For the first time since the World Health Organization established World AIDS Day in 1988, the United States will not officially mark December 1. The State Department issued a brief statement saying “an awareness day is not a strategy,” and directed employees not to commemorate the day. The observance was created to remember the millions who have died of AIDS-related illnesses and to renew commitments to fight an epidemic that still kills more than half a million people annually.
Last year, President Joe Biden hosted a World AIDS Day ceremony on the White House South Lawn featuring the AIDS Memorial Quilt. This year, despite the U.S. decision, many countries continue to hold proclamations, public-health campaigns and ceremonies.
Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesperson, said the administration is “modernizing our approach to countering infectious diseases” and is “working directly with foreign governments to save lives and increase their responsibility and burden sharing.” The move comes amid broader cuts to U.S. global health spending under the Trump administration and a policy emphasis on weaning countries off aid.
HIV/AIDS advocates reacted with frustration and staged protests outside the White House. Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, called the decision “emblematic of an administration that doesn’t seem to care.” Asia Russell, executive director of Health GAP, said the choice recalled early years of the epidemic when stigma led to neglect, and described the administration’s move as “depraved and outrageous.” About 100 people attended one protest demanding restored funding.
The United States has long been the largest funder of the global response to HIV/AIDS, largely through President George W. Bush’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has invested more than $110 billion since 2003. Activists and health officials warn that recent U.S. funding reductions and shifts in policy have disrupted care in parts of the world, making it harder for some people living with HIV to get medication in countries including Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Kenya, according to UNAIDS.
A UNAIDS report for World AIDS Day warned of “ruinous consequences” as multiple countries scale back foreign assistance and reprioritize spending. Protesters and advocates say that even symbolic recognition matters: commemorative days help fight stigma and keep HIV on political and public-health agendas. “World AIDS Day only exists on the calendar because of pressure from people with HIV and their communities fighting back against stigma,” Russell said. “A commemorative day, as minor as that might sound, is actually life-saving work to chip away at that deadly stigma.”
The decision not to mark World AIDS Day aligns with this administration’s broader skepticism toward multilateral institutions; the White House has moved to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization. Still, the administration has recognized other U.N.-designated observances, issuing a proclamation for World Autism Awareness Day.
