U.S. Taxpayers Kicked in $11.5 Billion for Global Vaccine Program Targeting Low-income Countries

A White House report revealed that the U.S. government — not Bill Gates — is the largest contributor to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

by Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.

U.S. taxpayers are the largest contributor to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the public-private partnership dedicated to expanding vaccine distribution and uptake in lower-income countries.

Gavi is often referred to as Bill Gates’ “international vaccination campaign,” according to Substack writer Jon Fleetwood. However, a recently published White House report revealed that the U.S. government to date has contributed $11.5 billion to Gavi through taxpayer-funded government allocations.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed only $4.1 billion to Gavi, according to the organization’s website — less than 36% of what U.S. taxpayers have contributed.

The Gates Foundation, which co-founded Gavi in 2000 with a $750 million pledge, is one of Gavi’s four permanent board members.

UNICEF, the World Bank and the World Health Organization — whose second-largest donor is Gates — hold the other permanent seats. The Clinton Health Access Initiative also sits on the board.

In a recent investigation, Fleetwood analyzed the details of the Biden-Harris administration’s 40-page “U.S. Government Support for Global Health Security” report, which provides an update on the Global Health Security Strategy the administration rolled out in April.

At the heart of the plan was a new 50-country strategy to combat future pandemics and a new Pandemic Fund that would be channeled through organizations like Gavi.

The report showed the Biden-Harris administration allocated $2 billion to Gavi’s “Day Zero Financing” — a “suite of tools” that would allow the organization to quickly meet vaccine demand during a pandemic.

The initiative is designed to address the failings of Gavi’s COVAX initiative, launched on June 4, 2020 “to guarantee fair and equitable access” to the experimental COVID-19 shots among lower-income countries.

According to Gavi, purchase agreements signed late blocked the initiative’s success, because those countries were sent to the back of the line to receive vaccines. It claims the Day Zero plan can prevent that problem in the future.

Fleetwood reported that U.S. government funding has gone toward a wide variety of Gavi programs, including a $4 billion contribution to COVAX, $50 million toward monkeypox vaccines, and over $3.6 billion for new and underutilized vaccines in low- and middle-income countries.

The U.S. also makes a regular annual contribution and has pledged at least $1.58 billion to the next five-year funding cycle, pending congressional approval.

The media focus on Gates’ involvement with Gavi hides the “stark disparity” between Gates’ contributions and the money U.S. taxpayers fork out for the global vaccine campaign. Fleetwood wrote:

“The American people, not private self-proclaimed philanthropists, are the primary financiers of Gavi’s pandemic-era vaccine initiatives, raising critical questions about transparency, accountability, and public consent in the allocation of taxpayer dollars.

“If the American people are financing Gavi’s initiatives, they should have the ultimate say in whether these programs are worth funding and voice their concerns to their government representatives to demand accountability and transparency.”