2026 Geht Es Weiter Mit Der Achterbahn
In this German language podcasts, the hosts reflect on a tumultuous 2025 and look ahead to 2026 with numerous experts, including AVAC Executive Director Mitchell Warren.
December 25, 2025 – Globale Gesundheit
As Marrazzo prepares for helm at IDSA, scientific community praises choice
“It [the hiring of Jeanne Marrazzo] speaks to IDSA’s desire to emphasize science over politics and science over ideology, and that’s what you will get with Jeanne Marrazzo”, said AVAC’s Mitchell Warren.
December 22, 2025 – CIDRAP
When Politics Trumps Science: Why the US isn’t giving South Africa LEN
By shutting South Africa out of its overseas funding for the rollout of the revolutionary six-monthly HIV prevention jab that could potentially end Aids, the Trump administration undercuts its own stated mission for helping other African countries, warns Mitchell Warren, the head of AVAC.
December 18, 2025 – Financial Mail
From Promise to Programs—How to ensure PrEP science is translated into global impact
Diverse choices help meet diverse needs for HIV prevention across the world. Written by AVAC’s John Meade.
December 11, 2025 – Positively Aware
When Politics Trumps Science: Why the US isn’t giving South Africa LEN
By shutting South Africa out of its overseas funding for the roll-out of the revolutionary six-monthly HIV prevention jab which could potentially end Aids, the Trump administration undercuts its own stated mission for helping other African countries, warns Mitchell Warren, the head of an international advocacy organisation, AVAC.
December 11, 2025 – Bhekisisa
The Supreme Court’s Major Cases During the 2025-2026 Term
The Supreme Court will take up Trump-related cases in its new term, as well as cases dealing with gay and transgender issues and campaigns.
December 9, 2025 – The Washington Post
US Retreat Stalls Botswana’s HIV Prevention Outreach
A simple, one-time procedure that sharply lowers HIV risk has long been a quiet success story in Botswana — until US funding cuts halted the community outreach behind it.
December 4, 2025 – Devex
Trump Wants to Make African Countries Share Abortion Data to Get AIDS Funding
An aid agreement template would require countries to share vast amounts of health data, including on abortion, to receive funds to combat HIV and other infectious diseases.
December 1, 2025 – The Intercept
Trump Wants to Make African Countries Share Abortion Data to Get AIDS Funding
An aid agreement template would require countries to share vast amounts of health data, including on abortion, to receive funds to combat HIV and other infectious diseases.
December 1, 2025 – The Intercept
‘People Fell Out of Care’: The impact of Trump’s HIV cuts
The US is not commemorating World AIDS Day this year for the first time in decades. It comes as the Trump administration rolls back funding for HIV prevention and treatment programs in the US and globally. AVAC executive director Mitchell Warren speaks with CNN about the consequences.
December 1, 2025 – CNN
For the First Time Since 1988, the US is Not Officially Commemorating World AIDS Day
“Is this a symbolic act? Yes, it is and it symbolizes something that is actually devastating and chaotic,” said Mitchell Warren, the executive director of AVAC, a global HIV prevention organization based in the US.
December 1, 2025 – NPR
Presidential HIV council warns proposed cuts could reverse decades of progress
Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, discusses the potential impact of the Trump administration’s proposed cuts.
December 1, 2025 – ABC News
World AIDS Day Marks Global Reflection
Mitchell Warren from the Scientific Advisory Board of the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief said, “in the fight against HIV and AIDS, I think one of the things we’re seeing is a resilience and an opportunity, where countries and communities really need to lean in right now.”
December 1, 2025 – eNCA
Lenacapavir Can Transform HIV Prevention—If Countries Support Access
By 2030, nearly 60% of global PrEP demand will be concentrated in historically underserved communities.
December 1, 2025 – Think Global Health
“Miraculous” HIV Drug to be Rolled out After Overcoming Aid Cuts Threat
“We want to drive lenacapavir to price parity with oral PrEP and ideally get it even lower as the market grows,” AVAC executive director Mitchell Warren says.
November 27, 2025 – BMJ
What Africa Lost Under Trump: At least $5 Billion. What It Got In Return: “True Chaos.”
“This administration is clearly making decisions on ideology and politics, not on epidemiologic need in health terms or development need in the larger context,” AVAC executive director Mitchell Warren said.
November 25, 2025 – Veza
The US is Fast-Tracking this Important HIV Drug — For Everyone Except South Africa
Lenacapavir went from US approval to shots in African clinics in just a few months, and the first shipments have already arrived in Eswatini and Zambia. “We have never seen a health technology enter low- and middle-income markets with this speed,” Mitchell Warren from the advocacy organization AVAC told me.
November 21, 2025 – Vox
A ‘Breakthrough’ Drug to Prevent HIV, an ‘Unprecedented’ Rollout
This is somewhat unprecedented, to see an innovation in global health move this fast to low- and middle-income countries,” says Mitchell Warren, the executive director of AVAC. “Obviously very small supplies, really just a down payment, but they’re the first of what we think to be many doses in these two countries and in other countries.”
November 18, 2025 – NPR
Trump HIV Prevention Plan Shuts Out South Africa — The Nation Most Affected
“It is a huge missed opportunity,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, a nonprofit that focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, noting that South Africa is needed to provide a sustainable market for lenacapavir doses and that Gilead has said it could rapidly scale up production if the orders were there.
November 18, 2025 – Washington Post
In Under a Year, Trump Administration has Threatened Decades of Progress in Global Fight against HIV/AIDS
“It is the cruelest irony that we would have our greatest opportunity in the history of the epidemic scientifically, coming at the absolute worst moment, politically and economically,” the executive director of AVAC Mitchell Warren said.
November 13, 2025 – Prism
State Department Plans New Framework to Advance America First Global Health Strategy
“The real test of this new approach from the US is whether the template is truly a starting point for a true negotiation between countries, or whether it is just a requirement from the US that other countries just ‘sign on the bottom line,’” said Mitchell Warren, the executive director of AVAC.
November 7, 2025 – Bloomberg
‘America First’ in Global Health: Oxymoron or opportunity?
“It’s a tragic loss of history,” said Mitchell Warren, the executive director of AVAC. “The US government can be very proud of its partnerships around contraceptive supplies, around reproductive health, and this administration is just basically saying: ‘We’re out.’ That’s one of the most heinous examples of ideology overtaking evidence and strategy.”
November 5, 2025 — Devex
The Monthslong Legal Battle to Save Foreign Aid
The Global Health Council and AVAC, along with similarly situated groups, sued in February, soon after the president declared he would re-evaluate every award, keeping those dollars from beneficiaries abroad.
November 3, 2025 – New York Times
Supreme Court has Expanded Presidential Powers Under Trump. How Far Will it Go?
Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, which sued the Trump administration over the freeze, said the high court’s ruling “potentially implies that the Administration can disregard Congressional power of the purse.”
