Resilience and Response: Six Months of Policy Shifts in Global Health | June USG Update

Jun 20, 2025

It’s been six months since dramatic shifts in U.S. policy began disrupting the global health sector. We want to take a moment to recognize our advocacy members for their courageous and essential work educating policymakers and stakeholders about the far-reaching impact of these actions — on our country, our fellow citizens, and the communities we partner with and serve in low-resource settings around the world. Special thanks to the Consortium of Universities in Global Health (CUGH), For Our Health, Friends of the Global Fight, Global Health Council, Global Health Technologies Coalition, North Carolina Global Health Alliance, San Francisco Community Health Center and all our other members actively engaged in advocacy, publicly and behind the scenes.

It’s also been six months since the Alliance began curating timely news and resources to keep members informed, advancing programming that harnesses technology and innovative financing to drive health innovation globally, and creating opportunities for our network to help reimagine the future of global health. Our Annual Meeting earlier this month and April NGO roundtables are examples of this work. Our May USG update highlighted additional disruptions and funding cuts. While this month’s recap is brief, we’ve included an expanded reading list for deeper context. Here are a few key highlights:

Global Health Funding

On June 12, the House of Representatives passed a rescissions package to claw back up to $9.4 billion in previously approved funding for foreign aid and global health—codifying recent cuts and adding new ones. The package includes a $900 million reduction to global health programs. (Devex, NYTimes, GHC)
The State Department’s FY26 budget request proposes slashing global health funding by 62%—from $10 billion to $3.8 billion—including a 30% cut to PEPFAR, a 45% cut to the President’s Malaria Initiative, and eliminating U.S. contributions to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Global Fund. (Science, Devex)
Boston University’s School of Public Health’s ImpactCounter.com estimates that to date, more than 300,00 people, more than 100 people an hour, are dying, as a result of the Trump administration’s cuts to global health assistance. (Impactcounter.com and The Times)
Major UN agencies are bracing for severe impacts as U.S. funding cuts deepen: UNAIDS plans to significantly shrink its global presence and may ultimately shut down by 2026; UNICEF is preparing at least 25% cuts to its core budget; and UNFPA, facing a full elimination of U.S. support and termination of 44 grants, warns that thousands of health clinics delivering vital care for women and babies are at risk of closure. (Devex)

Scientific Research and International Collaboration

On June 16, a federal judge in Boston ordered the NIH to immediately reinstate about 800 canceled grants, ruling the agency’s termination of funding for research on racial health disparities and transgender health was arbitrary, capricious, and discriminatory against racial, sexual, and gender minorities. (Science)
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has drastically increased the number of grant applications it has rejected without funding, adding to a long list of setbacks for medical research that have occurred under the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. (Nature)
Recent staffing cuts at the FDA—impacting about 20% of its workforce—are raising alarms about weakened oversight and potential setbacks for U.S. biomedical leadership. The reductions could also disrupt global “reliance programs” in low- and middle-income countries that depend on FDA regulatory decisions. (GHTC)
The new travel ban imposed by the Trump administration is blocking doctors, scientists, and students from multiple countries from entering the U.S., disrupting global research collaborations and critical medical training. Global health leaders warn the restrictions could weaken efforts to combat diseases worldwide and damage the U.S.’s reputation as a hub for scientific exchange. (NPR)
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reinstated dozens of top scientists and public health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who were abruptly dismissed earlier this year. This restores experts working on topics like pandemic preparedness and global disease surveillance, but only after the resulting disruption harmed U.S. global health leadership and critical partnerships with other countries’ health agencies. (STAT)

Vaccines and Public Health

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of the CDC’s immunization advisory committee, replacing half with new appointees—four of whom have previously questioned vaccines—claiming the shake-up will restore public trust. Meanwhile, the administration has scrapped a $258 million HIV vaccine research program, canceled a federal contract with Moderna for flu and bird flu vaccines, and announced that COVID-19 vaccines will no longer be recommended for pregnant women and healthy children. The moves have alarmed global health experts who warn they could weaken U.S. leadership in vaccine innovation and erode trust. (NYTimes, NYTimes, NYTimes, NPR, STAT)
Nearly 11 million Americans could lose health insurance under the tax bill that has been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives. [STAT]
See this extensive curation and sources below for more on the impact on US public health by Jessica Knurick.

RESOURCES

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 programs, from maternal and child health to TB and malaria.
Grant Watch’s Weekly Terminated NIH Grants Report presents an overview of recent trends in NIH grant terminations, reinstatements, new grant initiations, and continuations.
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.
UNAIDS impact of US funding cuts on the global AIDS response
Devex Court Watch: The latest on the USAID docket

Advocacy and Mobilization

Alliance members CUGH (here and here), DNDi, 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, 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, and UCSF (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.