We, the undersigned, are HIV clinicians, researchers and scientists responding to the AIDS epidemics around the world and in the U.S.

We are gravely concerned by President Trump's pursuit of policies that are out of step with evidence. The most recent examples include:

President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2019 Budget proposal to the U.S. Congress that contains at least $1.284 billion in cuts to life saving global HIV programs, when no less than $850 million in additional funding is needed for PEPFAR, and a full $1.35 billion in funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Analyses by UNAIDS show that a surge in global AIDS funding is needed now, in order to accelerate treatment and prevention and attain control of the epidemic by 2030.

Reinstatement and expansion of the Mexico City Policy, now called "Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance." This policy blocks U.S. funding for non-U.S. organizations that use non-U.S. government sources of funding to provide abortion counseling or referrals, advocate to decriminalize abortion or expand abortion services. Expansion of this policy to include PEPFAR and all other health development assistance will reduce the standard of sexual and reproductive care provided to women living with and at risk for HIV.

The establishment of the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division at the Department of Health and Human Services, and the proposed rule regarding "Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights in Health Care," an Executive action that, if enacted, would provide license for health care providers to discriminate against their patients.

Proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health, specifically the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Fogarty International Center, which if enacted would slow urgently needed HIV basic and implementation research and impair work to build research capacity in partner nations to fight HIV.

Science shows us that we can defeat HIV, but not if we defy evidence.

President Trump’s misguided budget proposal, and his Administration’s attempts to scale up policies in defiance of evidence will only undermine the global AIDS response and should be stopped.

Signed,

 

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, PhD

Nobel Prize in Medicine 2008

Professor, Pasteur Institute and Research Director, INSERM

 

Max Essex, DVM, PhD

Lasker Professor of Health Sciences, Harvard University

Chair, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health AIDS Initiative (HAI)  

Chair, Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership

 

Linda-Gail Bekker MBChB, DTMH, DCH, FCP(SA), PhD

Deputy Director, Desmond Tutu HIV Center

President, International AIDS Society

 

Wafaa El-Sadr MD, MPH

Director, International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs (ICAP)

Director, Center for Infectious Disease Epidemiologic Research, Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health

 

Paul Volberding, MD

Professor of Medicine and Associate Chair for Global Health, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

Director, The AIDS Research Institute and Co-Director, The Center for AIDS Research

 

Salim Abdool Karim, MBChB, PhD, DSc

Director,  Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)

Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research), University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Weill Medical College, Cornell University

CAPRISA Professor for Global Health, Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health

 

Jose Zuniga, PhD, MPH

President, International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC)

 

Anton Pozniak, MD

President-elect, International AIDS Society

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS

 

Connie Celum, MD, MPH

Professor, Departments of Medicine and Global Health

Director, International Clinical Research Center, Department of Global Health

Adjunct Professor, Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington

 

Chris Beyrer, MD, MPH

Immediate Past President, International AIDS Society 

Director, Center for Public Health and Human Rights

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

 

Diane Havlir, MD

Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco 

Chief of HIV/AIDS, San Francisco General Hospital

 

Donna Futterman, MD

Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Director of the Adolescent AIDS Program, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore

 

Francois Venter, MD, FCP

Deputy Executive Director, Wits Reproductive Health & HIV Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand

 

Frank D. Goebel, MD

Professor Emeritus, Infectious Diseases, University of Munich, Germany

 

Judith Feinberg, MD, FACP, FIDSA

Professor, Behavioral Medicine & Psychiatry

Professor, Medicine/Infectious Diseases

West Virginia University School of Medicine

 

Carole Treston, RN, MPH, ACRN, FAAN

Executive Director, National Association of Nurses in AIDS Care

 

Kathryn Anastos, MD

Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Population Health

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

 

Kenneth Mayer, MD

Professor, Harvard Medical School

Professor, Harvard School of Public Health

Attending Physician & Director of HIV Prevention Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Pedro Cahn, MD, PhD

Director, Fundación Huesped

Professor of Infectious Diseases, Buenos Aires University Medical School

 

Perry Halkitis, PhD, MS, MPH

Dean | Rutgers School of Public Health

 

Peter Mugyenyi, MBChB, DCH, FRCPI, FRCPE, ScD

Founder, Joint Clinical Research Center on AIDS (JCRC), Uganda

 

Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH

Division of Infectious Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Associate Director of the Program in Epidemiology and Outcomes Research, Harvard Center for AIDS Research

 

Stefano Vella, MD

Center for Global Health

The Italian National Institute of Health

 

John W. Mellors, MD

Professor of Medicine

Chief, Division Infectious Diseases

Endowed Chair for Global Elimination of HIV and AIDS

University of Pittsburgh

 

Sten H. Vermund, MD, PhD

Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health

Dean | Yale School of Public Health

 

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

 

(Affiliations provided to individual endorsements are for identification purposes only.)

