US to re-engage with Gavi vaccine alliance amid Ebola outbreak, Rubio says

WASHINGTON/LONDON — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that the US would re-engage with the global vaccine alliance Gavi amid the Ebola outbreak in several African countries.

Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the decision had been made a few weeks ago to re-engage, after the Trump administration pulled funding from Gavi last year.

Gavi helps the world's poorest countries to buy vaccines, so they can better protect children from diseases such as measles and diphtheria, but also works in outbreak response, including for Ebola.

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a long-time vaccine skeptic, said last June that the US would no longer fund the group—representing around $300 million a year—alleging that it ignored safety. He did not provide evidence to support his claim.

"The State Department a few weeks ago made the decision that we were going to re-engage on this issue of Gavi, respecting what HHS' [Department of Health and Human Services] views are on it as well," Rubio said.

He said that Kennedy had taken a leading role in determining what was going to happen next with Gavi, but the State Department would now re-engage because "we need to drive this to an outcome."

He said: "We'd like to get this issue resolved in an outcome that's acceptable both to Congress and also to our goals on global health." — Reuters