silencing me but I’ve said for 17 years I’m not anti-vaccine, I just want good science. People should be able to make informed choices.”

Powerful food and agricultural industry interests are also opposed to Kennedy, who has been harshly critical of government policies and farming practices that encourage the use of pesticides shown by scientific research to cancer and other diseases to grow food.

Kennedy has been particularly vocal against glyphosate, the main ingredient in the popular weedkiller Roundup that has been classified as a probable carcinogen by a major international cancer research group.

Kennedy presents a “huge risk to American agriculture,” according to Rod Snyder, a former adviser to the Environmental Protection Agency in the Biden administration, as quoted by DTN.

Kennedy has also drawn criticism for his support for certain unorthodox COVID-19 treatments, and his endorsement of consumption of raw milk, his call for an end to a policy of adding fluoride to drinking water supplies, and other controversial positions.

The New York Times states that Kennedy has “for decades promoted baseless conspiracy theories.”

Large fan base

Many of the Kennedy positions that fuel his critics are also what appeal to his supporters. His fan base encompasses devotees of his advocacy for healthy lifestyle choices and his opposition to pesticides in farming, harmful food additives, vaccine mandates and other types of chemical or artificial interventions.

He is viewed as a champion by many for railing against the influence that powerful industries wield inside regulatory agencies that are supposed to oversee them and his pledge to make government work more transparent and accountable to voters.

Kennedy, whose more than 5 million followers on X surpasses Vice President JD Vance, has been promoting the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) platform, which prioritizes policies that include supporting regenerative agricultural practices, preserving natural habitats, and “eliminating toxins from our food, water and air.”

Hundreds of medical professionals have endorsed Kennedy, signing on to a letter that argues the HHS Secretary should “champion people with concerns about their health, chronic diseases, health policies, and environmental toxins.” Kennedy has “repeatedly demonstrated this courage while maintaining an unwavering commitment to evidence-based decision making,” the letter states. The letter of support cites Kennedy’s advocacy “for greater transparency in vaccine research, efficacy, and safety,” positioned within “the broader context of his public health advocacy.”

Labeling Kennedy “anti-science” and “anti-vaccine” as a means to discredit him “stifles open debate and discourages independent evaluation of the science, ultimately fostering greater public distrust,” the letter states.

Several Kennedy backers were attempting to show their support in the halls of Congress ahead of the hearings.

Zen Honeycutt, the founder of Moms Across America, which campaigns against toxic chemicals in food and the environment, was delivering letters supporting Kennedy to senate offices this week and called on the thousands of members of her organization to pressure their senators to support Kennedy. Honeycutt said she will be attending the hearing Wednesday.

“He has dedicated over 35 years to clean up our country from toxins and contaminants that are ruining our health. He doesn’t want our kids exposed to toxins,” Honeycutt posted on X on Monday. “A vote for RFK Jr means standing up to corporate interests and supporting the reversal of chronic disease. We are sick of being sick and we’re sick of excuses.”

Vani Hari, a food activist and author known as “Food Babe” who has more than 2 million followers, was also planning to attend the hearing Wednesday to show her support.

“As a mother I’ve dedicated my life to advocating for the removal of harmful ingredients from food that’s marketed directly to my kids,” Hari said. “He put his own politics aside for the hope of reversing the chronic disease epidemic in our children. We have an unprecedented opportunity to have a leader who is intellectually honest about America’s food system in government to implement policies that protect our citizens.”

Marion Nestle, an emerita professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University and author of the book Food Politics, said her position on Kennedy was “pragmatic.”

“I will support what I agree with and oppose what I don’t,” Nestle said. “But I am thrilled to hear food issues discussed at this level, something that I haven’t seen since Michelle Obama.”