US Government funding is undermining global vaccine policies, shared by Tom McDermott

A Danish Couple's Maverick African Research Finds Its Moment in RFK Jr.'s Vaccine Policy.
Arthur Allen, KFF Health News, May 18, 2026

An elementary school student in Indonesia receives a diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, or DTP, shot in 2018. (Aditya Irawan/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

This article provides some worrying but useful background to the cuts in US funding of GAVI. Much more worrying, however, may be the US funding of a $1.6 million study aimed at undermining the use of the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns. Fortunately, a decision by the MOH in Guinea Bissau and complaints from WHO have rendered the study effectively dead - at least for now. But attempts to use US funding to raise doubts about vaccines will no doubt continue under the current US administration.

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Summary - Danish researchers Peter Aaby and Christine Stabell Benn have spent decades in Guinea-Bissau arguing that some childhood vaccines—notably the DPT shot—cause more deaths in girls than they prevent.
RFK Jr. has cited their work to justify cutting $2.6 billion in US support for Gavi, a move the agency estimates could cause 1.2 million preventable deaths over five years;
Meanwhile, the US awarded their Bandim Health Project $1.6 million to study whether the hepatitis B birth dose harms newborns. This study would have withheld the vaccine from half of 14,000 newborns in a country where one in five adults carries the virus. WHO and many experts condemn this approach as unethical. A national scientific board has launched a formal investigation into their work.