On July 30, 2026, the United States announced it would release $600 million for Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, while formally declaring that none of those funds may pass through to the World Health Organization. The joint statement from the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) creates a firewall between US-backed vaccine financing and the UN health agency — a separation that had been signaled for months but is now written into policy.

The statement, formally titled "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, was direct on the WHO cutoff. "The United States also reaffirms that it will not provide US Government funding to the World Health Organization through Gavi," it read (Al Jazeera).

To understand why this matters, it helps to know what Gavi and the WHO each do. Gavi is a public-private partnership based in Switzerland that pools money from governments and donors to buy and deliver vaccines in low-income countries. The WHO, a UN agency, sets global health standards and coordinates responses to outbreaks. The two organizations have historically worked closely together, which is why the US insistence on separating its Gavi funding from the WHO is unusual — it forces Gavi to keep American money on a separate track from any WHO programming.

President Trump directed 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 specific reform: Gavi agreed to work toward replacing mercury-containing vaccines with mercury-free alternatives. This condition was first reported in January 2026, when Reuters reported that the administration was conditioning US funding to Gavi on the alliance dropping thiomersal, a mercury-based preservative used in some vaccines (Reuters). Thiomersal has been phased out of most childhood vaccines in the US and Europe, though the WHO has said there is no evidence of harm from the doses used as preservatives. Kennedy has long voiced concern about mercury in vaccines, and this funding condition translates that concern into a prerequisite for a multilateral health organization.

The $600 million release follows more than a year 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 this period. 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 shifted again in June 2026, when Secretary Rubio announced the US would re-engage with Gavi 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.

For a sense of scale, 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. 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.