Every year since 1988, the United States has marked Dec. 1 as World AIDS Day, when people mourn those who died of the disease, honor efforts to contain the epidemic and raise awareness among the general public.
Not this year.
The State Department this month instructed employees and grantees not to use funds from the United States government to commemorate the day. The directive is part of a broader policy “to refrain from messaging on any commemorative days, including World AIDS Day,” according to an email viewed by The New York Times.
Employees and grantees may still “tout the work” being done through various programs “to counter this dangerous disease and other infectious diseases around the world,” the email said. And they may attend events related to the commemoration.
But they should “refrain from publicly promoting World AIDS Day through any communication channels, including social media, media engagements, speeches or other public-facing messaging.”
Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman, said the Trump administration was modernizing its approach to countering infectious diseases.
“An awareness day is not a strategy,” he said. “Under the leadership of President Trump, the State Department is working directly with foreign governments to save lives and increase their responsibility and burden sharing.”
So far this year, the White House has issued proclamations for dozens of other observances, including World Autism Awareness Day, National Manufacturing Day and World Intellectual Property Day.
The Trump administration froze foreign aid early in the year, derailing many public health programs dedicated to fighting H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Modeling studies have suggested that cuts by the United States and other countries could result in 10 million additional H.I.V. infections, including one million among children, and three million additional deaths over the next five years.
To some activists, the administration’s decision was a painful reminder of the early days of the epidemic, when H.I.V. was neglected as a public health crisis.
“It just seems petty and hostile, frankly,” said Peter Staley, a longtime activist and co-founder of PrEP4All, a nonprofit that aims to broaden access to prevention options for H.I.V.
“It just felt very reminiscent of the Reagan administration,” Mr. Staley said.
Mark Pocan, Democrat of Wisconsin, the representative who leads the Congressional H.I.V./AIDS Caucus, said the administration’s refusal to participate in World AIDS Day was “shameful and dangerous.”
“Silence is not neutrality; it is harm,” he said in an emailed statement. “I’m calling on the administration to immediately reverse this decision and recommit our fight against H.I.V./AIDS.”
World AIDS Day is when the State Department sends data to Congress from the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, which provides money for H.I.V. programs worldwide. The program’s budget was sharply cut back earlier this year, and the administration is reported to be planning to end it.
It’s unclear whether the department still plans to send the data, as it is mandated to do, but on a different day. The department did not respond to questions about whether that was the case.
“We have been waiting for those data for a year,” said Emily Bass, a public health expert who first reported the administration’s decision not to commemorate the day in her Substack column, “To End a Plague … Again.”
“It’s unclear whether we will see them, and they’re really important, because this is the year in which all of these disruptions to PEPFAR happened,” Ms. Bass said.
She wrote in the Substack post that “World AIDS Day in Uganda, where I’ve reported for twenty five years, means outdoor tents covering white plastic chairs, scratchy sound systems playing Shania Twain, luke warm sodas in glass bottles, and American and Ugandan counterparts in the HIV fight affirming the work done and what’s to come.”
The State Department’s message lost nuance as it moved through government health agencies. An email that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent to its country offices repeated the bans, but left out that employees could still talk about the work and the State Department’s characterization of H.I.V. as a dangerous disease.
The White House did not respond to questions about the rationale for omitting World AIDS Day, but a senior administration official with knowledge of the matter noted that the observance of the day was started by the World Health Organization.
On his first day in office, Mr. Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the W.H.O., the official pointed out.
Apoorva Mandavilli reports on science and global health for The Times, with a focus on infectious diseases and pandemics and the public health agencies that try to manage them.
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