Advocates Say RFK Jr.’s Health Cuts Put Goal Of Ending HIV Out Of Reach

The Trump administration's cuts to HIV prevention will lead to new infections, medical costs and death, experts warn.

Doctors and public health advocates were once able to imagine the end of the HIV epidemic in our lifetime. The last four decades of scientific advancements had delivered new treatments and preventive medications that significantly curbed the rates of transmission and impacts of the once deadly virus. The number of new infections has dropped from more than 130,000 in the mid- 1980s to 37,000 by 2022 — and mortality rates have steadily dropped.

Millions in federal funding — supported by Democratic and Republican leadership alike ― had helped buoy a swath of programs and research into new injectable drugs for HIV prevention and treatment, which are long-lasting and less burdensome than daily medication, and can be used to address HIV disparities across race, gender and sexual orientation both in the United States and internationally.

“With the advent of injectables and how successful they’ve been, I think for many of us, for the first time in a long time, we could actually see what looked like the beginning of the end,” said Tori Cooper, the director of strategic outreach and training at Human Rights Campaign.

But in March, that glimmer of hope began to fade as the Trump administration decimated the nation’s HIV prevention programs as part of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s drastic overhaul of the Department of Health and Human Services agency.

The Office of Infectious Diseases & HIV Policy, which oversees the federal strategy on HIV prevention, shuttered its doors. Ten thousand federal health employees were laid off, including staff at five branches of the HIV prevention division of the Centers for Disease Control, who are tasked with tracking new infections and conducting research on strategies to reduce infection risk.