Pandemic Center

Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. says the U.S. will stop funding GAVI due to safety concerns. GAVI is a public-private partnership that vaccinates children in some of the poorest countries. The group has pushed back on the criticism.

Here & Now’s Asma Khalid learns more about the implications with Seth Berkley, the former CEO of GAVI, who is now a senior advisor to the Brown University School of Public Health Pandemic Center.

LOOSENING UP — The continued spread of measles throughout the country isn’t stopping some states from trying to make it easier for parents to skirt school vaccine requirements for their children, POLITICO’s Lauren Gardner reports.

Idaho and West Virginia lawmakers recently loosened rules on vaccine mandates, while lawmakers from Florida, Louisiana and Texas are weighing measures that would make it more difficult for health providers to deny care — from organ transplants to pediatric well visits — to people who aren’t vaccinated.

Why it matters: The state efforts, among others that would crack down on the use of certain vaccines, come amid longtime vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ascent to power in Washington as HHS secretary.

Texas, which has been the cradle of domestic vaccine resistance for the past decade, is now the epicenter of an exploding measles outbreak.

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Professor at Brown Univeristy School of Public Health and former CEO of GAVI, the vaccine alliance, Dr Seth Berkley championed equitable access to vaccines and co-founded Covax during the pandemic. In an interview with Sunday Times he watns of the repercussions of abrupt fund cuts
Excerpts:

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About this episode:
For 25 years, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has been a global effort to purchase and distribute lifesaving vaccines to the poorest of countries and help them build up their health systems. Now, it’s the latest chop in a blitz of proposed federal funding cuts to global health. In this episode: an overview of Gavi’s innovative model that buys vaccines for 50% of the world’s children and has prevented around 19 million deaths, and the catastrophic potential if the U.S. withdraws its financial support.

Guest:
Dr. Seth Berkley is the former CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. He is a senior advisor to the Pandemic Center and an adjunct professor of the practice in epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health. His new book, Fair Doses, will be released next fall.

Host:
Stephanie Desmon, MA, is a former journalist, author, and the director of public relations and communications for the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, the largest center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

What are the biggest threats to the health security of the American people? There are some strong candidates. Avian influenza is spreading in birds, cattle, and 50 mammalian species. Measles cases are surging at home and abroad. COVID-19 is still spreading and could mutate into a more deadly strain. Farther afield, Uganda continues to respond to an Ebola outbreak and Mpox has been seen in 127 countries. But perhaps the biggest threat to America’s health could be self-inflicted. According to a report published yesterday in the New York Times, our leaders intend to end funding for international immunization programs—including the Gavi Alliance I led from 2011 to 2023—that for decades have protected Americans from health threats abroad. These cuts would represent a grave threat to the health, well-being, and livelihoods of every American.

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Devex sat down with the former head of Gavi to discuss the difficult times ahead as the foreign aid landscape drastically changes; what this could mean for the health of the world's population, and where priorities should lie.

The health of the world’s population exists on shaky grounds amid widespread cuts in foreign aid and the U.S.’s withdrawal from global cooperation.

Berkley served as head of Gavi from 2011 to 2023, and now works in advisory roles for organizations, such as the Serum Institute of India, in areas such as vaccines, and other interventions for diseases impacting low- and middle-income countries.

His tenure at Gavi included a tumultuous period where there was extraordinary need for international solidarity and cooperation: The COVID-19 pandemic. This cooperation was present in some ways as countries banded together to create COVAX, the world’s attempt at vaccine equity — which Berkley led. But in other ways, it fell completely flat, including when wealthy countries hoarded vaccines.

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