A MESSAGE: From the Leaders of AIDS Memorials and Monuments
We, the leaders of AIDS memorials and monuments in San Francisco, New York, and West Hollywood, are responsible for collecting and preserving the stories of the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic. We are appalled that on January 24, 2025, as part of the freeze on US foreign aid for at least 90 days, the Trump Administration ordered aid organizations in foreign countries to stop distributing HIV medications purchased with US funding and to halt any spending of money already received from the US. We and our thousands of supporters know all too well the devastating loss of life and debilitating illness caused by HIV/AIDS in the United States and around the world. To date, an estimated 40 million people worldwide have died of AIDS-related illnesses, including over 700,000 Americans, more than all the Americans who died in the wars of the 20th century.
HIV/AIDS medications distributed under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are estimated to have saved the lives of 26 million people in 54 countries globally since the program was initiated under the George W. Bush administration. PEPFAR also provides critical HIV/AIDS testing, treatment, education, and prevention services, and currently accounts for 90% of global PrEP initiations which protect against contracting HIV. Without medication, many will become HIV-positive, and the level of the virus in those already living with HIV will increase, putting their health at risk and making it more likely that they will transmit the virus to others. Many people will get sick. More than 6 million people will die in the next 4 years if PEPFAR funding is stopped, according to the UN AIDS Agency. AIDS prevention and life-saving programs, whether in the US or abroad, should not be a political issue.
The so-called “waiver” or exemption for life-saving programs announced by the US State Department on January 28, 2025, has not, in fact, allowed HIV/AIDS medication to be distributed. According to a January 31, 2025, ProPublica story, aid organizations report that such waiver is difficult to request and either they cannot get help in preparing such waiver requests or they cannot get any response to waiver requests already submitted. Those aid organizations cannot speak with anyone in the US State Department or USAID because their contacts have been fired, placed on leave, or told not to communicate with outside groups. As a result, patients with HIV are not getting their medication. A February 5, 2025, article in the New York Times estimates that the freeze on PEPFAR and the gutting of USAID will jeopardize “the health of more than 20 million people, including 500,000 children” living with HIV/AIDS or at risk for HIV. Additionally, on January 31, 2025, an Executive Order required the CDC to remove from its website all references to HIV including PreP as well as other critical prevention and treatment information. The resulting chaos and the blackout of critical information will increase transmission rates across all communities.
As we learned with both AIDS and COVID-19, viruses can develop drug-resistant strains and spread across the globe. Halting these essential services will provide situations for viral strains to evolve, posing a threat of increased global transmission, illness, and death. Providing HIV/AIDS medication to nations in need protects millions of Americans here and abroad from a disease that knows no borders. It is an essential practice of good public health policy.
The AIDS crisis has provided many lessons, one of the most fundamental of which is that when a public health crisis is politicized, lives are lost and endangered. Today's policies are doing just that.
We strongly urge the Trump Administration to resume funding immediately and to allow this lifesaving medication to be delivered without delay. We urge Congress to take all action within its authority to ensure that funding already authorized by federal law continues to flow without interruption and to reauthorize PEPFAR so that the lives of millions across the globe can be protected from death and serious illness.
John B. Cunningham, CEO, National AIDS Memorial, San Francisco
Dave Harper, Executive Director, New York City AIDS Memorial, New York
Irwin M. Rappaport, Board Chair, STORIES: The AIDS Monument (under construction), West Hollywood