RFK Jr. is holding up $600 million in vaccines for poor countries

The distributor of the shots said it would cost tens of thousands of lives.

Kennedy told senators some African and Asian children are getting shots with dangerous ingredients the U.S. has phased out.  | Francis Chung/POLITICO

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s push to remake the U.S. vaccination schedule is on hold following a federal judge’s decision last month, but the health secretary is still using his power to affect which shots children in poor countries receive.

Kennedy says the children are getting obsolete shots with dangerous ingredients that the U.S. has long since phased out. He is holding up $600 million Congress appropriated for the vaccines to pressure the international humanitarian group, Gavi, that distributes them.

“Gavi has refused to provide the United States with the specific data, studies, or detailed accounting of how U.S. funds are used,” Emily Hilliard, senior press secretary at the Health and Human Services Department, said in a statement to POLITICO.

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