In response to reports that the Trump Administration plans to end U.S. financial support for GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, First Focus on Children President Bruce Lesley released the following statement:
Tragic, shameful, dangerous, short-sighted, counterproductive — there are so many words to describe this Administration’s plan to end U.S. financial support for the organization that has saved millions of children’s lives. For more than two decades, GAVI has provided critical vaccines for children in developing countries. It has played a significant role in reducing the number of preventable deaths in small children from nearly 13 million a year in 1990 to fewer than 5 million a year today. The organization’s executive director estimates that cuts in U.S. funding could send those numbers soaring again, and that more than a million children will die over the next five years. Ending the U.S. contribution to GAVI and destroying USAID means that Americans will no longer save babies and little children from preventable disease. By its attack on USAID, this Administration has made clear that it is turning its back on the world. But that does not mean it should turn its back on the world’s children.