CBS News medical contributor Dr. Celine Gounder explains the public health impact of the Trump administration's decision to cut millions of dollars in funding for HIV vaccine research. Federal officials say the focus will shift to existing prevention methods.

Washington

The Trump administration is moving to eliminate significant federal funding for HIV vaccine research, redirecting resources toward current prevention strategies. Federal officials argue that existing methods are sufficient to address HIV, but scientists and public health experts have expressed concern that these cuts will impede the development of a much-needed vaccine.

Dr. Celine Gounder, a medical contributor and public health expert, highlighted that ongoing vaccine programs, including a $258 million consortium at Duke and Scripps, are nearing important breakthroughs. She noted that the new funding restrictions, combined with changes to NIH grant rules, will make it extremely difficult for researchers to continue their work. Experts emphasize that while current treatments and prevention tools have improved, a vaccine remains essential for long-term control of HIV.

Trump administration moves to cut HIV vaccine research funding

The Trump administration is moving to shut down hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for HIV vaccine research, a decision sparking outrage from scientists and public health officials. Federal health officials say they are shifting their focus to existing prevention methods, and current approaches are enough to counter the virus. Joining us now to break this all down is CBS News medical contributor Dr. Selene Gounder. She is also editor-at-large for Public Health at KFF. Dr. Gounder, good morning. First, off the top, what are the real-world implications of this? This is a massive setback. So we're seeing a couple different angles from which HIV is really being attacked. So you have the HIV vaccine programs, there's a $258 million consortium at Duke and at Scripps that has been working for really years, decades now, to develop a HIV vaccine. We're getting very close, but we're not quite there yet. On top of that, that program being cut, you also have this very arcane NIH budget rule that's being made. But what that essentially means, it's sort of this fine print, it will be next to impossible for investigators, researchers at universities to apply for NIH funding to do HIV vaccine research. And so this is really slamming the brakes right as we're just about to get that HIV vaccine. But how close are we to this vaccine? Because that's been the hope for decades. Can you kind of contextualize for us how close we are to this vaccine being a reality? Yeah, so what really was very difficult is HIV is a particularly challenging virus, much more so than, say, coronavirus or the flu, and it's for a number of different reasons. The rate at which it mutates is so much faster, and it also, once you've been infected, incorporates, integrates itself into your DNA. And that's a very different scenario. And so that makes it that much more challenging to address this HIV, the science of that. How do you prevent it with a vaccine? So the administration says that current efforts are enough to prevent HIV, and they want to focus on those. Do they have a point there? Well, do we ever say that in medicine? Oh, what we have is good enough. I mean, we never say that. And this is, it's very clear that while we are making improvements, we've made dramatic improvements in treatment. We have medications to help prevent acquisition of infection, but these are still things you have to do multiple times, maybe once a day. There's something that's coming out later this month that would be twice a year. That's still very different from a vaccine, that it's a, you know, you get your vaccinations and then you're done. Dr. Gounder, thank you so much.

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