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    • More than 200 Scientists, Researchers and Clinicians including the co-discoverer of HIV Denounce Trump Administration Policies that Undermine the Global HIV Response

    March 7, 2018
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
     
    Contact: Jessica Bassett, 518-593-7628 , [email protected]

    More than 200 HIV scientists, researchers and clinicians – including Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, a virologist and Nobel Laureate who co-discovered HIV; Linda-Gail Bekker, President of the International AIDS Society; and the HIV Medicine Association – have signed an open letter to U.S. President Donald Trump denouncing the deterioration of evidence-based policymaking during his administration. The letter was released today on the final day of the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Boston, Massachusetts. CROI is the preeminent HIV research meeting in the world and attracts more than 4,000 HIV/AIDS research leaders internationally. The conference has facilitated the presentation of important discoveries in the field and accelerated progress in HIV/AIDS research.
     
    On this last day of the conference, scientists, researchers, and clinicians spoke out against actions taken during the Trump presidency, which has been marked by a dramatic decline of evidence-based policymaking and repeated attempts to slash funding for scientific research.
     
    The full text of the letter and list of signatories follows:
     
    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,
     
    Initial signatories:
     
    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

    For running list of signatories, visit www.healthgap.org/croi

     

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