Podcasts · Global Roaming with Geraldine Doogue and Hamish Macdonald

Helen Clark defends Fauci pleading the fifth and says Trump's vaccine cuts could cost lives

26 Aug 2026 · 29 min

Helen Clark led New Zealand as Prime Minister for nearly nine years and she hasn't slowed down since.

Now the Chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Clark spoke to Global Roaming at a moment when vaccines have become a genuine political battleground.

Clark talks to Hamish Macdonald about Trump's executive order to cut the recommended childhood vaccine schedule, RFK Jr.'s rise at the top of US health policy, and why she thinks Anthony Fauci pleading the Fifth before a Senate committee isn't necessarily what it looks like.

She also raises a crisis that's had almost no attention: a fast-growing HIV outbreak in Fiji, driven by drug use and a lack of harm-reduction infrastructure.

Plus: the misogyny and threats faced by women in politics - including, she says, threats to Jacinda Ardern far beyond what she or Julia Gillard ever experienced - and the story of the Tampa refugees New Zealand took in, and the search to reunite them with their families.Guest: Helen Clark, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand & Board Chair, Gavi the Vaccine Alliance.

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