November 2, 2025 – Washington Post
The Only Thing Standing Between Humanity and the End of HIV
Breakthrough science doesn’t guarantee a breakthrough in public health. That will depend on the choices made now.
October 14, 2025 – Vox
The Six-Monthly Anti-HIV Jab is Coming. But Can South Africa Keep Track of Millions of Users?
“Prevention has always been a numbers game,” says Mitchell Warren, who heads AVAC. “We hand out a million condoms, a million PrEP pills, and assume protection. But people lie about sex and drugs. They tell you what you want to hear.”
October 9, 2025 – Bhekisisa
Meet the AI Chatbot That’s Talking to Young South Africans About Sex, HIV and Self-harm
“There is a great opportunity to design and implement comprehensive programmes that integrate both AI and LEN into prevention efforts — and to learn in real-time what does and doesn’t work,” says AVAC Executive Director Mitchell Warren.
October 2, 2025 – Bhekisisa
Deal to Lower Price of New Drug is ‘Huge Moment of Hope’ in Global HIV Prevention
“We have to be very clear that it’s not a miracle drug, and it doesn’t deliver itself,” Warren says. Key to the success of PrEP (which still only reaches 18% of at-risk people) is “demand amongst people who are potentially at risk of HIV, but are not thinking about HIV.”
October 2, 2025 – Healthbeat
Supreme Court Allows Trump to Slash Foreign Aid
In response to the Supreme Court order, lawyers for one of the challengers, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, said that the ruling allowed the administration to refuse to pay out billions it was required by law to spend.
September 26, 2025 – New York Times
The Supreme Court Just Rewrote the Constitution to Give Trump Terrifying New Powers
Friday’s decision in Department of State v. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition revolves around $4 billion that Congress explicitly appropriated to fund various programs overseas…This executive withholding of an appropriation is called an impoundment, and it is flatly illegal.
September 26, 2025 – Slate Magazine
Twice-yearly HIV Prevention Drug to be Offered at New, Low Cost
In this radio interview, AVAC’s Mitchell Warren describes what needs to happen next to get LEN for PrEP to all who need and want it.
September 25, 2025 – The World
Philanthropies Strike a Promising Deal to Turn Back HIV
The deals come at a time when deep cuts to global health programs are forcing low- and middle-income countries to make tough decisions about how to fund responses to their most urgent health priorities, including malaria, tuberculosis and malnutrition. “Where are those dollars and rands and shillings going to come from to actually procure the product, even if it’s $40 per person per year?”asked AVAC’s Mitchell Warren.
September 24, 2025 – New York Times
New Partnerships Bring Price Parity Between Lenacapavir and Oral PrEP
This is a massive step forward to jumpstart the market.
September 24, 2025 – Devex
Global Health Groups Push to Make Cheap Generic Versions of an HIV Prevention Drug Sold by Gilead
Mitchell Warren, who heads the AVAC advocacy group called the investments “a vitally important step.” At $40, he said in a statement, “programs can begin a planning process for 2027 where the two PrEP options can be made available at the same price, and people who need prevention will be one step closer to having true choice when it comes to the PrEP method that best meets their needs. “This could be a transformational moment in HIV prevention, if political will, coordination, and further investments meet this moment to deliver LEN with speed, scale and equity to all communities and populations who need and want prevention options. Many questions remain, but in this current environment, we need to seize opportunities and good news when we can.”
September 24, 2025 – STAT
Trump asks the Supreme Court to give him total control over the US economy
The next few months could be the most consequential period for US constitutional law since the Roosevelt administration.
September 16, 2025 – Vox
‘HIV Unwrapped’ combines science and style for New York Fashion Week
Molecular structures met ballroom aesthetics and decades of scientific research to create colorful couture at “HIV Unwrapped,” a runway show that made its US debut at New York Fashion Week. The project paired leading HIV scientists with students at Parsons School of Design to create fashion pieces inspired by their research to tell the stories of the people fighting to end the global epidemic.
September 16, 2025 – Gay City News
Watch “24 Hours to Save AIDS Research,” an Online Marathon to Highlight HIV Research Advances
For the Sept. 16 marathon, global HIV experts will unite online to warn about massive federal budget cuts and help the public understand the benefits of HIV research.
September 15, 2025 – POZ
Groups urge Supreme Court to Direct Trump Administration to Spend Billions of Withheld Foreign Aid Funds
Lawyers for groups challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to freeze billions of dollars in foreign-aid funding on Friday afternoon urged the Supreme Court to leave in place a ruling by a federal judge in Washington, DC, that requires the government to commit to spending $4 billion in funds by Sept. 30.
September 12, 2025 – SCOTUSblog
Chief Justice Roberts Lets Trump Block Foreign Aid for Now
Acting on his own, the chief justice issued an “administrative stay” pausing a trial judge’s ruling while the full court considers the matter.
September 9, 2025 – New York Times
Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court for Emergency Order to Keep Billions of Dollars in Foreign Aid Frozen
The crux of the legal fight is over nearly $5 billion in congressionally approved aid that President Donald Trump last month said he would not spend, invoking disputed authority that was last used by a president roughly 50 years ago.
September 8, 2025 – PBS
Trump Administration to Help Share New HIV Drug with Impacted Nations
Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, said that any refusal to work with South Africa would be “shortsighted, epidemiologically and politically,” and that it would undermine the Trump administration’s efforts to build a market for Lenacapavir.
September 4, 2025 – Washington Post
Why the Medical Community is Thrilled by US Support for a ‘Breakthrough’ HIV Drug
“[This announcement about lenacapavir] is a really important statement that PEPFAR and the US government are back in the PrEP business. [It’s] a step forward from where we’ve been in a fairly paralytic state for the last seven months, and I hope that this breaks the logjam and at least can get prevention back on the agenda,” says Mitchell Warren, the executive director of AVAC, an HIV prevention organization that works globally.
September 4, 2025 – NPR
CVS Health Will Not Cover Twice-Yearly HIV PrEP Yeztugo for Now
Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS nonprofit AVAC, called CVH Health’s decision “a grave disappointment and frankly a missed opportunity.” He also told Reuters that “it does reflect a price that is too high and a U.S. pharmaceutical pricing structure that is frankly not sustainable.”
September 4, 2025 – POZ
Twists and Turns in the Race to be South Africa’s First Widely Used HIV Prevention Injection
The health department has plans to roll out lenacapavir in a select group of public sector clinics by April 2026. Meanwhile, little progress has been made towards rolling out a two-monthly prevention injection, despite the four-year head start this product had on lenacapavir.
September 2, 2025 – Spotlight
White House Goes After More Foreign Aid Cuts
This is not about foreign assistance or about HIV and AIDS or any aspect of global health. This is fundamentally about who controls the federal budget.
