Latest on US crisis (26 June): Global Fund, GAVI and RFK Jr
2 July 2025. Related: Treatment access, Activism & advocacy.
Paul Clift for CHANGE and EATG
The following notes are based on the weekly activist webinar organised by the CHANGE network on 26 June 2025.
The main topics in this latest CHANGE meeting were the Global Fund, the Vaccine Alliance GAVI, and developments in Washington, not least some alarming comments from RFK Jr, the current US Secretary of Health and Human Services. And rescission remains a huge challenge.
Many of the linked articles below contain links to further clarifications and info, for example in the Health Gap press release at the end of this summary.
1. GAVI
RFK Jr is withdrawing the US funding pledge to GAVI. Constitutionally this decision should be made by Congress, but it looks like RFK is doing it autocratically anyway. It is regarded by many advocates as an attack on science, an extension perhaps of RFK’s attacks on vaccines per se.
This withdrawal of funding to GAVI is essentially RFK promoting his own view that vaccines, including child vaccines, are not safe. Through his actions here, this view now has a worldwide impact. Existing anti-science movements in Pakistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria etc are likely to be encouraged by RFK’s action.
On 25 June 2025 in Brussels, the EU co-hosted – with the Gates Foundation – the GAVI 6.0 High-Level Pledging Summit, with the close support of other GAVI donors and implementing countries. The summit brought together a record number of global leaders from government, partner organisations, vaccine manufacturers, civil society, and the private sector, to secure crucial investments in vaccination programmes.
Coverage from European Commission here.
Coverage from GAVI here: “World leaders pledged support for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, leading to a total of more than US$ 9 billion secured against a targeted US$ 11.9 billion budget for its next five-year strategic period from 2026 to 2030 (Gavi 6.0). Additional donor commitments are expected in the coming months.”
Health Policy Watch comment: GAVI Vaccine Alliance Secures Whopping $11.9 Billion from Donors – Despite US Ambush at Pledging Event.
RFK Jr recorded a highly contentious video (described in the meeting as ‘disgraceful’) which was played to GAVI.
The feeling in this CHANGE meeting was that RFK is becoming more emboldened, not only in his views but also in how far he promotes them, insomuch that he poses an increasing danger to health and life. There is therefore a need for RFK to be impeached and removed.
It appears that the State Department did not endorse the RFK video. This might indicate potentially significant differences within the US Govt, which could prove useful in any attempts to get RFK removed from office.
Regarding RFK’s claims about DTP vaccine, see Nina Schwalbe’s article: Did a study really show a ten‑fold increase in deaths among girls immunized with diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine? It looks at how RFK continues to fuel the global anti-vaccine movement.
The response from GAVI was described in this CHANGE meeting as ‘astonishingly naïve’.
Mark Lawson (Head of Inequality at Oxfam) commented on X/Twitter “At the GAVI replenishment just now David Lammy [UK foreign Secretary] said that ‘whilst others are stepping back Britain is stepping up despite cutting what they give to GAVI by 25% £400M.”
More on this UK position in an article at The Independent: “The UK has reduced funding to a global vaccine alliance that immunises millions of children by £400 million, amid a wider raft of foreign aid cuts that campaigners fear will cost lives.”
Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, also commented in this video posted to X/Twitter: “In the past 50 years, childhood vaccines have saved an estimated 154 million lives. We cannot afford to backtrack on this…”
2. Global Fund
The US pledge to GF Grant Cycle 7 has finally been converted to cash – with a 15% cut. Countries are to receive formal notice of this on Monday 30 June.
Access the GC7 Programmatic Reprioritization Approach document ‘Protecting and enabling access to lifesaving services’ here.
GF Grant Revision Process 2025: ‘Protocol for reporting barriers and abuses of process’: “Due to the ongoing challenges in international donor funding, the Global Fund has less funding available for national grants in Grant Cycle 7 and is starting a grant revision and reprioritization process to ensure continued access to life-saving care in the context of limited resources. The Communities Delegation is aware that in some countries, a lack of community engagement and abuses of process could lead to communities losing access to vital care.
We are therefore setting up a reporting process to allow constituents to report communication barriers, participation barriers, human rights violations and other serious problems during the grant revision and reprioritization process.”
3. Rescission
Washington Post article: “The Trump administration is preparing to test a 1974 budget law by refusing to spend congressionally mandated funds, senior federal officials say – an escalation that could change the balance of power between Congress and the White House.”
If the US Govt gets its rescission package through, there is a real danger of setting a precedent for repeated rescission, i.e. the US Govt (the White House) overruling Congress repeatedly.
Incidentally, the man in the photo at the top of the article is Russell Vought, who is open about wanting more power to go to the Executive and less to Congress, i.e. hand more power to the White House – another step on the road to autocracy.
Press release from Health Gap: “AIDS Activists and former USAID employees arrested protesting deadly cuts to PEPFAR during OMB Secretary Vought’s Senate Appropriations Committee testimony.”