For the first time since the World Health Organization established World AIDS Day in 1988, the United States will not officially observe December 1. The State Department issued a short notice saying “an awareness day is not a strategy,” and directed employees not to hold official commemorations. World AIDS Day was created to remember the millions who have died of AIDS-related illnesses and to reaffirm commitments to fight an epidemic that still kills more than half a million people each year.
Last year the White House hosted a World AIDS Day ceremony on the South Lawn featuring the AIDS Memorial Quilt. This year, despite the U.S. decision, many other countries and organizations continue to hold proclamations, public-health campaigns and remembrance events.
A State Department spokesman, Tommy Pigott, 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.” Critics say the move comes against a backdrop of earlier reductions in U.S. global health spending and a broader policy focus on weaning countries off aid.
HIV/AIDS advocates responded 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, likened the choice to the epidemic’s early years of stigma and neglect, calling the move “depraved and outrageous.” About 100 people attended one demonstration demanding restored funding.
The United States has long been the largest funder of the global HIV/AIDS response, mainly through the 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 policy shifts have disrupted care in parts of the world, making it harder for some people living with HIV to access treatment in countries including Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Kenya, according to UNAIDS.
A UNAIDS report released for World AIDS Day warned of “ruinous consequences” as multiple countries scale back foreign assistance and reprioritize spending. Protesters and advocates stressed that symbolic recognition matters: commemorative days can 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.”
Observers also noted that the choice to skip an official observance fits with this administration’s broader skepticism toward some multilateral institutions; the White House has taken steps to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization. At the same time, the administration has issued proclamations recognizing other U.N.-designated observances, including World Autism Awareness Day.