August 29, 2025 – NPR
Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Allow Freeze on Foreign Aid
The AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council, both nonprofit groups, challenged the freeze as an unconstitutional infringement on Congress’s power of the purse.
August 27, 2025 – New York Times
South Africa Plans Anti-HIV Jab Roll-out at 300+ Clinics by April. By 2027 the Government will be Buying Generics
AVAC says South Africa will be the world’s top LEN market, after which Zambia, Uganda and Nigeria will follow. “But it’s important to remember generic manufacturers aren’t charities, they have profit margins,” says executive director, Mitchell Warren.
August 27, 2025 – Bhekisisa
Trump Administration asks US Supreme Court to Halt Foreign Aid Payments
Two nonprofit groups that receive federal funding, AVAC and Journalism Development Network, brought litigation alleging Trump’s funding freeze was unlawful.
August 26, 2025 – Reuters
Justice Department asks Supreme Court to allow Trump to withhold foreign aid
“Time and again, this administration has shown their disdain for foreign assistance and a disregard for people’s lives in the United States and around the world. But even more broadly and dangerously, this administration’s actions further erodes Congress’s role and responsibility as an equal branch of government,” the coalition’s executive director, Mitchell Warren, said in a statement. “The question being put to SCOTUS is whether they will be complicit in further eroding the constitutional commitment to checks and balance.”
August 26, 2025 – Politico
For Now, CVS Declines to Cover Gilead’s Long-acting HIV PrEP Treatment Yeztugo
Mitchell Warren, executive director of the nonprofit group AVAC, told Reuters that CVS’s decision is “a grave disappointment and frankly a missed opportunity,” while admitting that it “does reflect a price that is too high and a US pharmaceutical pricing structure that is frankly not sustainable.”
August 21, 2025 – FiercePharma
CVS Holds Off Adding Gilead’s New HIV Prevention Shot to Drug Coverage Lists
The decision by CVS is “a grave disappointment and frankly a missed opportunity,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS nonprofit AVAC. “It does reflect a price that is too high and a US pharmaceutical pricing structure that is frankly not sustainable.”
August 21, 2025 – Reuters
US Non-profits Vow to Fight on After Court Rules They Can’t Challenge Trump Aid Freeze
AVAC Executive Director Mitchell Warren said in a statement that the court ruling “hands the administration another victory in their intentional effort to destroy decades of progress in global development, diplomacy, public health and human rights”.
August 18, 2025 – Health Policy Watch
Foreign Aid Groups Continue Their Fight Against the Trump Administration — In Court
“We believe when the full court reviews this, they will find on our side that we do have standing,” AVAC Executive Director Mitchell Warren said. “And that indeed the president and the administration are wrong and that they are not allowed to ignore congressional power of the purse, which is what the Constitution itself says.”
August 18, 2025 – NOTUS
US Appeals Court Backs Trump in Fight Over Foreign Aid Freeze
Lauren Bateman, the lead attorney representing several of the organizations, said that her team will be pushing the case forward by seeking “further review from the court,” while AVAC, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said it was “moving swiftly” to petition the full 15-judge DC Circuit Court for review.
August 14, 2025 — Devex
‘Days to Destroy, Years to Rebuild’: How a Foreign Aid Freeze Sparked a Global Health and Justice Battle
“It takes time to build up programs, but it is taking days to destroy them, and it will take more time to re-build, no matter who funds these efforts,” AVAC Executive Director Mitchell Warren said. “USAID has made America stronger, safer, and more prosperous for decades. It’s no time to throw that away.”
August 14, 2025 – Heapnews
President Trump Can Continue to Withhold Billions in Foreign Aid, Court Rules
In a statement, Mitchell Warren, the executive director of AVAC – one of the aid groups in the lawsuit challenging the freeze – condemned the ruling.
August 13, 2025 – NPR
Lack of Lenacapavir PrEP Access Concerns HIV Advocates
Access is the central tenet to the success of lenacapavir as a form of PrEP, according to Jeremiah Johnson, the executive director of PrEP4All and Mitchell Warren, the executive director of AVAC.
August 7, 2025 – Managed Healthcare Executive
New Strategies for HIV Prevention in a Shifting Funding Landscape
In this Q&A, Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AVAC, discusses the most pressing global HIV prevention priorities, the promise of long-acting PrEP, and the need for urgent, equity-focused investment, especially amid uncertain funding landscapes.
August 7, 2025 – touchINFECTIOUS DISEASES
Deep Dive: The unraveling of USAID
Over the last six months, here’s how the world’s largest aid donor was torn apart.
August 4, 2025 – Devex
The Funding Scramble: Countries desperately seek HIV finance solutions
How will countries fund and sustain their national HIV responses moving forward? This was a central question IAS 2025. Sweeping funding cuts from the US have wreaked havoc on many countries’ national HIV responses—especially for those who were largely dependent on donor funding.
July 30, 2025 – aidsmap
The Thing About Conferences is the Connections You Make — And What You Do With Them
Connections lead to insight, access to information that is crucial for meaningful reporting — and a willingness to trust you. It makes all the difference to the type of stories you produce: rather than summarising conference sessions, you’re able to analyse them, take things further.
July 30, 2025 – Bhekisisa
Congress Restores $400M for Global AIDS Program PEPFAR, but Its Future Remains in Doubt
“If you can’t do prevention, if you can’t focus on the most marginalized populations, you can’t actually have a robust evidence-based AIDS response,” Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC.
July 25 2025 — POZ
Protecting the Mission of PEPFAR
A proposed new bill in Congress would trump restrictions, making PrEP and key populations a legal mandate of US global HIV assistance.
July 25, 2025 – Positively Aware
IAS2025: Findings give hope for monthly HIV prevention pill
Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AVAC, told Spotlight a monthly pill for prevention will not replace but add to the existing basket of HIV prevention options.
July 25, 2025 – Spotlight
Rethinking the War on AIDS
A meeting of the International AIDS Society… has provided an opportunity to discuss where to go from here. The reluctant consensus, captured by Mitchell Warren, co-chair of the Global HIV Prevention Coalition and a member of PEPFAR’s scientific advisory board, was that after an earthquake of this magnitude you do not try to re-erect the building that has fallen down. Rather, you build a different one.
July 24, 2025 — The Economist
Why ‘Integration’ has Become a ‘Dirty Word’ in HIV Programming
In light of international aid cuts and ideological reform, there are concerns that people at high risk of contracting HIV will be forced into overcrowded public health systems and may face stigma.
July 24, 2025 — Devex
Does Six-Monthly PrEP have a Future Following the Collapse of Global HIV Funding?
According to Mitchell Warren of advocacy organisation AVAC, generic cabotegravir (injections every two months) might arrive in 2027, alongside generic lenacapavir (injections every six months).
July 23, 2025 – aidsmap
Small Win for Activists, but South Africa’s HIV Projects Won’t Get Reopened
The $400-million that the United States Congress removed from a list of programmes from which the Trump administration will now take back previously approved but unspent funds doesn’t mean that the cuts to global HIV and TB programmes in February are now reversed.
