US cutting Gavi vaccine alliance aid may cause 'over a million deaths'

A Kenyan health worker administers a dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to her colleagues, part of the COVAX mechanism by Gavi (The Vaccine Alliance), to help fight against Covid-19 at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, on March 5, 2021. [AFP]

The United States cutting funding to Gavi, an organisation that provides vaccines to the world's poorest countries, could result in more than a million deaths and will endanger lives everywhere, the group's CEO warned on Thursday.

The news that Washington is planning to end funding for Gavi, first reported in the New York Times, comes as the two-month-old administration of President Donald Trump aggressively slashes foreign aid.