A federal judge’s March 16 ruling temporarily blocking Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine advisory overhaul offered a rare win for public health advocates — but it arrived against a backdrop of sustained institutional erosion. Before the court ruling, a confidential ACIP report proposed additional tracking and study of Covid vaccine injuries, while vaccine advisory committees canceled and rescheduled meetings amid internal disarray. Despite it all, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Americans still broadly support vaccines, with support virtually unchanged since 2020. Beyond vaccines, NIH grant awards are lagging far behind historical averages, the US Preventive Services Task Force has not met in over a year, and CDC leadership has seen abrupt departures. Research budgets for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and mental health have been gutted. Globally, the dismantling of USAID continues to reverberate, as public health providers around the world scramble to fill gaps left by the abrupt withdrawal of the world’s largest health donor, while the US-led war with Iran is disrupting healthcare supply chains and destroying critical health facilities.
Resources
Advocacy and Mobilization
- Alliance members BCG, CUGH (here and here), DNDi, FHI 360 (here and here), For Our Health (here and here), Friends of the Global Fight (here and here), GAIA (here and here), Gavi (here and here), Gilead Sciences, Global Health Corps (here and here), Global Health Council (here and here), Global Health Technologies Coalition (here and here), IDEO.org (here and here), inSupply Health, Maya Health Alliance | Wuqu’ Kawoq, MedShare, Nexleaf Analytics (here and here), North Carolina Global Health Alliance (here and here), PATH (here and here), Pathfinder (here and here), Population Services International (here and here), Public Health Institute, ReSurge International, Sabin Vaccine Institute, Seed Global Health (here and here), Stanford (here and here), UC Berkeley (here and here), UCGHI, UCSF (here and here), UNICEF (here and here), USA for UNFPA, and Vital Strategies (here and here) have spoken with the press or issued statements.
- Find and Contact Your Representatives: U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. Here is a list of key decision makers in Congress, their contact information, as well as sample language to consider.
Navigating the Legal Questions and Resources for Workers
- Humentum offers resources for navigating the foreign assistance pause.
- Connective Impact has launched an open-source resource document in response to the U.S. foreign aid policy shifts.
- Devex has summarized 5 rapid response funds for organizations affected by the US aid freeze.
- Just Security has a Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions.
- Tech Change is sharing a job board and resource curation for those impacted.
- Other job opportunities sites include: Philanthropy News Digest, Idealist.org, WorkforGOOD, FastForward, Reconsidered, The Impact Job, ExecSearches.com, and Foundationlist.org.
- Find a Job I Devex
- Nonprofit Jobs | Work for Good
- The Pivot Playbook
- Find and Fund Defunded Global Health Grants: database of defunded NIH global health research projects seeking support
- Founders Pledge: Nonprofit organization that works to bridge the gap between entrepreneurs and charities making impact in the world
- Fired but Fighting, a Coalition of Fired HHS Employees and Allies
Tracking Impact
- The Impact Metrics Dashboard (Boston University) visualizes the human impact of funding changes for aid and support organizations. The site has an impact tracker for PEPFAR, tuberculosis (TB), and Medicaid and is looking for additional collaborators. Read more.
- GHTC tracks how US investments in global health R&D are paying economic and health dividends in each state. (Learn more)
- Also see Center for Global Development I How Many Lives Does US Foreign Aid Save?
- KFF has a new series of fact sheets on the status of U.S. global health aid cuts, from maternal and child health to TB and malaria, and fact sheets on global health program impact.
- KFF also has an overview of President Trump’s executive actions on global health and a timeline of events that provides a detailed overview of actions (and counter-actions) related to the administration’s efforts to freeze all U.S. foreign aid and dissolve USAID.
- Grant Watch’s Weekly Terminated NIH Grants Report presents an overview of recent trends in NIH grant terminations, reinstatements, new grant initiations, and continuations.
- An overview of the last 30 days of what has happened to public health and a running list of actions by the Trump administration to undermine public health. [Jessica Knurick]
- Emory Rollins Public Health has shared data showing the impact of public health cuts.
- Devex Court Watch: The latest on the USAID docket
- Devex ‘The Trump Effect’, highlighting the latest news, in-depth analysis, and exclusive insights on how the Trump administration’s policies are reshaping global development.
