This Vox article by Dylan Matthews provides an excellent overview of why funding Gavi, the international vaccine alliance, is one of the most impactful things the US government does. Gavi has a proven track record of cost-effectively saving millions of lives by providing access to essential vaccines in the world's poorest countries.
Gavi is currently seeking $9billion in funding for its 2026-2030 budget, which includes over $1 billion for the newly approved malaria vaccines. Despite some concerns about "donor fatigue," there appears to be strong bipartisan support in Congress for meeting or even exceeding the Biden administration's $1.58 billion pledge to Gavi.
However, the article argues that even this level of funding may not be sufficient to fully take advantage of the new malaria vaccines' potential. With more support, Gavi could theoretically vaccinate up to 29 million children per year against malaria.
Thanks for sharing the article. I found these paragraphs particularly sobering:
Saving 300k children's lives would reduce under-5 malaria deaths worldwide by a staggering ~70%.