Trump Administration’s HHS Terminating Multiple HIV Vaccine Studies
The HHS’s decision, prioritizing existing prevention strategies over continued investment in vaccine innovation may be the most scientifically sound move any administration has made in the 40 year quest for the elusive vaccine.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under the Trump administration, has recently proposed terminating funding for a wide range of HIV vaccine research projects.
The HHS directed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) not to issue any new funding for HIV vaccine research in the upcoming fiscal year, with only a few limited exceptions.
Notifications that the funding would not be extended were relayed Friday to researchers, who were told by National Institutes of Health officials that the Department of Health and Human Services had elected “to go with currently available approaches to eliminate HIV” instead.
The cuts will shutter two major HIV vaccine research efforts that were first funded by the NIH in 2012 at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute and the Scripps Research Institute, multiple scientists said. A spokesperson for Moderna said the vaccine manufacturer’s clinical trials through the NIH’s HIV Vaccine Trials Network have also been put on pause.
One senior NIH official said the HHS had also instructed the agency not to issue any more funding in the next fiscal year for HIV vaccine research, with only a small handful of exceptions.
A budgetary rule change specifically targeted at HIV vaccine research is also expected to lead to another cut to the NIH’s awards for studies initiated by scientists, an official said.
How long are American taxpayers expected to fork out millions in research for a vaccine that 0.36% of the population has contracted…usually through their own lifestyle choices?
Based on the histrionic reporting associated with this news, forever is the only correct answer.
1984
April 23 – U.S. HHS Secretary Margaret Heckler announces American scientist, Robert Gallo, has discovered the probable cause of AIDS: it is subsequently named HIV in 1986.She also declares that a vaccine will be available within two years.
40+ years in.
— Jack Johnson (@Infinity8675309) May 31, 2025
Needless to say, the scientists impacted by this new awareness of fiscal realities and new funding prioritizations are upset.
“I find it very disappointing that, at this critical juncture, the funding for highly successful H.I.V. vaccine research programs should be pulled,” said Dennis Burton, an immunologist who led the program at Scripps.
The cuts will derail hard-won progress against H.I.V. over the past few decades, public health experts said. This week, the administration also withheld funds that were due to states and territories for H.I.V. prevention work. In Texas, the State Department of Health Services asked grantees to pause all activities “until further notice.” In Mecklenberg County in North Carolina, the health department has already had to lay off 10 staffers. Already, many African countries have reported serious disruptions in their efforts to curb the epidemic.
“It’s just inconceivable how shortsighted this is,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the H.I.V. prevention organization AVAC.
…“The H.I.V. pandemic will never be ended without a vaccine, so killing research on one will end up killing people,” said John Moore, an H.I.V. researcher at Weill Cornell Medical in New York.
“Pandemic mania” is all played out. In reality, the number of HIV infections has been declining over the past several years.
The amount of funding the NIH was providing for this particular project is staggering.
An analysis done by AVAC showed that in 2022, NIH was the largest single funder of HIV vaccine research, providing 70% of $740 million spent globally on the effort that year. The agency’s prominent role means the end of CHAVD will be a big blow to the field, says immunologist John Moore, a veteran HIV vaccine researcher who is not part of the consortia. “It’s very difficult to compensate for the volume of NIH dollars,” says Moore, who believes “The agenda at HHS is to eliminate vaccine science, so this is one opportunity for them to do so.”
Each of the CHAVD consortia have set their sights on designing vaccines that guide the immune system to develop what are called “broadly neutralizing antibodies” that work against a wide range of HIV variants. “It’s taken a long time, and I think that’s frustrated the field and certainly has frustrated us, but the good news is now that [both consortia] are making progress,” Haynes says. “It’s still very difficult, and we’re committed to finishing the job,” perhaps by finding other funders to fill the gap left by the lack of NIAID support.
The HHS’s decision to cancel HIV vaccine funding marks a significant policy shift, prioritizing existing prevention strategies over continued investment in vaccine innovation. This may ultimately be the most scientifically sound move any administration has made in the 40-year quest for the elusive product.
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Comments
If the drug companies believe they can profit, let them make the investment
No one will profit from a HIV vaccine. Too few susceptible people.
“No one will profit from a HIV vaccine. Too few susceptible people.”
Well, not any more… there was at least $500M in it until last Friday.
Ha. Good one. However assuming they were actually developing a vaccine that is insufficient. I don’t know about a vaccine but I believe if takes a couple of billion these days to bring a new medicine to market include hopping through all the FDAs hoops.
The U.S. has a GDP of $30.5T. The E.U. has a GDP of $29T. So why is the U.S. funding 70% of this? Where’s the E.U.? For that matter, where’s South America, Central America, Africa, and Asia?
“Where are the places with the biggest incidents of HIV on the globe, Alex?
I’ll take Unconstitutional Expenditures for $500M.”
Incidence (boo dictation)
Prevention is a LOT cheaper than cure.
and preventing socialism>>communism is a lot better than allowing it to fester under the guise of:
its the government and we are here to help
but u can’t dictate ppls lifestyle choices
just like abortion up to the moment of birth.
We all make our choices in life and live with the result. Use your brain. If you’re careful and take intelligent precautions, good for you. If you’re not careful, the result may not be so great.
.
Absolutely. We can’t dictate peoples’ lifestyle choices and we should not. However we don’t necessarily have to fund things to rescue them from their poor choices.
… which is why the pharma industry is more interested in “cures” (which under their definition is really “lifelong pharmaceutical management” of the disease du jour, not “this course of treatment will heal you so you’ll be as good as new”) than they are in prevention.
What do you think would happen to their stocks if they emphasized prevention, or at the very least came up with actual cures? There’s no money in that approach.
