The ongoing reshaping of US health and aid institutions under the current administration continues to reverberate across global health. A recent Supreme Court ruling allowed the administration to freeze billions in foreign aid, ending the Global Health Council’s challenge and clearing the way for sweeping cuts to programs abroad. Continued firings at HHS, CDC, and NIH (some of which have been temporarily blocked by a federal judge) have upended careers, stalled research, stranded shipments of lifesaving drugs, and driven researchers overseas. Recent confusing and conflicting vaccine guidance from the CDC and FDA has further undermined trust and confidence in vaccination efforts. As federal agencies hollow out, governors are forming new alliances and stopgap efforts to protect public health. See resources and recent headlines below.
Resources
Advocacy and Mobilization
- Alliance members CUGH (here and here), DNDi, FHI 360, For Our Health (here and here), Friends of the Global Fight (here and here), GAIA (here and here), Global Health Corps (here and here), Global Health Council (here and here), Global Health Technologies Coalition (here and here), IDEO.org (here and here), 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), ReSurge International, Seed Global Health (here and here), San Francisco Community Health Center (here and here), Stanford (here and here), UC Berkeley (here and here), UCGHI, UCSF (here and here), UNICEF (here and here), 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
- 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
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]
- NEJM I Health and Medical Research Funding in a Divided America — How to Increase Support
Sources
October 16, 2025
- Axios I Axios-Ipsos poll: Trump, RFK Jr. Lose America’s Trust on Health Care
- KFF Health News I It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Chemtrail? New Conspiracy Theory Takes Wing at Kennedy’s HHS
October 15, 2025
- NBC News I Judge Blocks Trump’s Layoffs During Shutdown, Calling Them Illegal
- STAT I Democratic Governors Form a Public Health Alliance in Rebuke of Trump Administration
- KFF Health News I RFK Jr. Misses Mark in Touting Rural Health Transformation Fund as Historic Infusion of Cash
- Global Health NOW | Stanford: The Danger of ‘America First’ in Global Health
October 12, 2025
October 10, 2025
- STAT+ I HHS Employees to Be Fired as White House Enacts Mass Terminations It Blames on Shutdown
- Devex I Major Foundation Pauses Grants to US, Citing Unclear Policy Changes
October 9, 2025
- Devex I FHI 360, UNICEF: The Downfall of USAID: The Full Story
- STAT+ I Coalition for Health AI Faces Escalating Attacks by Trump Officials, Loss of Founding Member Amazon
- CNN I Trust in Federal Health Leadership Is Failing Under RFK Jr., New Poll Finds
October 7, 2025
- Washington Post I UCSF: Trump Slashed Funding for Universities That Helped Create These Vital Drugs
- Washington Post I Six Surgeons General: It’s Our Duty to Warn the Nation About RFK Jr.
- Axios I Trump Administration Cuts Federal Support for Disabled Americans Facing Homelessness
October 6, 2025
- STAT | UC Berkeley: Opinion | The NIH Ordered Me to Stop My ‘Dangerous’ Gain-of-Function Research. It Isn’t Dangerous at All
- KFF Health News | UCSF: Inside the High-Stakes Battle Over Vaccine Injury Compensation, Autism, & Public Trust
- MedPage Today I There Are Now Two CDCs
- NPR I Psychiatrists Call for RFK Jr. To Be Replaced as Health Secretary
October 3, 2025
October 2, 2025
October 1, 2025
September 30, 2025
- Washington Post I Pfizer: Trump Announces Drug-Pricing Deal With Pfizer, New ‘TrumpRx Website
- Washington Post I Trump’s USAID Pause Stranded Lifesaving Drugs. Children Died Waiting.
- GHTC: The American Brain Drain: How a US Retreat From Research Is Driving Innovators Abroad
- STAT I Low-Income Children Lack Access to COVID Vaccines Because of Approval Delay
September 29, 2025
September 26, 2025
- Washington Post I Supreme Court Allows Trump Officials to Freeze Billions in Foreign Aid
- New York Times I Global Health Council: Supreme Court Allows Trump to Slash Foreign Aid
- Global Health Council: Statement on Supreme Court Decision
September 25, 2025
- STAT I Stanford: Opinion | A $100,000 Fee for H-1B Visas Will Devastate US Health Care
- Devex I How Ex-USAID Staffers Turned Crisis Into Action and Mobilized $110M
- Devex I Early Proponent of USAID-State Merger Says It Has Its Advantages
September 24, 2025
- STAT I Trump’s ‘Tough It Out’ to Pregnant Women Meets Wave of Opposition by Medical Experts
- Devex I Global Health Council: Trump’s ‘America First’ Global Health Plan Sidelines NGOs
September 23, 2025
September 22, 2025
- Inside Medicine | Censorship Returns to the CDC. At Least 22 Webpages Are Down.
- NPR | USDA Cancels Survey Tracking How Many Americans Struggle to Get Enough Food
- STAT | Trump, Questioning Vaccine Safety, Pushes Major Changes to How Kids Get Shots
- STAT | Citing Possible Link to Autism, Trump Urges Limiting Use of Tylenol During Pregnancy
September 20, 2025
September 19, 2025
- Devex I Global Health Council: Trump Administration Releases Long-Awaited Global Health Strategy
- Devex | UNICEF Scrubs Sex Ed Pages Targeted by US Conservative Group
- Devex | House Committee Approves State Department Restructure in Marathon Hearing
September 18, 2025
September 17, 2025
- STAT I Fear and Politics Pervade Kennedy’s CDC, Former Leaders Testify
- STAT I Major Health Insurer Group Says Members Will Continue to Cover Vaccines, a Step That May Ease Anxiety Over Access
September 15, 2025
- MedPage Today I RFK Jr. Appoints 5 New Members to CDC Vaccine Panel, Days Ahead of Meeting
- CalMatters | UC Berkeley: As RFK Pushes MAHA, Federal Cuts Shut Down California Health & Nutrition Programs
September 13, 2025
September 12, 2025
- STAT I UC Davis: Opinion | If RFK Jr. Doesn’t Resign, Physicians Should Join a Limited Strike
- STAT I After Lagging Far Behind, NIH Now Seems on Pace to Spend Its Entire $47 Billion Budget by Sept. 30
- KFF Health News | Under Trump, FDA Seeks To Abandon Expert Reviews of New Drugs
September 10, 2025
September 9, 2025
September 8, 2025
September 5, 2025
- Axios I Trump Breaks from RFK on Vaccines: “Pure and Simple, They Work”
- Devex I US Announces Support for HIV Prevention Game-Changer With Mixed Reactions
September 4, 2025
- Wall Street Journal I Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the CDC and Me
- AP News I Global Health Council: Judge Orders Trump Administration to Release Billions in Foreign Aid Approved by Congress
- Newsweek I Global Health Council: Donald Trump Suffers Major Legal Blow Over Billions in Foreign Aid Cuts
- New York Times I Whistle-Blower Complaints Detail Tension Over Vaccines at N.I.H.
September 3, 2025
- Axios I House GOP Keeps NIH Funding Trump Wanted to Cut
- New York Times I Snubbing Kennedy, States Announce Plans to Coordinate on Vaccines
- MedPage Today I FDA Pulls RFK Jr. Critic Off Its Vaccine Advisory Panel
September 2, 2025
- Devex I Laid-off USAID Workers Struggle to Find Work as New Job Cuts Approach
- Devex I Philanthropic Initiative Launches Long-Term Fund to Replace USAID Stopgap [see also, Founders Pledge resource above]
- Axios I Trump Admin Agrees to Restore Public Health Webpages
September 1, 2025