July 23, 2025 – Bhekisisa
PEPFAR’s Been Saved—For Now. What’s Next?
Global HIV aid was saved from rescission, but the same tactic that defunded public broadcasting can be used again to cut public health, says AVAC’s Annette Gaudino.
July 22, 2025 – Postively Aware
We Are Fumbling the Fight Against AIDS
“[Trump’s] own ambition from 2019 is being undercut by his actions in 2025,” Warren said. “It’s the cruelest of ironies.”
July 22, 2025 — The Bulwark
The US Cuts Challenge African Funders and Governments to Provide New Models of PrEP Access
Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AVAC, said that a previous campaign aim of AVAC had been to “make PrEP famous”. But “perhaps PrEP has never reached its true potential because it’s been too complicated, being built on a treatment model.” He summed up the session by saying that the aim should now be to “make PrEP simple.”
July 22, 2025 — aidsmap
An HIV Conference in Mourning
According to the executive director of AVAC, Mitchell Warren, HIV has had the largest number of terminated grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). And it could get worse, Warren warned: “Over a third of funding for HIV cure research could disappear if the budget [proposed by the President for the next fiscal year] goes forward.”
July 17, 2025 — TheBodyPro
The PEPFAR Programme Keeps Millions with HIV Alive – A New Push Seeks to Save it from Trump’s Aid Cuts
The US Senate votes to keep money for the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief from a package of more than $9 billion in cuts going through Congress.
July 17, 2025 — Independent
Senate Blocks $400M Cut to PEPFAR, But It’s a Shell of its Former Self
The US Senate removed a proposed $400 million funding cut to the country’s flagship HIV/AIDS program from President Trump’s multibillion-dollar rescissions package.
July 16, 2025 — Devex
The HIV Prevention Pipeline | IAS 2025
“The context for HIV prevention research is rapidly evolving,” Grace Kumwenda, regional program manager at AVAC in Malawi, said during the session. “We are facing shifting epidemiology. Some populations are seeing lower incidence, and others remain quite underserved. At the same time, how do we design and prioritize research?”
July 15, 2025 — Managed Healthcare Executive
South Africa Gets R520 million to Buy the Twice-a-Year Anti-HIV Jab — But There’s a Snag
“While a lot of the choices over the last six months have been made by an American politician [Donald Trump] who doesn’t care about the pandemic or science generally, our choice is to make decisions based on the science that we all now know. Which is that lenacapavir is our most potent opportunity,” said Mitchell Warren.
July 15, 2025 — Bhekisisa
PEPFAR May Escape White House Attempt to Cut its Budget
AIDS program PEPFAR may escape White House attempt to cut its budget.
July 15, 2025 — PBS NewsHour
‘Best of Times, Worst of Times for HIV Prevention,’ Says Mitchell Warren of AVAC
In this excerpt of an interview with Managed Healthcare Executive conducted before the International AIDS Society meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, describes the current state of HIV prevention.
July 14, 2025 — Managed Healthcare Executive
Sexual Health and HIV Care Integration Key to Better Care | IAS 2025
“Since January 20, an agency that has been the leader, not only in HIV, but also in contraception and family planning, doesn’t exist any longer,” Mitchell Warren said. “Hundreds of staff and the remaining programs from that are in the State Department, which is good news that PEPFAR exists and that global health still exists in the US government, but it doesn’t exist in an agency that thinks about people-centered care.”
July 14, 2025 — Managed Healthcare Executive
Global Fund Replenishment, Making Sustainability Arguments and Simplification Are Keys To Hitting Goal of 2M on Lenacapavir PrEP, says Mitchell Warren of AVAC
In this second excerpt from an interview conducted before the International AIDS Society meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAD, a HIV prevention advocacy group, discusses the goal of getting 2 million on lenacapavir preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) over the next couple of years.
July 14, 2025 — Managed Healthcare Executive
How a New Twice-Yearly Drug is Prompting Hopes of Curbing HIV Cases
The FDA has approved a breakthrough preventative treatment for HIV that could change the course of the AIDS epidemic. William Brangham discussed with Mitchell Warren of AVAC.
July 1, 2025 – PBS NewsHour
Justices Uphold Preventative Care Provision in Affordable Care Act
“Preventive services across health care are cost-saving and lifesaving, and I am grateful that the Supreme Court found on the side of evidence, logic, public health and human rights,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of an HIV prevention organization, AVAC.
June 27, 2025 — New York Times
By Maintaining Obamacare Pillar, Supreme Court Hands Win to HIV Advocates
But the court has raised concerns by asserting that the Health and Human Services secretary holds authority over a task force that has mandated insurance coverage for HIV-prevention drugs.
June 27, 2025 — NBC News
‘Death by a Thousand Cuts’
For National HIV Testing Day, advocates and medical professionals tell how federal cutbacks are hitting programs—and people’s lives.
June 27, 2025 — Positively Aware
Promise of Victory Over HIV Fades as US Withdraws Support
A new drug that gives almost complete protection against the virus was to be administered across Africa this year. Now, much of the funding for that effort is gone.
June 25, 2025 — New York Times
The Drug that Could Revolutionize the Fight Against HIV
“At least conceptually, this is one of the most transformational moments in HIV prevention ever,” said Mitchell Warren, the executive director of AVAC, an advocacy group for PrEP and other HIV-prevention interventions.
June 24, 2025 — The New Yorker
‘Miracle’ HIV Drug Lenacapavir Approved Amid US Budget Cut
“Are we going to squander this, probably the greatest opportunity in 44 years of HIV prevention both in the US and globally?” asked Mitchell Warren, executive director of the nonpartisan HIV organization AVAC.
June 24, 2025 — Deutsche Welle
The US Not Has Twice-Yearly PrEP. Can Can We Get It to Those Who Need It?
“The lenacapavir data are thrilling, but it’s the fact that it’s only every six months that begins to get us to a potentially easier, more feasible delivery,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC. “I would argue it’s the best opportunity in 44 years of prevention.”
June 20, 2025 — The BodyPro
Always ‘One Atom Away’: The long, rocky journey to an HIV prevention breakthrough
Developing lenacapavir, the drug newly approved to protect against HIV for six months in one shot, took basic science, sophisticated chemistry, and perseverance.
June 20, 2025 — Science
Trump Aid Cuts Deal a Blow to HIV Prevention in Africa
The number of initiations, or people who have taken at least one dose of the drug, rose in Africa from fewer than 700 in 2016 to more than 6 million by late 2024, according to PrEPWatch, a global tracker. More than 90% of new initiations last year were financed by PEPFAR, using cheap generic versions of the drug.
June 20, 2025 — Reuters
Will long-lasting HIV preventive be a game changer—or a missed opportunity?
