RFK Jr.'s halt to U.S. funding for Gavi vaccine alliance a "travesty and a nightmare," experts warn

Johannesburg — Every four years, representatives to the global alliance of governments, pharmaceutical makers, United Nations agencies and philanthropic organizations known as Gavi, which helps get vaccines to people who need them, meet to lock in new funding pledges. Just as this year's meeting in Brussels was drawing to a close on Wednesday, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that all funding from Washington would cease.

In a three-and-a-half-minute video message that Kennedy shared on social media, he said the Trump administration was halting funding to the organization because it had "neglected the key issue of vaccine safety." 

Kennedy, who has sought to distance himself from the "anti-vaccine" label, has a history of making misleading statements about vaccine safety and has been tied to anti-vaccine activism groups.