Trump guts distribution of life-saving H.I.V. vaccine 

• Trump stopped crucial U.S. funding for distribution in Africa of a new drug that gives almost complete protection against HIV. The drug, which offers total protection from H.I.V., was to be rapidly rolled out across eastern and southern Africa, where 300,000 young women were newly infected with the virus last year — half of all new infections worldwide.

Trump allows chicken and turkey companies to keep high levels of salmonella

• Trump reversed a regulation requiring that companies who sell chicken and turkey to keep the levels of salmonella bacteria below a certain level in their meats to prevent illnesses commonly known as food poisoning. When the Biden administration proposed the rule, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explained that salmonella causes 1.35 million infections a year and kills 420 people.

Trump promotes anti-vaxers to key positions while preventable diseases soar. 

• Trump’s HHS Secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr., fired all the members of the CDC’s key vaccine advisory committee and quickly appointed four anti-vaxers to the Committee. 

• The CDC reports over 8,000 cases of whooping cough, a more than two-fold increase from the same time last year. At the current rate, the nation could see up to 70,000 cases by year’s end, more than doubling last year’s total.

• Kennedy bypassed the CDC to withdraw the recommendation that healthy children over  6 months and pregnant get the COVID vaccine, despite evidence that  the healthy children can be hospitalized if they get COVID and that the virus can cause complications in pregnancy. But the CDC ignored part of his order and kept recommendations for children, while not addressing pregnant women.

• By appointing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, Trump enabled the downplaying of the deadly measles outbreak in West Texas, with Kennedy misleading the public and dangerously minimizing the severity of the crisis. Kennedy recommended cod liver oil and Vitamin A, but the only way to prevent the disease is with vaccinations. Kennedy ordered a search for alternative treatments for measles even as the vaccine is 97% effective; his order will further encourage people to avoid getting the vaccine, helping the disease to spread. 

• Trump rehires 400 CDC employees. The CDC is reinstating more than 400 people who had received layoff notices. The rehiring marks the largest number of employees that the agency has asked back to date. Around half of those employees are in the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention, and around a third are in the National Center for Environmental Health.

Trump cancels thousands of research studies into everything from cancer to substance abuse. 

• Trump cancelled at least $9.5 billion into research into cures and prevention of diseases including cancer, diabetes, Alzheimers, heart disease, substance abuse, mental health, food safety and much more. He is gutting the basic science that has led to decreases in death rates from the most common killers of Americans.

Trump cancels research into vaccines for HIV and bird flu

• Trump administration terminated research into finding a vaccine for  H.I.V., cancelling  a $258 million program whose work was instrumental to the search for a vaccine. The work was broadly applicable to a wide range of treatments for other illnesses, from Covid drugs to snake antivenom and therapies for autoimmune diseases. Separately, the N.I.H. also paused funding for a clinical trial of an H.I.V. vaccine made by Moderna. 

• Trump cancelled  a nearly $600-million contract to the drugmaker Moderna that was intended to develop a shot for humans against bird flu. The decision also forfeited the U.S. government’s right to purchase doses ahead of a pandemic, and canceled an agreement set up by the Biden administration in January to prepare the nation for a potential bird flu pandemic. The Moderna contract built on a previous government investment of $175 million last year. Bird flu has infected 70 people, most of them farm workers, over the past year as it has spread aggressively among cattle herds and poultry flocks.

Trump wants to gut NIH, CDC, mental health and substance abuse 

• Trump’s wants to gut major health and disease prevention programs, including the National Institute for Health (NIH) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Trump wants to cut the CDC funding almost in half, eliminating C.D.C. programs devoted to preventing chronic disease and injuries, including gun violence injuries. He wants to slash NIH research on preventing and curing  disease by 40%. He also proposes cutting more than $1 billion from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which directs funds and support nationwide to address two of the country’s biggest public health crises.