“This is the most transformative prevention product we’ve had in 44 years of this epidemic,” Warren says. But he adds that an existing long-lasting form of PrEP offers a cautionary tale. A shot of a compound called cabotegravir offers 2 months of protection, but just 15,000 people around the world get it. Introduced in 2021, cabotegravir initially cost about $240 per year, far too expensive for many countries. Low demand in turn kept production low, forfeiting economies of scale. There is a chance to do better with lenacapavir. “This time we have to think big, focus on delivering impact, simplify delivery, make PrEP famous, and not be afraid to create demand.”
June 18, 2025 — Science
FDA Approves Twice-Yearly Lenacapavir for HIV Prevention
“The approval of lenacapavir is a much-needed boost for HIV prevention, given the strength of the science and the simultaneous disruption in HIV programs globally,” Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, said in a statement. “But US FDA approval is just one in a series of steps needed to ensure that injectable lenacapavir can help reduce the 1.3 million new HIV infections that occur each year. Scientific progress only matters if innovation actually reaches people. Lenacapavir for PrEP is poised to reshape the HIV response, but only if today’s approval is accompanied by bold, strategic, effective and equitable rollout that reaches the populations that need access.”
June 18, 2025 — POZ
FDA approves twice-yearly shot for HIV prevention
“Warren said Gilead should launch lenacapavir PrEP at a price that is comparable to the price of generic FTC/TDF — something that is not expected to happen right away, he said, but could be facilitated by funders purchasing large volumes of the drug from Gilead and multiple generic manufacturers, driving down the price. Scientific progress only matters if innovation actually reaches people,” Warren told Healio.”
June 18, 2025 — Helio
FDA Approves Breakthrough Drug that Reduces Risk of Contracting HIV by 96 Percent
Otherwise known by its generic name lenacapavir (LEN), Yeztugo has been approved after nearly eliminating the spread of HIV among trial patients.
June 18, 2025 — Out Magazine
BREAKING: FDA approves breakthrough drug that reduces risk of contracting HIV by 96 percent
“The approval of LEN is a much-needed boost for HIV prevention, given the strength of the science and the simultaneous disruption in HIV programs globally,” Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, said in a statement. “But US FDA approval is just one in a series of steps needed to ensure that injectable LEN can help reduce the 1.3 million new HIV infections that occur each year.”
June 18, 2025 — The Advocate
Regulators Approve a Twice-Yearly Shot to Prevent HIV Infection
We’re on the precipice of now being able to deliver the greatest prevention option we’ve had in 44 years of this epidemic,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the international HIV prevention organization AVAC. “And it’s as if that opportunity is being snatched out of our hands by the policies of the last five months,” he said.
June 18, 2025 — New York Times
FDA approves powerful HIV drug that nearly eliminated spread in clinical trials
“This is the single best opportunity in 44 years of HIV prevention,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the HIV advocacy nonprofit group AVAC.
June 18, 2025 — NBC News
Congress Should be Ashamed over Helping Trump Cut Foreign Aid, Activists Say
Campaigners say the US government has been withholding funds for orphans and vulnerable children unlawfully—before a vote in Congress has backed Trump’s move.
June 17, 2025 — The Independent
The Future of US Foreign Aid Is Looking Troubled
“In my thirty-plus years, it’s never been harder to sustain any form of hope,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AVAC, one of several organizations suing the administration over its January freeze on foreign aid. “What’s so devastating is that this administration has moved with lightning speed. The courts move relatively slowly and methodically, and Congress has moved not at all.”
June 12, 2025 — NOTUS
He Led George W. Bush’s PEPFAR Program to Stop AIDS. Now He Fears for its Future
These cuts do “exactly the opposite of what this administration says they want to do, which is to get countries to own their AIDS response and own their budget,” Mitchell Warren says.
June 6, 2025 — NPR
A New Type of HIV Vaccine Shows Promise, But Can it Advance without US Funding?
Two trials show proof of concept to deploy broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV, but the US research funding reversal complicates their future.
June 4, 2025 — Positively Aware
Cuts to US Aid Imperil World’s Largest HIV Treatment Program
“HIV/AIDS programs don’t have on-off switches. They take time, and those relationships take time,” says AVAC’s Mitchell Warren. “It’s easy to break something down. It’s hard to build something up.”
June 3, 2025 — Bloomberg
Devastating’: NIH cancels future funding plans for HIV vaccine consortia
“Although researchers in the field acknowledge a vaccine for the AIDS-causing virus remains far off, the new leads have brought a fresh sense of optimism, and many scientists say they demand vigorous follow up. “This sets us back at a pivotal moment,” says Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, a nonprofit that advocates for HIV prevention. The consortia “really have been pioneers in vaccine discovery,” says Warren, who is not involved in their work.”
May 30, 2025 — Science
Gilead Commits to HIV Prevention Rollout for Low-income Countries Despite Funding Uncertainty
“Gilead declined to comment on its manufacturing cost for lenacapavir, whose US price is likely to be on par with current preventive medications at around $25,000 per year…Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS nonprofit AVAC, estimates the eventual annual cost at $100-$120. The lower the price, the more people who could receive it, he said. Warren said PEPFAR could still participate, and others may come forward. The Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation are “actively involved in all of these conversations as is the Elton John AIDS Foundation.”
May 30, 2025 — Reuters
Trump Administration Ends Program Critical to Search for an H.I.V. Vaccine
“It’s just inconceivable how shortsighted this is,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the H.I.V. prevention organization AVAC. “But ending the research programs now means that in a few years, there will be no new candidates in trials.”
May 30, 2025 — The New York Times
The US Legacy in HIV is Unraveling
If the administration is intent on unraveling America’s legacy in global health, Congress must veto that agenda. It must preserve PEPFAR’s integrity and the US’s commitment to the goal of ending HIV as a public health threat.
May 29, 2025 — Devex
The US funded 40% of South Africa’s data capturers. Why losing them is so dangerous
“Pepfar’s systems weren’t perfect, but they were consistent and used to guide real-time decisions,” said Mitchell Warren. “Now, we’re flying blind. So here’s the choice: guess, spend money and hope. Or use data to drive smart, targeted decisions.”
May 23, 2025 — Bhekisisa
HIV Vaccine Awareness Day 2025
POZ shared AVAC messaging, tools, and details for this HVAD2025.
May 16, 2025 — POZ
Biopharma Targets an HIV Cure as NIH Funding Cuts Threaten To Derail Progress
“I can only predict that [the NIH cuts are] because of the population that it affects,” John Meade, senior program manager for Policy at the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), told BioSpace. “HIV research has always been based on the marginalized and the most vulnerable populations, and cutting those will only hurt those populations, which I think is the goal of this administration.”
May 12, 2025 — BioSpace
Trump Has Blown a Massive Hole in Global Health Funding—And No One Can Fill It
They are mostly coming up empty. “X billion disappeared in global health, and we can’t replace it,” says Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, a nonprofit focusing on HIV prevention and a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the US government over its withdrawal of health aid.
