The United States announced on July 30, 2026 the release of $600 million for Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, while simultaneously declaring that no US government funds flowing through Gavi will reach the World Health Organization. The decision, detailed in a joint statement by the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services, formalizes a separation between US-backed vaccine financing and the UN health agency.

The joint statement, published under the formal title "U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Strengthening Vaccine Safety, Accountability, and American Leadership in Global Health" and dated July 29 on the State Department's website, was explicit on the WHO cutoff. "The United States also reaffirms that it will not provide US Government funding to the World Health Organization through Gavi," the statement read Al Jazeera.

President Trump instructed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to negotiate reforms with Gavi as a condition for renewed US support. One concrete reform outcome: according to the State Department, Gavi agreed to work toward replacing mercury-containing vaccines with mercury-free alternatives. This condition had been flagged publicly in January 2026, when Reuters reported that the administration was conditioning US funding to Gavi on the alliance dropping thiomersal, a mercury-based preservative, from its vaccines Reuters.

The $600 million release follows an extended period of uncertainty. On January 20, 2025, the first day of his second term, Trump announced the US would withdraw from the WHO and suspended US contributions. The administration's FY 2026 budget request omitted funding for Gavi entirely KFF. In March 2025, Reuters reported that the administration's plan to end US funding for childhood vaccines in developing countries involved terminating 5,341 awards representing just under $76 billion Reuters. In June 2025, Health Secretary Kennedy publicly stated the US was ending support for Gavi AP News. The State Department's FY 2027 Congressional Budget Justification also states that no funding for Gavi is included and that any future funding remains contingent on the organization.

Congress pushed back throughout. Both the Senate and the House included Gavi funding in their respective FY2026 bills despite the administration's cuts Devex. The House approved $300 million for Gavi in its FY2026 funding bill BMJ. A bipartisan group of lawmakers called on the administration to restore funding in May 2026 CIDRAP. Republican Senator Susan Collins welcomed the July 30 decision to release the $600 million.

The administration's posture toward Gavi shifted again in June 2026, when Secretary Rubio announced the US would re-engage with the alliance amid an Ebola outbreak, after having cut approximately $300 million in annual funding in 2025 Reuters. Gavi CEO Dr. Sania Nishtar had previously warned that a funding cut would be "disastrous," potentially resulting in more than 1 million deaths from preventable diseases AP News. The UK, for its part, announced a pledge of £1.25 billion ($1.7 billion) to Gavi from 2026 onward AP News.

The WHO's budget is approximately $3.4 billion, roughly one-third of the CDC's $9.3 billion core funding in 2023. The State Department's FY 2026 Congressional Budget Justification describes Gavi as a Swiss NGO that reports a reserve of over $7.0 billion.

The broader context here is a deliberate restructuring of US global health financing along two tracks: conditioning support for Gavi on specific reforms aligned with Kennedy's vaccine safety priorities, and maintaining a hard line on the WHO that began on the first day of Trump's second term. The thiomersal condition in particular reflects Kennedy's long-standing concern about mercury in vaccines, now translated into a funding prerequisite for a multilateral health organization. Whether Gavi's agreement to pursue mercury-free alternatives satisfies the administration's reform demands in practice, and whether future appropriations will sustain the commitment beyond FY2026, are questions that the FY2027 budget justification, which makes funding contingent on the organization, leaves unresolved.