In a recorded message to Gavi, the international vaccine alliance, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused members of “not taking vaccine safety seriously” and announced that under his leadership, the United States would stop funding Gavi. This is a deadly mistake. Since 2000, Gavi has supported vaccination of more than 1 billion children and prevented an estimated 18.8 million deaths.
Vaccination programs exist to protect children and others — from illness and from the risk of vaccines. Gavi, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and other organizations that recommend or support vaccination programs take safety very seriously. If a medication is given to someone who is sick, some risk may be acceptable because the alternative is worse.
Vaccines are different. They’re given to healthy people who might never get the disease the vaccine protects against, so they have to be extremely safe to be approved and recommended. Any possible adverse effect — which, if rare, may only become apparent after millions of people have received the vaccine — is assessed carefully.
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