April 8, 2025 — Science
The 6-monthly Anti-HIV Jab Could End AIDS in South Africa by 2032
A modelling study released in March gives a clue at which price the six-monthly anti-HIV jab, lenacapavir, would be worth the health department’s while.
April 8, 2025 — Bhekisisa
US HIV Researchers Reel at Widespread Cancellations to Domestic Funding
The termination of federal money for the Whitman-Walker research center is a shocking blow on its own. But, in fact, it is just one of an ever-growing list of HIV-related research grants that the Trump 2.0 administration has been cancelling under the Health and Human Services (HHS) leadership of non-doctor, AIDS denialist, and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
April 7, 2025 — TheBody
Viewpoint: Testing the Boundaries of Presidential Powers in Health
The second Trump administration has been characterized by an unprecedented assertion of presidential control over federal spending—including withholding of disbursements of appropriated funds for public health, foreign aid, or, as in the case of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), both.
April 7, 2025 — JAMA
HIV Prevention was Making Great Strides. Then Trump’s Budget Axe Fell
Out: programs to identify and reach at-risk groups. Suspended: funding for clinical trial networks
April 7, 2025 — STAT
Aid Organizations Are Getting Back Pay from the Trump Administration, But Aren’t Sure What’s Next
The Trump administration is still processing payments owed to organizations for work done between January 20 and February 13, according to court documents.
April 4, 2025 — NOTUS
US Funding Cuts Set Back HIV Research by Decades
“We know from COVID-19 that science moves at the speed of trust,” says Warren. In other words, research and development work can only move forward as much as communities trust in the researchers, scientists and investigators running the projects.
April 4, 2025 — Health-e News
Deep Cuts to HIV Research Could Halt Decades of Progress, Scientists Say
The Trump administration has shut down government offices devoted to HIV and ended hundreds of millions of dollars in research aimed at preventing infections in high-risk groups.
April 4, 2025 — Washington Post
Rollout of ‘miracle’ HIV prevention drug is threatened by Trump cuts to global AIDS relief program
The Trump administration’s enormous cuts to a global AIDS relief program threaten to upend the planned rollout of a groundbreaking HIV prevention drug that was expected to save countless lives.
April 1, 2025 — STAT
Fruits of Decades of AIDS Vaccine Research Imperiled by Trump’s Withdrawal of US Funding
After decades of failed attempts, scientists were optimistic that a new generation of HIV vaccine candidates would finally succeed — changing the course of a pandemic that’s claimed more than 42 million lives since 1981. But that hope is now dimming as the US moves to pull vital funding.
March 27, 2025 — Bloomberg
South Africa Research Grants Potentially On Hold, Says Leaked Memo
A leaked memo circulating among South African researchers, that is addressed to grant management staff of the US government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH), dated March 25, instructs officers to hold “all [research] awards to entities located in South Africa”.
March 27, 2025 — Bhekisisa
The Role of PEPFAR in HIV Prevention: Protecting Black and Brown communities against foreign aid cuts
A cynical ideology that dismantles PEPFAR will squander one of the most effective global health investments ever made—one that has made all of us healthier and safer, no matter where we live.
March 26, 2025 — CBC Health Braintrust The Broadsheet
Here’s the Georgia HIV Prevention Work at Risk from Looming CDC Funding Cuts
Potential cuts to HIV work at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have local and national experts worried that recent progress in cutting HIV rates will come to a halt.
March 25, 2025 — Healthbeat Atlanta
HHS Nixes Only Program Focused On Treating, Preventing Youth HIV
HHS terminated the Adolescent Trials Network, the only network that focuses on adolescents and young people in HIV prevention, care and treatment.
March 24, 2025 — Inside Health Policy
US to Finish $671 Million in Foreign Aid Payments Nearly Two Weeks After Court Deadline
The Trump administration expects to finish paying about $US671 million owed for completed work to foreign aid organisations suing it over its sweeping shutdown of most US foreign aid work by Friday, nearly two weeks after a court-ordered deadline, according to a court filing.
March 21, 2025 — Reuters
A Jab that Could Protect Against HIV For a Year at a Time, and Other Highlights from Major Conference
A single shot of a new formulation of the antiretroviral drug lenacapavir could potentially provide protection against HIV infection for as long as a year.
March 20, 2025 — Spotlight (South Africa)
Trump Administration Considering Plan to Eliminate HIV Prevention Program
Trump administration officials are considering a plan to eliminate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention division tasked with HIV prevention and potentially moving its responsibilities to another department within the Department of Health and Human Services.
March 20, 2025 — The Well News
Trump Administration Considers Scaling Back HIV Efforts at CDC
“We’ve got to snap out of any paralysis or any disbelief or shock, and we’ve really got to look at what needs to be built in the future,” Mr. Warren said. “One of the biggest tragedies in all of this would be if we let this narrative be written entirely by people who don’t understand science or health care or research or foreign assistance.”
March 19, 2025 — The New York Times
What will happen if Trump cuts the US’ Global Fund contributions? We work it out
“At least at this point,” Mitchell Warren, the executive director of the New York-based advocacy organisation, AVAC, explains, “it appears that some aspects of Pepfar and the funding for Global Fund, will continue.But the president is certainly exercising discretion about what to fund, whether it’s legal or not. And Congress has seemingly abdicated its powers to be part of the process. So, things could still change.”
March 18, 2025 — News24 (SA)
Trump Administration Weighing Major Cuts to Funding for Domestic HIV Prevention
The Health and Human Services Department is weighing plans to drastically cut the federal government’s funding for domestic HIV prevention, according to people familiar with the matter.
March 18, 2025 — Wall Street Journal
A frightening glimpse into the future of HIV research under Trump
This year there were empty seats at the prestigious CROI, in San Francisco, where groundbreaking HIV research gets presented.
March 17, 2025 — Bhekisisa
Hundreds of Thousands Will Die
The writer, surgeon, and former USAID senior official Atul Gawande on the Trump Administration’s decimation of foreign aid and the consequences around the world.
March 15, 2025 — The New Yorker
Trump Overstepped his Constitutional Authority in Freezing Congress’ Funding for USAID, Judge Says
President Donald Trump overstepped his constitutional authority in freezing almost all spending on US humanitarian and development work abroad, a federal judge ruled, saying the administration could no longer simply sit on the tens of billions of dollars that Congress has appropriated for foreign aid.
March 11, 2025 — Associated Press
Judge Reprimands Trump Admin for Power Play on USAID
A US district judge reprimanded the Trump administration on Monday for withholding foreign aid, saying its actions likely violated the constitutional separation of powers by unlawfully impounding congressionally approved funds.