Complete list signatories as of March 6, 2018:

1. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, PhD, Nobel Laureate

2. Linda-Gail Bekker MBChB, DTMH, DCH, FCP(SA), PhD

3. Anton Pozniak, MD

4. Carole Treston, RN, MPH, ACRN, FAAN

5. Chris Beyrer, MD

6. Connie Celum, MD, MPH

7. Diane Havlir, MD

8. Donna Futterman, MD

9. Francois Venter, MD, FCP

10. Judith Feinberg, MD, FACP, FIDSA

11. Kathryn Anastos, MD

12. Kenneth Mayer, MD

13. Max Essex, DVM, PhD

14. Mardge Cohen, MD

15. Paul Volberding, MD

16. Pedro Cahn, MD, PhD

17. Perry Halkitis, PhD, MS, MPH

18. Peter Mugyenyi, MBChB, DCH, FRCPI, FRCPE, ScD

19. Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH

20. Stefano Vella, MD

21. Sten H. Vermund, MD, PhD

22. Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, MPA

23. Adaora Adimora, MD, MPH

24. Alexander Morse, MPH

25. Alexandra Calmy, PhD

26. Gregg Gonsalves, PhD

27. Alison Case, MD

28. Alison Roxby, MD, MSc

29. Amir Mohareb, MD

30. Andrea Ciaranello, MD, MPH

31. Andrew Trotter, MD, MPH

32. Angelo Seda, RN

33. April Soto, MD

34. Ashley Moore, MSW, LSW

35. Asia Russell

36. Bobby Cohen, MD

37. Brian Williams, PhD

38. Brittany Herrick, MPH

39. Bruno Spire MD, PhD

40. Carlos del Rio, MD

41. Carmen Portillo, RN, PhD, FAAN

42. Carol Dawson-Rose, RN

43. Cassandra Pierre, MD, MPH

44. Celicia Serenata, MBA

45. Charlie Ferrusi, MPH

46. Christie Lyn Costanza, MPH, CHES, CCRC

47. Christopher Noble, MPH

48. Clinton Trout, MA, MPH, DrPH

49. Colleen Kelley, MD, MPH

50. Dalmacio Flores, PhD

51. Daniel Kuritzkes, MD

52. Daniela Garone, MD

53. Dara Winfield, FNP

54. David Stein, MD

55. David Vance, PhD, MGS, MS

56. Deborah Gustafson, MS, PhD

57. Debra Kosko, DNP, MN, FNP-BC

58. Demetre Daskalakis, MD, MPH

59. Donna Gallagher PhD, ANP

60. Donna Gullette, PhD, APRN

61. Donna Sabatino, RN, ACRN

62. Edward Pilkington, MD

63. Elisabeth Szumilin, MD

64. Elizabeth Bukusi, MBChB, MD, MPH, PhD

65. Elizabeth Holt, MSN, ANP-BC, WHNP-BC, AAHIVS

66. Elizabeth Prohasky, MPH

67. Emilia Iwu, RN, MSN, APN-C, FWACN

68. Erin Athey, DNP, FNP-BC, RN

69. Francois-Xavier MBOPI-KEOU, DBIOL, MPhil, MSc, PhD

70. Frank D. Goebel, MD

71. Gilles Van Cutsem, MD, MPH

72. Gustavo Velásquez, MD, MPH

73. Gregg Gonsalves, PhD

74. Gwen Childs, PhD

75. Harlan Pruden

76. Harry Heiman, MD, MPH

77. Henry Nguyen, FNP-BC, AAHIVS

78. Hugues Fischer

79. Ibra Ndoye, MD

80. Igho Ofotokun, MD

81. Ingrid Bassett, MD, MPH

82. Jared Baeten, MD

83. J. Craig Phillips, PhD, LLM, RN, ARNP, ACRN, FAAN

84. James Gordon, MD

85. James Sosman, MD

86. Janet Turan, PhD

87. Janitzio Guzman, MD

88. Jason Leider, MD, PhD

89. Jeffrey Kwong, DNP, MPH, ANP-BC, ACRN, AAHIVS

90. Jean-François Delfraissy, MD, PhD

91. Jeanne Kemppainen, PhD, RN, FAAN

92. Jennifer Cohn, MD, MPH

93. Jennifer Fisher, FNP

94. Jennifer Pisano, MD

95. Jessica Schmitt, LCSW

96. Jina Saltzman, PA

97. John Martin, MD

98. John Mellors, MD

99. John Nelson, PhD, CNS, CPNP

100. Jonathan Colasanti, MD, MSPH

101. Jonathan Lio, MD

102. Jose M. Zuniga, PhD, MPH

103. Judy Wessell, DNP, APRN-BC, AAHIVS

104. Kate M. Guthrie, PhD

105. Kathleen Bernock, FNP-BC, AAHIVS, AACRN

106. Kathryn Foley, MD

107. Katrin Sadigh, MD

108. Keanan McGonigle, medical student

109. Kim Scarsi, PharmD

110. Kim Sigaloff, MD, PhD

111. Kimberly Adams Tufts, DNP, WHNP-BC, FAAN

