The United States won’t contribute anymore to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, until the global health organization has “re-earned the public trust,” U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday.

In an inflammatory video speech delivered to the Gavi pledging summit, seen by POLITICO, Kennedy accused Gavi of neglecting vaccine safety, making questionable recommendations around Covid-19 vaccines and silencing dissenting views.

“When the science was inconvenient, Gavi ignored the science,” Kennedy said.

“I call on Gavi today to re-earn the public trust and to justify the $8 billion that America has provided in funding since 2001,” he said. “And I’ll tell you how to start taking vaccine safety seriously: Consider the best science available, even when the science contradicts established paradigms. Until that happens, the United States won’t contribute more to Gavi.”

In response to the video, Gavi said its “utmost concern is the health and safety of children.”

“Any decision made by Gavi with regards to its vaccine portfolio is made in alignment with recommendations by WHO’s  Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), a group of independent experts that reviews all available data through a rigorous, transparent, and independent process,” the group said.

Gavi leaders are in Brussels Wednesday for the organization’s pledging summit, where they are hoping to raise $9 billion for the 2026 to 2030 period. This will allow another 500 million childhood vaccinations and save at least 8 million lives by 2030, Gavi’s plan said.

Going into the summit, the question of the U.S. pledge was one of the hottest ones. While an early pledge of $1.58 billion under former President Joe Biden has been announced, it was unclear whether Kennedy was going to commit to it. The Trump administration previously signaled it planned to cut its funding for Gavi, amounting to around $300 million annually.

During his speech, Kennedy accused Gavi and the World Health Organization of working together during the Covid-19 pandemic to “recommend best practices for social media companies to silence dissenting views, to stifle free speech and legitimate questions during that period.”

Facebook and Twitter restricted U.S. President Donald Trump’s accounts during the pandemic.

Kennedy also criticized what he alleged are Gavi’s “questionable recommendations encouraging pregnant women to receive Covid-19 vaccines.”

There are things he “admires” about Gavi, Kennedy said, such as its commitment to make medicine affordable to all. But in its attempt to promote universal vaccination, he accused the alliance of having “neglected the key issue of vaccine safety.”

“When vaccine safety issues have come before Gavi, Gavi has treated them not as a patient health problem, but as a public relations problem,” Kennedy alleged.

“Business as usual is over, unaccountable and opaque policymaking is over. I invite all of you to join us in a new era of evidence-based medicine, old-standard science and integrity,” he added.

Targeting childhood vaccine

In the video message, Kennedy criticized Gavi’s push for DTP (diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis) immunization, referring to a 2017 study that he claims links the vaccine to higher infant mortality in girls. Other studies have subsequently questioned that early DTP vaccines is associated with increased female mortality.

In the response to the address, Gavi said that “having reviewed all available data, including any studies that raised concerns, global immunisation experts continue to recommend DTPw for infants in high-risk settings.”

DTPw (whole-cell pertussis) vaccines produce a stronger, longer-lasting immune response but can cause temporary side effects, Gavi writes.

“In places where access to hospitals is limited and disease risk is high, the stronger protection from DTPw against these life-threatening diseases far outweighs the temporary side-effects this vaccine may cause, such as fever or swelling at the injection site (which are signs the immune system is responding),” they continue.

“Based on a full assessment of the science available, Gavi continues to have full confidence in the DTPw vaccine. As an important element in our routine vaccine portfolio, it has played a key role in helping halve childhood mortality in Gavi-supported countries since 2000,” Gavi said.

Since Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has been health secretary, he has restricted Covid-19 vaccine access and fired all members of the vaccine advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, replacing them with his own picks, with several having a controversial history around immunizations.

This story has been updated with Gavi’s response.