March 11, 2025 — Newsweek
USAID ‘Officially’ Gutted, but Administration Overstepped Constitutional Power, Judge Rules
A federal district judge said that the Trump administration’s halt of foreign assistance overstepped the Executive branch’s authority.
March 11, 2025 — Health Policy Watch
Judge Says Trump Must Pay Past Aid Bills But Can Cancel Future Contracts
The ruling also said the State Department and USAID would have to spend $58 million appropriated by Congress at some point.
March 11, 2025 — Washington Post
Judge Orders Trump Admin to Pay USAID Bills – Again
The court orders the Trump administration to pay aid partners billions for past work.
March 11, 2025 — Devex
Trump Avoids Worst-Case Ruling in Lawsuit Over USAID Defunding
A US District Judge has ordered the Trump administration to continue paying billions of dollars to foreign-aid nonprofits through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) while litigation over funding plays out.
March 10, 2025 — Bloomberg
Remaining USAID programs now under State Dept., 5,200 programs canceled
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said 83% of the agency’s programs have been slashed and about 1,000 remain. A federal judge ordered the administration to pay organizations that sued it, including nonprofits such as the AVAC, and for-profits such as Chemonics and DAI, for all work completed before Feb. 13 by Monday as the “first concrete step” toward the release of nearly $2 billion in suspended foreign aid.
March 10, 2025 — Devex
Judge orders USAID payments to some foreign aid groups by Monday
Judge Amir H. Ali ruled that the government must pay the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, the Global Health Council and other plaintiffs the outstanding balances they are owed, calling it a “concrete step” forward in an ongoing lawsuit over the Trump administration’s abrupt pause in foreign aid.
March 6, 2025 — Washington Post
“Lift the Freeze”: HIV/AIDS Advocates Win Supreme Court Victory in Fight over Trump Foreign Aid Cuts
Mitchell Warren and Public Citizen Litigation Group spoke with Amy Goodman in a televised interview about the latest in the foreign aid freeze case and the impact the new administration’s orders are having on global health.
March 6, 2025 — Democracy Now
Trump says ‘male circumcision in Mozambique’ is a ‘scam.’ What’s the program about?
In his joint address to Congress, the President criticized spending for VMMC. Mitchell Warren highlighted the benefits and impacts of VMMC, “Over the last 18 years, governments around eastern and southern Africa, where there are high risks amongst men having vaginal sex, began to work with PEPFAR, the Global Fund and community groups and advocates to begin to scale up access to circumcision.”
March 6, 2025 — NPR
Supreme Court hands USAID partners a win
“The past month of legal maneuvering by the administration has just added to the unconscionable chaos and confusion — in the U.S. and in countries around the world,” said AVAC’s Mitchell Warren.“Today’s SCOTUS decision is just one more example of the legal system stepping up with clarity.”
March 5, 2025 — Devex
Supreme Court upholds a lower court order to force USAID to pay contractors
“Bottom line: There is a long and rocky road ahead for both men at the nation’s highest court, a court that is itself, sharply divided.”
March 5, 2025 — NPR
US Supreme Court Clears Path for District Judge to Rule on Aid Freeze
Summarizing the latest in the AVAC vs. Department of State lawsuit, Kerry Cullinan quotes AVAC’s Mitchell Warren,“These are immensely challenging times for all of us, and it is easy to be paralysed, overwhelmed and depressed. But we’ve all come too far for that to be the new normal. Lives, economies and democracies depend on our collective ability to stand up and fight back.”.
March 5, 2025 — Health Policy Watch
The US Is Withdrawing From Global Health at a Dangerous Time
“Across the proverbial value chain—developing products, approving them, providing guidance, establishing infrastructure for delivery and maintaining surveillance systems to ensure global safety—the US may not be the only actor, but it is a driver in every one of those areas,” Mitchell Warren told Bloomberg.
March 2, 2025 — Bloomberg
USAID cuts could send global health into chaos
The Trump administration’s decision to end almost all foreign aid spending from USAID is poised to plunge global health into chaos.
March 2, 2025 — The Hill
Nearly 15,000 will have died already because of Trump and Musk’s cuts to USAID, advocacy program claims
The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has saved more than 25 million lives since it began in 2003.
March 1, 2025 — The Independent
Head of AIDS advocacy program on suit against Trump administration
ABC News’ Phil Lipof spoke with Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, about the organization’s lawsuit against the Trump administration over the funding freeze.
February 27, 2025 — ABC News
US Terminates Thousands of Life-Saving Health Grants Including For HIV and Malaria
The Trump administration has terminated the contracts of some 10,000 projects receiving US Agency for International Development (USAID) grants – including HIV, malaria, and humanitarian aid projects.
February 27, 2025 — Health Policy Watch
“A Whole New Level of Cruelty”: Health experts decry “devastating” cuts to HIV treatment programs
The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation said the latest cuts will deprive 350,000 people of HIV treatment.
February 28, 2025 — Salon
Trump’s Biggest Power Grab Just Reached the Supreme Court
Trump’s lawyers just revealed their plan to place him in charge of federal spending.
February 27, 2025 — Vox
Nearly 10,000 Awards Cut from USAID, State Department
The cuts came hours before the Trump administration was ordered to pay organizations for past work, which was mandated by a federal judge — once again — on Tuesday.
February 26, 2025 — Devex
Trump Administration Says it Cannot Meet Court Deadline for Foreign Aid Payments
President Donald Trump’s administration said in a court filing late Tuesday night that it “cannot” meet a federal judge’s 11:59 p.m. Wednesday deadline for releasing frozen funds to foreign aid contractors and grant recipients, potentially setting the stage for it to openly disobey the order.
February 26, 2025 — Reuters
Judge Orders USAID to Release Millions of Dollars in Foreign Aid
The order comes two weeks after the judge first demanded a thaw of USAID’s funding freeze.
February 25, 2025 — Devex
Judge Gives Trump Administration Two Days to Release Billions of Dollars in Blocked Foreign Aid
A federal judge on Tuesday gave the Trump administration less than two days to release billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid, saying the administration had given no sign of complying with his nearly two-week-old court order to ease its funding freeze.
February 25, 2025 — Associated Press
‘Preposterous’: Marco Rubio is in ‘brazen defiance’ of federal court order over funding freeze, motion for contempt claims
A pair of nonprofit groups suing the Trump administration over their foreign aid grants being frozen urged a federal judge to hold Marco Rubio and Peter Marocco in civil contempt, accusing the Secretary of State and the Director of the Office of Foreign Assistance of intentionally defying a court order halting the funding freeze.
February 20, 2025 — Law & Crime
Top-Rated Charities are in Jeopardy Amid White House, DOGE Cuts to Foreign Aid
“Foreign assistance programs don’t operate with an on/off switch,” said Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AVAC, which provides HIV prevention resources worldwide.
February 19, 2025 — CNBC
USAID Contracts and Grants Still Being Terminated Despite Court Order
Citing federal and USAID-specific regulations, the Trump administration is moving ahead with cancelling grants and contracts.