- Gates Foundation I Health Aid Saves Lives. Don’t Cut It, provides an aggregation of US aid cut impacts
- ProPublica I Gutted: How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies
- Verified and Vetted Science Accounts to Start Following for Public Health Accuracy [Cate Russel]
- State of Disunion: The Impact of Us Funding Cuts on Global Health R&D
- NEJM I Health and Medical Research Funding in a Divided America — How to Increase Support
- STAT+ | Tracking RFK Jr.’s Promises to Remake Health in America
- KFF: U.S. Global Health Country-Level Funding Tracker
- Health Security Policy Academy: U.S. Global Health Spending Watch
- The State Department Is Asking the World for New Global Health Ideas [Jirair Ratevosian]
Sources
March 19, 2026
- Wall Street Journal | HHS Weighs Replacing CDC Vaccine Advisers
- MS Now | Closed Clinics, Canceled Care: New Data Shows Effects of One Big Beautiful Bill’s Attack on Planned Parenthood
March 18, 2026
March 17, 2026
- STAT+ | NIH Will Spend Its Full Budget This Year, Agency Director Promises House Appropriators
- STAT+ | NIH Grant Awards Are Again Lagging Far Behind Historical Averages, Analysis Shows
- Devex | US African Development Foundation Wins Case against Trump Admin
March 16, 2026
- Jessica Malaty Rivera Substack | A Massive Win for Public Health: AAP v. RFK Jr.
- Washington Post | Federal Judge Blocks RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Policy Overhaul for Now
March 15, 2026
March 13, 2026
- STAT+ | White House Says It’s ‘Done’ with Vaccines. MAHA Begs to Differ
- Wall Street Journal | White House Puts RFK Jr.’s HHS on Tighter Leash After MAHA Setbacks
- Vox | The US Slashed Research for Cancer, Alzheimer’s, Mental Health — And Nearly Everything Else
March 12, 2026
March 11, 2026
- Washington Post | RFK Jr.’s Advisers Had a Plan to Target COVID Shots. Then It Fell Apart.
- Reuters | US Vaccine Advisers Drop Plan to Question mRNA COVID Shots
March 9, 2026
- Partnership for Public Service | The Unraveling of Public Science
- HBO | USAID: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
- Devex | US Launches $4.5B Platform Inviting NGO Support for Bilateral Health Deals
March 6, 2026
- STAT | Vinay Prasad, Key Makary Ally and a Focus of Controversy at the FDA, Is Leaving the Agency
- KFF Health News | The People — And Research — Lost in the NIH Exodus
- MedPage Today | Tylenol Orders Down, Leucovorin Scripts Up After Trump’s Unproven Claims
March 5, 2026
- Annenberg Public Policy Center | Stark Divide: Americans More Confident in Career Scientists at U.S. Health Agencies Than Leaders
- STAT+ | More than 50 Medical Schools Will Expand Nutrition Education in Agreement with RFK Jr.
March 4, 2026
- New York Times | How Kennedy Is Trying to Revamp Medical School
- Devex Pro | Inside the USAID Closeout Mess
March 3, 2026
- Washington Post | The CDC Is in Chaos. But Here’s Where It’s Devastating.
- Bloomberg Law | Trump Administration Funding Delays Worry NIH Grant Recipients
- CNN | The Task Force That Shapes Americans’ Preventive Care Has Not Met in a Year. Doctors Now Worry It’s Being ‘Abandoned’ by HHS
March 2, 2026
- New York Times | Meeting on U.S. Measles Status Is Delayed Until November
- The Hill | Acting CDC Director Bhattacharya Urges Measles Vaccines
February 28, 2026
February 27, 2026
- Nature | White House Stalls Release of Approved US Science Budgets
- STAT | Kennedy Announces New Vaccine Advisory Committee Members after Meeting Rescheduled
February 26, 2026
February 25, 2026
February 24, 2026
- Reuters | US CDC Vaccine Panel to Meet in March after February Session Scrapped
- Reuters | Democratic State AGs Announce Lawsuit against Trump Administration over US Vaccine Policy
- Annals of Internal Medicine | The Current Threat to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and Why It Matters
February 23, 2026
- STAT | Ralph Abraham, No. 2 Official at CDC, Abruptly Steps Down
- MedPage Today | RFK Jr. May Eliminate the USPSTF, Original Task Force Members Warn
- Foreign Policy | Little Clarity on Legality of Trump’s Foreign Aid Shutdown One Year After
February 22, 2026
- The Atlantic | The Trump Administration Is Ending Aid That It Says Saves Lives
- The Hill | Bhattacharya’s Growing Power in Trump’s HHS Worries Health Experts
February 20, 2026
- Washington Post | Lawsuit Contests RFK Jr.’s New Vaccine Guidance for Children
- Science | NIH Research Grant Funding Rates Plummeted in 2025
February 19, 2026
- Washington Post | After Leaving WHO, Trump Officials Propose More Expensive Replacement to Duplicate It
- MedPage Today | 16 NIH Institutes Have No Permanent Directors
- The Guardian | CDC Vaccine Panel Meeting Postponed Amid RFK Jr Bid to Reshape Policy
- Devex | US State Department Proposes Humanitarian Overhaul
February 18, 2026
- STAT+ | FDA Reverses Course, Agrees to Review Moderna’s Flu Vaccine
- STAT+ | NIH Director Bhattacharya to Lead CDC after O’Neill’s Exit
- AP | FDA Will Drop Two-Study Requirement for New Drug Approvals, Aiming to Speed Access
- Health Policy Watch | What $50 Billion for U.S. Foreign Affairs Changes for Global Health