WASHINGTON: The United States will contribute US$600 million to the Gavi global vaccine organisation, Republican US Senator Susan Collins said Tuesday, a restoration after president Donald Trump’s administration previously pulled funds.
A spokesman for the Vaccine Alliance told AFP the organisation is “grateful to the US for its intention to obligate funding to Gavi.”
Gavi brings together government and private donors to help developing countries acquire immunisations for key diseases at affordable prices.
Last year, the US pulled support, with its vaccine-skeptic health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr claiming without evidence that there were safety concerns.
In a statement, Collins said that the state department had agreed to contribute the funds appropriated in FY25 and FY26 “to replenish US funding to Gavi.”
“It is welcome news that following our recent outreach, the state department has committed to contributing the full US$600 million for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance,” said Collins, commending the organisation’s “critical role in averting the spread of preventable diseases globally and stopping outbreaks before they reach US borders.”
Earlier this year, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said Washington would “re-engage” with Gavi.
The organisation says it helps vaccinate more than half the world’s children against infectious diseases including Covid-19, Ebola, malaria, rabies, polio, cholera, tuberculosis, typhoid and yellow fever.
The US recommitment comes amid a deadly Ebola outbreak whose epicenter is in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus for which there is no vaccine or cure.
Gavi had previously announced it would make up to US$50 million available for Bundibugyo vaccine efforts, which developers are working to accelerate.
