US reinstates global vaccine program after freezing funding last year

The US will reinstate funding for GAVI, the global humanitarian vaccine program, in an unexpected U-turn from the Trump administration. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr froze all funding to GAVI last year, arguing that it had “ignored vaccine safety.” Kennedy has long had concerns (not shared by mainstream science) about vaccines’ links to autism.

US President Donald Trump has also expressed worries about vaccines — he once memorably said “tiny children are not horses” and should not receive “massive injections” — and reportedly recently pressured Kennedy to do more to probe the vaccine-autism link. But, in a somewhat unexpected change of stance, a senator said the State Department has committed to restoring the $600 million in GAVI funding.