WASHINGTON — The United States will halt funding for a global organisation that provides vaccines to millions of children in lower-income countries, which comes after the most senior US health official said the group has “ignored the science” on safety issues.

US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a longtime vaccine sceptic and activist, said the country will not deliver on a $1.58 billion (€1.39 billion) pledge made by the previous Biden administration until GAVI – which procures and distributes jabs around the world – changes its approach to vaccine safety research and assessment.

“There is much that I admire about GAVI,” Kennedy said in video remarks. “Unfortunately, in its zeal to promote universal vaccination, it has neglected the key issue of vaccine safety”.

He raised concerns about the safety of a vaccine used to protect infants against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis, also known as whooping cough (DTP), which is a routine childhood immunization.

Kennedy cited a 2017 study from Danish researchers that found infants who received the type of DTP vaccine offered by GAVI were 10 times more likely to die from any cause than unvaccinated babies in their first six months of life – though other experts have since identified flaws in those findings.

GAVI hit back at some of Kennedy’s comments, saying it had “full confidence” in the DTP vaccine.

GAVI said it offers the jab in lower-income countries because they have a much higher disease burden and are less well-equipped to offer regular booster doses than wealthy countries, which commonly use another version of the DTP vaccine that offers less long-lasting protection.

The vaccine group had aimed to raise $9 billion (€7.9 billion) to fund its work over the next five years from international donors as part of its summit in Brussels this week, but reportedly fell short of that target.

In an interview with Euronews ahead of the event – and Kennedy’s announcement – GAVI chair and former European Commission President José Manuel Barroso had struck a more optimistic tone about the group’s partnership with the US.

“We are working constructively with this administration,” Barroso told Euronews.

But he is also toeing a difficult line, navigating US leadership that has embraced vaccine conspiracy theories and slashed funding for global health programmes.

Speaking broadly, Barroso said “there are campaigns of disinformation” related to vaccines, particularly on social media.

“What we have to do is to work with science and to give the facts,” he said. — Euronews