• A federal judge ruled that Trump’s cancellation of many NIH grants was ‘void and illegal’, accusing the government of racial discrimination and prejudice against L.G.B.T.Q. individuals. 

• In late June, in response to this and another court order,  a senior official at NIH directed agency staff members not to cancel any additional research projects, at least for now.

• A public letter from 142 NIH researchers, 92 of whom were public with their names,  accused Trump of “policies that undermine the NIH mission, waste public resources, and harm the health of Americans and people across the globe.” The signers accused Trump of using politics, not science, to decide what NIH funds 

Trump Abruptly Cuts Billions From State Health Services

• Trump canceled over $12 billion in federal grants designated for managing infectious diseases, mental health services, and addiction treatment, forcing state health departments into chaos and threatening widespread layoffs.

• Trump put at risk years of progress in combating chronic diseases and the opioid crisis, severely undermining vital public health and addiction programs.

• Trump left critical health projects in limbo, wasting millions of dollars on unfinished work and leaving states without time to adjust or secure alternative funding.

Food Safety Jeopardized by Onslaught of Funding and Staff Cuts

• Trump halted critical food safety efforts, disbanding a vital committee studying bacteria in infant formula and freezing funding for essential food tests, directly jeopardizing public health.

• Trump slashed $34 million from FDA state lab funding, crippling inspections and testing, and severely delaying responses to deadly outbreaks like listeria and lead contamination.

• Trump left food safety inspections and outbreak investigations severely understaffed, drastically increasing the risk of unreported foodborne illnesses and dangerously delayed recalls.

Trump Scraps Studies of Vaccines and Treatments for Future Pandemics

• Trump gutted funding for essential vaccine and antiviral research jeopardized public health, including critical studies on future pandemic pathogens, under the misguided belief that the Covid-19 pandemic was over.

• Trump caused potentially catastrophic setbacks by terminating promising projects on coronavirus vaccines and antiviral drugs for diseases like Ebola.

• Trump cuts to pandemic preparedness research will leave the nation vulnerable to future health crises, with crucial drugs and vaccines undeveloped and the population unprotected from potential outbreaks.

• Trump blocked $65 million in funding for Alzheimer’s disease research at 14 research institutions across the country. HHS canceled key grants and contracts that help combat diseases such as diabetes and dementia, as well as cutting obesity rates, including The Diabetes Prevention Program, which assisted doctors in understanding the disease, which was the eighth leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2021.

• Trump blocked planning for next year’s flu vaccine, blocking the committee of scientists  from meeting to start preparing for new strains of flu. 

• Trump’s HHS Secretary ordered The National Institutes of Health to halt funding for researchers who study vaccine hesitancy and hoped to find ways to overcome it.

• Trump eliminated the jobs of  researchers studying how well IVF works after calling himself “the fertilization president.”

Trump Poses Serious Rick to Animal Welfare and Public Health

• Trump endorses Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s suggestion to allow bird flu to spread through poultry flocks. The endorsement was widely condemned by experts as reckless, posing serious risks to both animal welfare and public health.

• Trump's support for unchecked virus spread increased the risk of mutation, potentially making it more dangerous, while also triggering trade embargoes that would harm the economy and further threaten public health.

Trump Ends Vaccine Funds for Poor Countries

• Trump terminated major U.S. foreign aid programs, including crucial funding for Gavi, directly threatens global health progress and sabotages vaccination initiatives that have saved millions of lives, putting countless more at immediate risk.

• Trump slashed U.S. funding for Gavi, the Trump administration setting the stage for 75 million children to be denied essential vaccinations over the next five years. This  will result in an estimated 1.2 million preventable deaths and devastate global health security.

• Trump crippled U.S.A.I.D. operations, leaving it severely underfunded and understaffed. This destructive move has already led to the cancellation of over 5,300 critical foreign aid projects and the dismissal of nearly 4,000 personnel, jeopardizing vital health services in countries fighting against malaria and HIV.