Extracts below. Full text: https://healthpolicy-watch.news/us-freezes-all-funds-to-gavi-over-vaccin...
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The US government has frozen funds to Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, until it commits to a plan to phase out the preservative thimerosal from all the vaccines it distributes.
The US demand, first reported by Reuters, is linked to the unproven belief held by US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and allies that thimerosal, which contains mercury, is linked to autism.
However, even the US Food and Drug Administration has pronounced that “thimerosal has been the subject of numerous studies and has a long record of safe and effective use preventing bacterial and fungal contamination of vaccines, with no ill effects established other than minor local reactions at the site of injection.” ...
Affected Gavi vaccines include the five-in-one pentavalent vaccine (Diphtheria, Pertussis , Tetanus, Hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b), the Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus (DPT) vaccine, Tetanus-Reduced Diphtheria (Td), Hepatitis B, Meningococcal A Conjugate (MenA) and Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV)...
Hanging in the balance is some $300 million already allocated by the Biden administration but not yet paid, as well as any new funds...
In June last year, Kennedy told Gavi that the US would withhold funds until it “re-earned the public trust”, claiming that it had “ignored vaccine safety”. The US recently lost its seat on the Gavi board as it has failed to pledge any funds to it.
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CHIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org