The U.S. Is Holding Global Vaccination Efforts Hostage

Midway into 2026, the most overt attacks on vaccines in the United States have stopped. With the midterm elections looming, the White House reportedly asked Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to quiet his anti-vaccine rhetoric—publicly, at least. But protections against infectious disease are continuing to falter, both domestically and abroad, through sheer neglect. Although the full impact of the U.S.’s disinterest has only started to play out, one effect is already clear: When vaccines’ reach is eroded, the poorest, least well-served people feel the brunt of that loss first.Paring back the CDC’s national childhood immunization schedule, for instance, has limited more Americans’ access to shots; Kennedy’s haphazard reconstitution of the nation’s top vaccine advisory panel led to that expert group being put on hiatus, imperiling immunizations for children from underinsured families. When the White House dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, accusing the organization of waste and abuse, it compromised efforts to deliver vaccines around the world; when it stopped funding the World Health Organization, citing the group’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, it put global immunization campaigns at risk. But among the more than half a dozen experts I spoke with for this story, the chief concern was for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the world’s largest initiative supporting immunization access in lower-income countries. Since last year, the U.S. has been withholding hundreds of millions in funds from the organization. The U.S. played a vital role in Gavi’s founding and has historically been one of its heaviest funders: In 2024, under President Biden, the country pledged nearly $1.6 billion to Gavi, to be meted out over five years. That contribution should have covered roughly 13 percent of the organization’s funding through 2030. But the U.S. State Department hasn’t sent the $600 million that Congress budgeted for Gavi in fiscal years 2025 and 20