It’s also why they tend not to get involved in vaccines or antibiotics (big liabilities) and prefer to work on the next ED drug.
They have immunity with regards to vaxxes on the childhood immunization schedule. That’s part of the reason why they were pushing so hard to have the covid clot shot permanently added to said schedule.
That’s also why they don’t have scientifically valid (randomized, double blind) studies for vaccine safety/ efficacy…. they don’t have to pay out in the event of vaxx injuries, so they don’t care.
Perverse incentives.
Forgot to add: another thing that invalidates their vaxx testing is the lack of a true placebo.
i wonder if liability immunity is a recent change, In any event it is a give once drug so is less interesting than something that has to be taken every day.
Cue the predictable histrionics and performative outrage from the vile Dhimmi-crat media shills/lapdogs/trained seals/stenographers, about how HHS’s decision allegedly represents an attack by #47 upon the LGBTXYZWTF community.
The obscene amounts of money spent researching a vaccine for HIV — a virus contracted through irresponsible personal behavior; e.g., promiscuous sex and illicit drug use — would have been better spent on research for treatments for diseases that affect a far larger number of patients, such as cancer.
Want to stop HIV? Stop having unprotected sex with carriers, and screen blood supplies.
Send me my check.
It;s in the mail.
This edgy cartoon came out in the heyday of COVID. Compare and contrast the attitude of our government and our media on both topics. Who here doesn’t understand why they are 180° different?
But is Vance part of the problem:
‘Let’s tax the things we want to see less of and lets subsidize the things we want to see more of,’ he argued, clarifying he did not want to see a ‘larger federal government’ but wanted a more efficient government that responded to it’s citizens.
“Already, many African countries have reported serious disruptions in their efforts to curb the epidemic.”
And I care why? Do your own research. BTW, it can’t cost that much to tell people to wear condoms.
its the womens decision ( unless assault is occurring) and they dont want the condom to be used for various reasons
not to mention using birth control herself
and yet the politics then comes into play and its the mans responsibility after he did what the female wanted
“Although Africa constitutes about 17% of the world’s population,[1] it bears a disproportionate burden of the epidemic. In 2023, around 25.6 million people in sub-Saharan Africa were living with HIV, accounting for over two-thirds of the global total.
Despite progress, gender inequalities exacerbate the epidemic’s impact, with young women in sub-Saharan Africa experiencing HIV infection rates three times higher than their male counterparts
In contrast to Arab North Africa and the Horn of Africa, traditional cultures and religions in Sub-Saharan Africa have generally exhibited a more liberal attitude to female out-of-marriage sexual activity. The latter includes practices such as multiple sexual partners and unprotected sex, high-risk cultural patterns that have been implicated in the much greater spread of HIV in the subcontinent
Gosh – I sure hope that the United Nations, the EU, and China all step up. With all the debt the U.S. carries, we need to focus on strengthening our economy so that the dollar-based international trade system remains strong. After we have stabilized that, perhaps we will have some money left over to contribute something beyond what we already contribute to the U.N. for such joint projects.
I am personally glad that the United States has recognized that it is cultural imperialism to try to change the ‘traditional culture’ referenced above. It was wrong to try to impose our values and culture on others.
If we were really clever, we’d run propaganda to convince low-information Democrat voters that promiscuity is actual cultural appropriation. (“Oh no!”)
Then we’d have to find some other tactic to address those for whom that is, in fact, their own culture.
I’m very pro science but let me tell you one of my dirty secrets. Since its inception I have felt that the vast majority of the AIDs money was poorly spent. Aside from the blood supply it is primary a life style problem that is extremely manageable. Yet the amount of money spent and the amount of handwringing about it is mountainous and primarily driven by a small community and their enablers in hollywood. It was and is obscene. Put a damn sock on it already.
Well, Hollywood has been/ continues to be a major factor in the peddling of that kind of lifestyle, glamourizing it if not openly promoting it and engaging in outright grooming. It’s one of their pet causes, one they love to shove in your face and down your throat constantly – to the point where a goodly percentage of the younger generations mistakenly believe that that portion of the population is in excess of 25%, a grossly inflated figure.
In the ’90s, “everybody” was gay, so they got all the attention and the money.
Today, “everybody” is trans and multigender, because guess why.
And guess who was neck deep in HIV vaccine research from the beginning. If you guessed Dr. Anthony “I am the Science” Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), you’d be correct.
Fauci talks HIV vaccine research after most recent trial failure: ‘I don’t give up on it’
Prevention: Cease being a fart knocker
Excuse my crudités
Was Not there a bizarre experiment in this area in the eighties by fauci, testing on African-American orphans ?
However innocents like tennis pro Arthur Ash would have maybe another opinion
they double speak when it comes to him
he was known to be sleeping around but also dont want to tarnish his image of course and say it was a different reason:
Doctors believed Arthur Ashe contracted HIV from blood transfusions during his second heart surgery. Despite that, Ashe and his wife tried to keep his H
https://www.sportscasting.com/news/tennis-great-arthur-ashe-and-his-tragic-death-from-aids/
dont know but I do know how the msm works
As I mentioned protecting the blood supply was critical but you can do that without developing a vaccine. The only ones who would be a target for a vaccine in the West are promiscuous male homosexuals and intravenous drug users. The latter wouldn’t get and the former need to make better decisions. Africa is a different matter but I frankly don’t care about Africa except for its resources which I’d like to exploit.
Today , one pill can treat AIDS
I’m hoping in Africa they have access to it like ivermectin
The origins of AIDS
Like a lot of horrible, vicious diseases
The human immune system cannot handle HIV. What makes them think a vaccine is even possible? After 40 years of trying, that should be abundantly clear.