When President Bill Clinton issued a call for a vaccine against HIV on May 18, 1997 at Morgan State University, health advocates leapt into action, and a year later kicked off an annual commemoration working toward that goal.
However, with the Trump administration’s 2027 budget prioritizing defense spending on things such as border security and law enforcement, health advocates are speaking out against the decision to dramatically reduce or altogether cut funding for necessary research that could save lives.
For many health advocacy organizations, such as AIDS United, the move sends a clear message.
“The health and well-being of Americans is not a governing priority,” AIDS United wrote in a statement sent to The Washington Informer. “Instead, this proposal continues a pattern of disinvestment in the public health and social safety net systems that allow people living with and affected by HIV to survive and thrive.”
In the United States, people of color are disproportionately affected by HIV.
“Black/African American people and Hispanic/Latino people are particularly affected by HIV, making up more than half (70%) of estimated new HIV infections in 2022,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
As the 28th anniversary of HIV Vaccine Awareness Day approaches on May 18, health experts are offering a call to action around the urgent need to continue work toward research, particularly in the face of federal challenges and continued disparities.
“We must remain committed to ensuring such devastating cuts to funding are stopped and demand that Congress pass a budget that will ensure full funding for HIV programming and services,” AIDS United continued. “Ending the HIV epidemic is within reach but only if we choose to prioritize it.”
Although the budget could prove to be a setback if the proposal is approved by Congress, advocates note all hope is not lost in the battle against HIV/AIDs. People are working toward a better tomorrow — such as nationwide efforts to raise awareness about vaccine research and local organizations working daily to offer care and stop the disease from spreading across communities throughout the District and beyond.
“Today, no one has to die from HIV. We have the treatments, the technology, and the research to change outcomes, and yet people in our community still are dying from HIV/AIDS,” said Dr. Heather Aaron, CEO of Whitman-Walker Health System, which offers people in D.C. a variety of treatments, including primary care, HIV/AIDS care and prevention, and more. “That is unacceptable, and it is exactly why our work continues.”
A Presidential Call to End HIV/AIDS, The Current Federal Threat
In May 1997, when President Clinton visited Morgan State University in Baltimore, people across the nation — including in Washington, D.C. — were extremely worried about the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
An August 1997 District report: “Epidemiologic Profile For HIV Prevention Community Planning” outlines the local concern at the time.
“Residents in the District of Columbia comprise 0.24% of the population nationwide, but they represent a disproportionate 1.6% of total AIDS cases. In 1996, the reported rate of AIDS cases number per 100,000 population) in the District of Columbia was 202, compared to the national average of 26,” according to the report. “The rate among Blacks (252) was more than twice the rate of Whites (106) and more than one and one-half the rate of Hispanics (156).”
The report goes on to reveal that approximately 15,300 people could be living with HIV in D.C. at the time of the 1997 research before further emphasizing the racial disparity.
“Blacks continue to be disproportionately affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, accounting for a much higher proportion of new cases (84%) diagnosed after 1993 and reported through May 15, 1997, than their proportion of the population (66%),” the report continues.
Clinton, speaking at a historically Black institution, was addressing a crisis that was particularly affecting African Americans across the U.S. and issued a challenge for the researchers of 1997 and the future.
“Only a truly effective, preventive HIV vaccine can limit and eventually eliminate the threat of AIDS,” Clinton said on May 18, 1997, aiming for development of the treatment in 10 years.
Nearly three decades since Clinton’s call to action, advocates note that President Donald Trump’s administration has threatened momentum toward a vaccine and other research to help those living with HIV.
“Over the last 14 months, this administration has made repeated attempts to reduce or eliminate funding for initiatives that support HIV prevention, treatment, care, and services — programs critical to reaching some of our communities’ most vulnerable populations,” AIDS United wrote in a statement.
According to the advocacy organization, the April 3 fiscal year 2027 budget proposal could cause further harm toward HIV care and prevention. Potential threats include but are not limited to: $1 billion in cuts to the CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention; the erasure of the Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) Program; the elimination of all funding for Part F of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program; and cuts to all funding for the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund within the Department of Health and Human Services.
“Our communities deserve better,” AIDS United declared. “Our communities deserve to be at the top of the priority list of the president of the United States, along with everyone else in this nation who wants for health care, housing, or human rights.”
Efforts Toward HIV Research, Treatment and Prevention
While Black and Latino communities are still disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, organizations such as Whitman-Walker in Washington, D.C. offer reminders that there’s been a lot of progress around care, treatment, and prevention surrounding the disease over the past few decades.
“We have come a long way since the 1980s and 90s, a time when people living with HIV were stigmatized, conversations were silenced, and far too many people were left without care,” Aaron said in a statement submitted to The Washington Informer.
Part of that progress, the CEO explained, comes from years of dedicated efforts from the people at her organization – originally founded as the Gay Men’s VD Clinic in 1973 and changed to the Whitman Walker Clinic in 1978. The nonprofit organization was named in honor of poet Walt Whitman, who lived in Washington, and Civil War-era D.C.-based physician Dr. Mary Edwards Walker.
“Whitman-Walker stepped in when others stepped away,” Aaron continued, “taking on the responsibility of serving a community that the broader health system had turned its back on.”
As Whitman-Walker Health System continues to help patients in D.C., AIDS United is raising awareness about the current administration’s proposed budget, emphasizing the threat beyond HIV research.
“We, the people, need to be prioritized, and investments in public health infrastructure are investments in people — in our communities, our neighbors, and our future,” the organization explained. “Undermining these systems not only threatens progress toward ending the HIV epidemic but also weakens our nation’s ability to respond to ongoing and emerging public health challenges.”
Further, with Whitman-Walker in the nation’s capital, the local organization is ready to tackle the nationwide fight to uplift HIV research through programming and advocacy, while working to close the disease’s racial divide by targeting predominantly African American areas.
“Here in D.C. with more focus on Southeast D.C., the Whitman-Walker Health System remains committed to making a difference through cutting-edge research, policy advocacy, and philanthropy, because fair access to life-saving treatment is not a privilege,” Aaron told The Informer. “It is a right.”
