The United States released $600m for Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, while saying it will not provide US Government funding to the World Health Organization through Gavi. The State Department said the move follows instructions from Donald Trump to Robert Kennedy Jr and Marco Rubio to negotiate reforms with Gavi as a condition for renewed US support.
State Department conditions
The State Department said Gavi agreed to work toward replacing mercury-containing vaccines with mercury-free alternatives, working with its board and partner countries. That gives the funding decision an added condition beyond the dollar figure itself: the United States is not simply restoring money, but tying part of its support to changes Gavi says it will pursue.
The World Health Organization has a much larger financing base than this one channel alone. Its budget is about $3.4bn, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention got $9.3bn in core funding in 2023. Those figures show the scale of the institutions involved and why a cut through Gavi matters even when the alliance itself remains funded.
Susan Collins welcomes move
Susan Collins welcomed the decision after pushing for reinstatement of US funding for the global programme. Her support puts a Republican voice behind the release of money that had been held up, while the State Department framed the package as part of a broader reset in how the United States handles health funding through Gavi.
The United States also reaffirms that it will not provide US Government funding to the World Health Organization through Gavi. That is the central contradiction in the announcement: the same step that restores $600m to Gavi also blocks one route to the World Health Organization, narrowing the alliance’s role to vaccine support rather than a channel for wider US health financing.
Trump and the WHO
The decision sits inside a longer break with the World Health Organization. Donald Trump instructed his administration in 2020 to temporarily halt funding over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Joe Biden restored US funding and halted the withdrawal process in January 2021, and on January 20, 2025, Donald Trump said the United States would withdraw from the World Health Organization and suspended US contributions.
For Gavi, the immediate next step is not another public vote or treaty session, but work inside the alliance itself. The State Department said Gavi will work toward reforms with Robert Kennedy Jr and Marco Rubio, leaving the practical question of how much those changes alter future US support still tied to negotiations rather than a fixed schedule.