February 19, 2025 — Devex
Foreign Aid Groups Want Rubio Held in Contempt over Funding Freeze
The groups and the Trump administration are fighting in court while billions of dollars in foreign aid remain in limbo.
February 19, 2025 — Politico
Trump Team Finds Loophole to Defy Spirit of Court Orders Blocking Spending Freezes
Officials cite other legal authorities—not Mr. Trump’s court-blocked directives—to keep withholding foreign aid and domestic grant money.
February 19, 2025 — The New York Times
Trump Lawyers Argue Court Order Does Not Block Foreign Aid Freeze
A federal judge last week blocked the State Department’s foreign aid pause. In a court filing, Trump administration lawyers argued they can freeze the aid anyway.
February 19, 2025 — The Washington Post
How the Health Department Will Deal with PEPFAR’s Near Collapse (South Africa)
Offering state patients who qualify a six-month supply of ARVs at a time is part of the health department’s contingency plan to ease workload amid staff cuts.
February 19, 2025 — TimesLIVE
As HIV Activists Disrupt PEPFAR Hearing, an Expert Explains the Damage Trump has Already Done to US Global AIDS Fight
AVAC Executive Director Mitchell Warren warns that the domestic fight against the epidemic is in grave danger, too.
February 15, 2025 — Positively Aware
Judge Orders Trump Administration to Temporarily Lift Foreign Aid Freeze
Judge Amir Ali issued the temporary order Thursday in the US in a lawsuit brought by two organizations, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council, representing health organizations receiving US funds for work abroad.
February 14, 2025 — Time
Trump Ordered to Temporarily Lift USAID Freeze and Allow Foreign Aid Funding
Judge challenges administration’s dismantling of US foreign assistance and sets five-day deadline to prove compliance.
February 14, 2025 — The Guardian
Judge Orders Trump Administration to Temporarily Lift Foreign Aid Freeze
Judge Amir Ali issued the temporary order Thursday in the US in a lawsuit brought by two organizations, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council, representing health organizations receiving US funds for work abroad.
February 14, 2025 — Time
New Lawsuit Challenges US Foreign Aid Funding Freeze
A pair of NGOs, whose work includes supporting HIV-related clinical trials and anti-corruption efforts has been halted, is challenging the constitutionality of the Trump administration’s actions.
February 11, 2025 — Devex
Two Nonprofits Sue Over Trump’s Freeze on Foreign Aid
“We are doing this because the actions of the executive branch are an incredible overstepping of power and completely derailing lifesaving work across all of global health,” said Mitchell Warren, the executive director of AVAC. He said the organization had dismissed 40 percent of its staff since the aid freeze was imposed three weeks ago.
February 11, 2025 — New York Times
First Lawsuit Targets Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze
An advocacy group filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Monday seeking to halt the freeze on foreign aid the administration has imposed. Public Citizen argues the freeze on funds appropriated by Congress is unlawful and is endangering lives abroad.
February 11, 2025 — Politico
Freezing of US Aid and its Impact on Global Health Programmes
AVAC Executive Director, Mitchell Warren, speaks with South African television network, eNCA, about the US administration halting foreign aid.
February 10, 2025 — eNCA
PEPFAR Projects are Exempted from Trump’s Ban on Aid for South Africa
“The flurry of actions really provides an unprecedented amount of whiplash, wondering each day what to do, what not to do,” says Warren. “The only true winner in the HIV response is actually the virus itself. The virus loves chaos. The virus loves instability. The virus loves conflict.”
February 10, 2025 — Bhekisisa
With Aid Cutoff, Trump Halts Agency’s Legacy of ‘Acting With Humanity’
A tower of blocks may take hours to build, but “you pull one of those blocks out and it collapses,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, which relied on USAID for 38 percent of its funding.”
February 8, 2025 — New York Times
‘Madness’: Trump freeze on global HIV prevention efforts sparks disbelief, anger
This is not only bad politics in terms of government-to-government relationships, it is bad medicine, it is bad science, and it is dumb,” says Mitchell Warren, who heads AVAC, an HIV prevention advocacy group whose $5 million PEPFAR grant was suspended last week..”
February 7, 2025 — Science
Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze Is Severely Limiting PrEP Drugs For HIV
Even those PEPFAR programs operating must limit distribution of preventive medication, according to apparent State Department guidance.
February 7, 2025 — HuffPost
Trump Aid Freeze Disrupts Global HIV/AIDS Fight
“There are programs all over the continent providing treatment and prevention that are now not delivering what they normally do,” said Mitchell Warren of AVAC, an international nonprofit focused on HIV prevention. “There will be people, beginning this week, who come back into the clinic, or thought they had an appointment to come back to clinic to get more medication, and won’t be able to get it.”
February 3, 2025 — The Hill
Too Little, Too Late: What a PEPFAR waiver can’t do
The waiver is likely too little, and way too late. “Many programmes have started to shut down and have begun with massive layoffs,” says Mitchell Warren of AVAC. “The abrupt freeze has also resulted in trust being broken down. And that doesn’t get undone because of a waiver.”
February 3, 2025 — Bhekisisa
Musk and Trump begin shutting down USAID
Staff at world’s single largest aid donor ordered to stay at home as billionaire claims president’s support for closing agency.
February 3, 2025 — The Telegraph
South Africa’s HIV/AIDS NGOs Await Clarity on Partial Waiver to US AID Freeze
It is unclear who will provide direction to PEPFAR’s implementing partners.
February 3, 2025 — BusinessDay
Weaponising Aid: The cruel ways of #Trump2025
Bhekisisa’s Mia Milan speaks with AVAC’s Executive Director, Mitchell Warren, about the cruel and confusing actions of the new American administration and its potential longterm implications.
January 30, 2025 — Bhekisisa
To Our Philanthropy Heroes
PrEP4All and AVAC ask HIV funders to adapt to urgent threats.
January 26, 2025 — POZ
Is a new HIV prevention plan ambitious enough? And can it survive Trump?
PEPFAR and the Global Fund released a plan to distribute a groundbreaking new HIV prevention tool in the global south, even as some activists question whether they should be trying to reach more people.
January 23, 2025 — Devex
Have We Cured AIDS?
The simple fact is that if global funds for HIV are reduced, we will see a rise in HIV cases and deaths. The global community has accomplished so much, but the fight is not over.
January 22, 2025 — Vox
As PrEP Protections Head to the Supreme Court for Review, What is The Future of the Crucial HIV Prevention Medication Under Trump 2.0?
“PrEP has been a game-changer,” says John Meade, a senior program manager for policy at AVAC, an HIV prevention advocacy group, and a member of PrEP in Black America, a group of HIV experts and advocates devoted to increasing PrEP use among African Americans.
January 12, 2025 — Uncloseted Media
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