A new wave of vaccine misinformation, led by US Secretary of Health & Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr, is threatening to undermine global public health, with SA experts warning of dire consequences, reported Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism (16 July 2025).
RFK Jr accused Gavi, the international vaccine alliance, of distributing a harmful version of the DTP vaccine and halted US funding to the organisation. His claims are based on a misinterpretation of a small 2017 study using data from the 1980s.
Meanwhile, a recent Lancet study estimated that DTP vaccines alone have saved over 40m lives and the widely used DTP (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis) vaccine ignores decades of science that credits immunisation with saving an estimated154 m lives over the past 50 years.