Eleven months into the new administration, the global health sector continues to face significant disruption. The heartbreaking toll of USAID’s shutdown is becoming apparent, and, internally, employees of the Department of Health and Human Services are reportedly feeling increasingly strained as they face ideological loyalty checks, internal dissent, layoffs, and a rise in vacated scientific roles. Disruption to foreign-aid channels and the continuation of anti-science legislative efforts are forcing the sector to reassess its operations and examine core public health vulnerabilities.
In better news for global health, the US State Department announced this week that Eswatini and Zambia have each received 500 doses of lenacapavir, Gilead‘s game-changing HIV prevention drug, the initial step toward fulfilling its September investment to reach 2 million people with the medication over the next three years. And local Bay Area startup and former Alliance member, Zipline, just received $150M in investment from the US government to support drone delivery of medicines and supplies.
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), Gavi, 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), 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, 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
- 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]
- 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
Sources
November 20, 2025
November 19, 2025
- KFF Health News | Stanford: A Small Texas Think Tank Cultivated Covid Dissidents. Now They’re Running US Health Policy.
- Washington Post | CDC in Turmoil After Agency Backpedals on Debunking Vaccines-Autism Link
November 18, 2025
- Axios | NIH Cuts Impacted 74,000 Clinical Trial Patients: Study
- STAT+ | Stanford: How RFK Jr., America’s Celebrity Health Secretary, Is Steamrolling Science
- NPR | Gilead: A ‘Breakthrough’ Drug to Prevent HIV, an ‘Unprecedented’ Rollout
November 17, 2025
November 16, 2025
November 15, 2025
November 14, 2025
- STAT | NIH Abruptly Places Outspoken Critic of Trump Administration on Leave
- The 19th | The U.S. Wants Healthier Children. So Why Is It Scaling Back Its Nutrition Programs?
November 13, 2025
November 12, 2025
November 10, 2025
- NOTUS | MAHA’s Gone Viral. Can Science?
- Axios | UC Berkeley | UCSF: Calif. Leaders Propose $23B Plan to Protect Science Research
November 7, 2025
- MedPage Today | CDC Vaccine Panel Workgroups Question Their Fate
- KFF Health News | Wielding Obscure Budget Tools, Trump’s ‘Reaper’ Vought Sows Turmoil in Public Health
November 5, 2025
November 4, 2025
November 3, 2025
October 31, 2025
October 29, 2025
- Reuters | US Health Chief Says There Is Not Enough Data to Show Tylenol Causes Autism
- Axios | How Trump and RFK Jr. Are Enabling Anti-Pharma Lawsuits
October 27, 2025
- The Guardian | Threat to US Vaccines as CDC Staff Supporting Key Advisory Panel Laid Off
- Devex | US Nonprofits Seek Refuge Abroad
- New York Times | Behind the Dismantling of the C.D.C.: Reform or ‘Humiliation’?
- Huffington Post | HHS Employees Now Being Measured By Loyalty To Trump’s Policies
October 23, 2025
October 21, 2025
- STAT | NEJM and Public Health Group Are Launching Rival to CDC’s MMWR Publication
- PBS | UCSF: Anti-Science Bills Hit Statehouses, Attacking Longstanding Public Health Protections
- Devex | Amid Shutdown and Transformation, What’s Going on With MCC and DFC?
October 20, 2025
- The Hill | Local Health Leaders Rebuke Federal Vaccine Policy
- STAT | Government Shutdown Means Many CDC Experts Are Skipping a Pivotal Meeting on Infectious Disease
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