Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s push to remake the U.S. vaccination schedule is on hold following a federal judge’s decision last month, but the health secretary is still using his power to affect which shots children in poor countries receive.
Kennedy says the children are getting obsolete shots with dangerous ingredients that the U.S. has long since phased out. He is holding up $600 million Congress appropriated for the vaccines to pressure the international humanitarian group, Gavi, that distributes them.
… The group provides vaccines for 20 diseases, including measles, malaria and polio, to more than 50 low-income countries across the globe.
Gavi’s funding is officially controlled by the State Department, but Kennedy’s influence shows how his skeptical views about vaccines are still affecting government policy.
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Advocates for Gavi say the withholding of funds will cost children’s lives. They also say the vaccines the group uses are safe and are better-suited to the challenges of immunizing people in the developing world, where refrigeration is spotty and it’s harder to get people boosters, than the vaccines used in the U.S. and other wealthy countries.