112. Kirsten Corrigan, MHA

113. Kristi Stringer, PhD

114. LaRon E. Nelson, PhD, RN, FNP, FNAP, FAAN

115. Lawrence Siegel, MD

116. Leela Davies, MD, PhD

117. Lindsay Gordon

118. Lisa Abuogi, MD

119. Lisa Cosimi, MD

120. Lori Bollinger, PhD

121. Lori Heise, PhD

122. Luckyboy Edison Mkhondwane

123. Lucy Bradley-Springer, PhD, RN, ACRN, FAAN

124. Mai Pho, MD, MPH

125. Maithe Enriquez, PhD, RN, ANP-BC, FAAN

126. Marc D. Angel, PhD

127. Matthew Kavanagh, PhD

128. Melanie Steilen, RN, BSM, ACRN

129. Melanie Thompson, MD

130. Michael Hall

131. Michael Relf, PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, AACRN, CNE, FAAN

132. Michaela Muller-Trutwin, PhD

133. Michelle Kohler, RN

134. Mildred Williamson, PhD, LCSW

135. Mitchell Warren

136. Mitchell J. Wharton, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, CNS

137. Nancy Hessol, MSPH

138. Nathan Linsk, PhD

139. Nina Sublette, PhD, APRN-BC

140. Patricia Daoust, MSN, RN

141. Paul Zeitz, DO, MPH

142. Peter Reiss, MD

143. Peter Wiessner

144. Petros Isaakidis, MD, PhD

145. Praphan Phanuphak, MD, PhD

146. Raph Hamers, MD, PhD

147. Raquel Ramos, PhD, MSN, MBA, FNP-BC

148. Regina LaRocque, MD, MPH

149. Renslow Sherer, MD

150. Ricardo Rivero, MD, MPH

151. Richard Murphy, MD

152. Roger P. Clark, DO

153. Rosalind Coleman MD, MPH

154. Rouguy Balde,  MD, MPH

155. Ryan O’Connell, MS, CHES

156. Salim Abdool Karim, MBChB, PhD, DSc

157. Sara Yeatman, PhD

158. Scott Dryden-Peterson, MD

159. Shahin Lockman, MD

160. Sharon Hillier, PhD

161. Sheila Davis, DNP, ANP-BC, FAAN

162. Sheldon Fields, PhD, RN, FAAN

163. Simeon Kimmel, MD, MA

164. Sinead Delany-Moretlwe, PhD

165. Steffanie Sabbaj, PhD

166. Susan L. Gaston, MSN, RN

167. Susan Michaels-Strasser, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN

168. Tamara Hardoby, MPH

169. Tobias Rinke de Wit, PhD

170. Tom Ellman, MD

171. Tomas Maira-Litran, PhD

172. Tomiko Stein, MD, MPH

173. Tonia Poteat, PhD, MPH, PA-C

174. Tooba Imtiaz, MPH

175. Tracey Wilson, PhD

176. Veronica Njie-Carr, PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, FWACN

177. Virginia Lipke, RN, MHA, ACRN, CIC

178. William Towner, MD

179. AIDS-Free World

180. AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA)

181. American Sexual Health Association

182. Association of Nurses in AIDS Care

183. AVAC

184. Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network

185. Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS

186. HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA)

187. Health GAP (Global Access Project)

188. India HIV Alliance

189. International Civil Society Support

190. Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development (ICAD)

191. International HIV/AIDS Alliance

192. International Association of Providers of AIDS Care

193. New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

194. Pan African Positive Women's Coalition-Zimbabwe

195. Réseau Accès aux Médicaments Essentiels (RAME)

196. Salamander Trust

197. Tendo's World (Arts in Health)

198. The Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre

199. Treasureland Health Builders Initiative

200. UBtheCURE LLC

201. The Well Project

202. West and Central Regional HIV Research and Training Reference Center Hospital, Fann University Teaching Hospital – Dakar, Senegal

 

(additional signatories below)