Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, was originally founded as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations and often referred to simply as Gavi, is a public–private global health partnership consisting of large NGOs, drug companies, and private foundations with the mission to providing access to vaccines and immunizations to individuals in poor and developing countries, with an emphasis on child vaccination. The multibillion-dollar organization is largely funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and claims to have provided over 800 million vaccinations since its founding in the early 2000s. ¹

The organization has been active in promoting distribution of a vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic and has amassed nearly $9 billion to provide COVID-19 vaccines to 300 million children. ² The organization also was mentioned as part of a debunked conspiracy theory that claimed that Bill Gates was looking to use a COVID-19 vaccine to implant microchips to track individual movement. ³

Background

The Gavi Alliance was founded in 2000 and is a public-private partnership between the World Bank, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The organization partners with drug companies and governments to deploy vaccinations to children in developing countries. The alliance was founded in 2000 as a primarily philanthropy effort of billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation convened partner nongovernmental organizations and today remains the primary funder of the organization, although it is also supported by other corporations and private foundations. ¹

The organization began in 2000 and focused on deploying three under-used vaccines for hepatitis B (hepB), Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and yellow fever to developing countries, specifically in Africa, where the organization also reported vaccinating nearly 4 million children for human papillomavirus (HPV). ⁴

Today, the organization supports immunizations for dozens of illnesses including cholera, meningitis, tuberculosis, HPV, yellow fever, measles, and polio. Gavi focused on 20 target countries as part of its 2016- 2020 strategic plan: Afghanistan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Uganda, the Central African Republic, Haiti, Madagascar, Mozambique, Myanmar, Niger, Papua New Guinea, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen. ⁵

COVID-19

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gavi was part of a coalition of organizations that pledged to work towards equitable access to a COVID-19 vaccine, pledging to ensure poor countries would have access to doses and would be able to receive them at a cheap price. Gavi raised $8.8 billion for this and its other vaccination efforts in 2020. ²

In March 2020, shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread business closures and panic to the United States, a conspiracy theory claiming that Bill Gates, through his work on global vaccines through Gavi, wanted to use a COVID vaccine to implant microchips to track people’s movements. ³ The claims were quickly debunked as a false, social media-originated conspiracy theory, but public polling later suggested that 28% of Americans believed the conspiracy theory, leading Gates to publicly speak out against it. It was noted that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had contributed over $1.6 billion to Gavi’s work on COVID vaccination. ⁶

1. “About.” Gavi. Accessed December 9, 2020. https://www.gavi.org/our-alliance/about
2. Hargreaves, Ben. “Gavi backed with $8.8bn to support immunization plans.” BioPharma Reporter. June 17, 2020. https://www.biopharma-reporter.com/Article/2020/06/17/Gavi-receives-billions-in-funding
3. “False claim: Bill Gates planning to use microchip implants to fight coronavirus.” Reuters. March 31, 2020. Accessed December 9, 2020. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-coronavirus-bill-gates-micr/false-claim-bill-gates-planning-to-use-microchip-implants-to-fight-coronavirus-idUSKBN21I3EC
4. “Phase 1 2000-2005.” Gavi. Accessed December 9, 2020. https://www.gavi.org/our-alliance/strategy/phase-1-2000-2005
5. “Facts and Figures.” Gavi. Accessed December 9, 2020. https://www.gavi.org/programmes-impact/our-impact/facts-and-figures
6. Lovelace, Berkley. “Bill Gates denies conspiracy theories that say he wants to use coronavirus vaccines to implant tracking devices.” CNBC. June 17, 2020. Accessed December 9, 2020. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/22/bill-gates-denies-conspiracy-theories-that-say-he-wants-to-use-coronavirus-vaccines-to-implant-tracking-devices.html