A former top federal health official who served during President Trump’s first term warned that the drastic cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) could have “devastating and illogical” impacts on combatting the HIV epidemic.
Brett Giroir, who served as Assistant Secretary for Health, wrote in a post on LinkedIn that making progress on the HIV epidemic in the U.S. was one of his first goals when he assumed his new role in Trump’s first administration.
“During my first week in office, I set an HHS goal to reduce new HIV infections in America by 50 [percent]. We had once-daily medicines that make the HIV virus undetectable, and when the HIV virus is undetectable, it is untransmittable by sex,” wrote Giroir. “But the real key was identifying HIV infected people early and getting them into care – and we could surely do that.”
As Giroir recounted, he told Trump in an Oval Office meeting that the U.S. had the capability to essentially “end HIV in America,” to which Trump replied, “Can we really do that?”
Giroir was a designated survivor during the 2019 State of the Union address and said he was “glued to the broadcast” when Trump announced the “Ending HIV Epidemic” (EHE) initiative. Lauding the achievements of the initiative — such as a 21 percent reduction in new HIV cases — Giroir called it the “legacy of Trump ’45.”
“But that legacy is now threatened by changes currently proposed or already implemented, including eliminating the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV Policy (which I proudly created) that leads the EHE effort; eliminating 150 staff in the Office of HIV prevention at CDC; reassigning key leaders in HIV to other programs; and the elimination of about $750 million in HIV targeted NIH grants,” wrote Giroir.
Advocates and stakeholders raised the alarm when several branches of key federal HIV offices were effectively eliminated by HHS layoffs. Some have characterized the move to be in stark contrast to what Trump set out to do in his first term.
Giroir in his post on Wednesday expressed further concerns as leaked budget proposals from HHS suggest zero funding for the EHE initiative and cuts to the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program.
“The impact of these cuts would be devastating and illogical — reversing all the gains we have made and destroying what is a legacy of courage and expert implementation by Trump ’45,” wrote Giroir. “Trump ’47 should not allow Trump ’45’s massive public health achievement to be cancelled — especially when that legacy will be remembered in history books as the beginning of the end of HIV/AIDS in America.