December 1, 2025 to date
No — we have never been here before. The early HIV/AIDS crisis forced us to confront health systems built on stigma, homophobia, and racial inequity. From that struggle came real progress: new science, new treatment pathways, community-led clinical trial reform — and PrEP, which prevents HIV transmission with 99% effectiveness when taken correctly. We built systems that changed global health. What is happening now is destroying both our past and our future. It is deliberate — causing harm and death.
From our activism came the Ryan White Care Act, community-driven clinical-trial reform, and the integrated testing, tracing, and treatment models that changed national healthcare. Decades of HIV research delivered treatments that transformed survival and opened new pathways for future cures.
Today, that legacy is being undermined by political leaders who dismiss established science and promote misinformation. RFK Jr.’s claims about HIV — including the false assertion that HIV does not cause AIDS — directly contradict decades of evidence and endanger the progress people with AIDS fought for. This progress came from people with AIDS, caregivers, scientists, and advocates who refused to let us die.
PrEP prevents HIV transmission with 99% effectiveness when taken correctly. IT IS ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL PUBLIC-HEALTH TOOLS EVER SHAPED BY AIDS ACTIVISTS. Yet PrEP and other proven prevention tools are being defunded while leaders elevate pseudoscience, flawed reports, and conspiracy-driven policies. RFK Jr.’s MAHA report has been shown to contain errors, incorrect citations, and distorted data — a foundation that cannot support real public-health planning.
The Trump administration, joined by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is manufacturing a health crisis at a scale no community has ever faced. Defunding care. Dismantling testing. Cutting the systems that detect and respond to emerging health threats. Ending federal recognition of World AIDS Day. And alongside these actions, RFK Jr. promotes vaccine skepticism, false claims about chemical exposure, and attacks on mainstream medicine — positions that erode public trust and open the door for preventable diseases to return.
As of November 5, 2025, U.S.A.I.D.’s dismantling is estimated to have caused 630,000 deaths — 420,000 of them children. Defunding health and science, and leaving HIV, TB, and vaccine-preventable illnesses untested, unprevented, and untreated, kills.
This harm does not end at our borders. When the United States dismantles its public-health commitments, global health systems suffer — because U.S. research, funding, and infrastructure are pivotal to surveillance, treatment access, and emergency response worldwide.
Cutting funding for vaccine research and shutting down CDC programs focused on specific health threats weakens not only this country’s readiness, but the world’s. We have never before seen a government choose public man-made death by replacing science with conspiracy and erasing proven methods of care.
What people with AIDS, activists, and researchers created over decades reshaped global public health and made rapid COVID-19 vaccines and treatments possible. Our work saved millions of lives and will continue to save more.
Anti-science movements — those driven by RFK Jr. and this administration — damage the trust that public health relies on. When doctor–patient trust erodes, it becomes harder to prevent, diagnose, and treat illness, and communities pay the price.
Stopping this death derailment requires voting, community organizing, and collective action. We must use every tool available to block policies and leaders who are deliberately causing preventable harm and death.
We will protect the science we fought for. We will defend the dignity we deserve. We will keep moving forward. What we built stands as an unbreakable health-justice promise to propel us forward.
December 1, 2025 – ACT UP NY announces “HEALTHGATE”, a campaign released on the heels of World AIDS Day (December 1) that condemns Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s deadly pseudoscience-led healthcare death circus while calling for the implementation of the New York Health Act and sustained funding for public and global health to FIGHT BACK, END AIDS, & PROTECT PUBLIC HEALTHCARE FOR ALL.
About ACT UP
Founded in 1987, ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis. ACT UP currently meets every Monday night at 7PM ET via Zoom. Notes: you will be asked to contribute your first & last name and email address to access online meetings, and KN-95 masks are required for ACT UP NY in person meetings/actions/gatherings. All individuals are welcome!
For every SILENCE = DEATH watermelon item sale, proceeds will be split in half between ACT UP NY and direct medical aid to Palestinian people fleeing Gaza.
