Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration is considering eliminating all CDC domestic HIV funding or transferring its programs to another federal agency. Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, issued a statement saying, “We cannot end HIV without a fully functioning and sufficiently funded HIV prevention program… But we cannot unilaterally cut the funding that Congress has appropriated, and that states, local governments, and community-based organizations rely on to carry out their public health responsibilities to address HIV and other infectious diseases.”
Schmid spoke to Out in Jersey about how these cuts could affect our state.
How much funding could New Jersey lose?
Carl Schmid: Over 21 million.
What kind of grants would we be losing?
CS: Here is a list of just five of the canceled grants in New Jersey. You can immediately see from the titles what research they are canceling:
- The Psychological Underpinnings of Gender Disparities in Adolescent Mental Health
- Views of Gender in Adolescence
- Social Networks and Cognitive Health among Black and Latino Sexual Minority men in NJ
- Stigma and the Non-communicable Disease Syndemic in Aging HIV Positive and HIV Negative MSM
- Understanding the Role of Structural Oppression for Suicide Risk among Black Sexual and Gender Minority Adolescents and Young Adults
How will this affect HIV prevention?
CS: That’s the role of the CDC too, to educate the public, and to keep it on your conscience, and take the right steps, and make the right decisions to keep yourself HIV negative. Going into this administration, it seemed that they were focused on transgender people, and that’s bad enough, but we have to make sure that everyone gets the treatment, gets the preventative services they need no matter who they are.
HIV is an infections disease. And you cannot erase people from society. There’s over a million, perhaps two million transgender people. They have a high percentage of HIV infection, and we have to make sure they stay negative, and that they have treatment if they are positive. Then they started the DEI thing. And everything that we do in HIV is focused on disparities because of the people that are impacted by it, whether you’re gay, transgender, black, Latino. Does it mean that we are not going to focus on those communities? You have to go where HIV is. It’s an infections disease. We have to go to the communities, areas, and populations where it’s impacted.
We have a lot of grants cancelled that focus on black gay men. Then they cancelled a study at Yale that focused on increasing PREP in young black gay men. There’s a clear lack of focus on infectious disease by RFK. He focused on chronic disease, not infectious disease. HIV is an infectious disease that is chronic. It’s both. There is an anti-gay sentiment in this administration that we didn’t see in the last Trump administration. He was very focused on ending HIV. Now they announce that they are cutting thousands of staff at the CDC.
What effects do you think we will see first here in New Jersey?
CS: If we lose funding, it’s the outreach work, the education work, going to the Pride events, having a place to get tested. That will all be gone. We do have Medicaid and Medicare and private insurance. But we are seeing cutbacks there. New Jersey does have a reliable safety net system, but they rely on federal funding.
Even if you have private insurance, you still need that provider education. You still need that community outreach. You need to educate providers. Plus, the difference in awareness of things like PREP between New York and Newark is stark. Awareness of PREP was so high in New York and so low in Newark, just a couple [of] miles away. Coverage alone doesn’t provide awareness. That’s the benefit of the CDC. That’s the benefit of those grants and your community-based organizations to do the education.
Is it that this administration is promoting abstinence as prevention?
CS: Yeah. They want you to change your behavior. I see that taking PREP is changing your behavior. You’re taking steps to prevent HIV. It’s taking responsibility, not only for yourself, but for other people as well.
Is there anyone in Washington on our side?
CS: There are high level gay people in this administration, and you think that they would care about this, including Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury. I don’t know if you know him, but he’s gay. He’s been on the board of God’s Love We Deliver, which is the food pantry in New York. I hope he and Rick Grenell [Special presidential envoy for special missions], who is gay as well, are going to put a stop to these. We don’t ask for much, the gay community.
If people want to fight, what can they do?
CS: Take to the streets. Talk to members of congress. All this money flows to the states. And you think that all these red states would be as concerned about the loss of funding as the blue states. New Jersey is not only losing HIV funding, but they are also losing the whole public health infrastructure. People have to go back to the streets, they have to protest, they have to be loud, they have to work with the media, and go to their elected officials, especially Republican officials. Senator Kim has been speaking out. He has a good voice. Cory Booker as well. They need to hear what the impacts are so they can speak up and fight, too. It’s important to educate particularly the Republican members about the impacts on the ground, and the potential ramifications for our country if these cuts aren’t reversed. We are going to see an increase in infections, which is more costly in the long term. We have to make them care.
Will it make healthcare more costly for everyone?
CS: It’s going to cost all of us more money down the road. It’s really shortsighted. Don’t they care? They say, “We are going to make America healthy again.” We are part of America. You cannot ignore us.
Where can people go to get talking points?
CS: AIDS United, National Minority AIDS Council. I would work with your local LGBTQ and AIDS service organizations like Hyacinth. Support your local LGBTQ and AIDS organizations. Letters to the editor. Opinion pieces. They have to hear the ramifications of what they are doing.
What would you tell people who are not in the community?
CS: It is part of their community. We are all impacted. Businesses are impacted — their staff. We all lost so many people to HIV. But if we are not taking the proper steps to control HIV it will spread to all parts of the community. And that’s with PREP and condoms and education. Drug companies do ads, but you still need education. Public health is public health. There’s a role for the government. The Supreme Court is going to be arguing whether preventative services should be required by private insurers without cost sharing. That’s at stake. That will impact not only PREP and HIV testing, but also colonoscopies and breast cancer screenings. A lot of preventative services will be on the line. And it’s because of PREP that the right wing has taken this on. Right now, it’s free. No cost sharing.
We should heed Mr. Schmid’s call to take to the streets, protest, fight back, and support our local LGBTQ, HIV prevention, and AIDS support organizations. We’ve come so far in our fight to end HIV to turn back now.
A good list of local and national organizations is at njbuddies.org/resources/helpful-links/
