Hundreds of Scientists, Doctors, Activists Rally for HIV Research Funding

SAN FRANCISCO — At least 400 researchers, physicians, activists, and other concerned citizens gathered here Monday night to rally for science and protest National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding cuts for HIV and other medical research.

The “Save Our Sciences Rally to Protect HIV Research,” organized by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s HIV Advocacy Network and held at Yerba Buena Gardens, occurred after the first full day of the 2025 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), an annual meeting where scientists from across the world share the most current research on HIV, tuberculosis, mpox, and other infections. Many attendees in the crowd wore their CROI meeting badges, and several speakers were researchers or physicians attending or presenting at the conference.

“We recognize that this year’s meeting is taking place in a time of tremendous apprehension and uncertainty, as a result of recent actions by the U.S. government,” the CROI Foundation and Program Committee wrote in a statement to the media. “We stand united with our colleagues and partners in this country and around the world as together we navigate these difficult times.”

CROI, which does not receive federal funding, noted that travel restrictions from the U.S. government prevented federal employees from attending CROI in person, but that they are attending virtually.

Franco Chevalier, MD, spoke of his journey as an immigrant and gay man from the Caribbean who had to take English-speaking classes and felt like an “outsider” when he first arrived in the U.S. He became an internal medicine doctor, and then a research fellow at the University of California San Francisco “through hard work, dedication, and full trust in a greater power than myself,” he told the cheering crowd.

“Some of the best research is about the lives that can be uplifted and the healing that can be brought to those who have been ignored for too long from the answers you get when you embark on a project,” he said. “None of this would have been possible without the investment of the U.S. government in research.”

Chevalier spoke of the “devastating threats and cuts that will disproportionately impact young researchers, particularly those from marginalized communities,” which risks “losing the next generation of scientists who are deeply invested in serving their communities.”

Funding cuts from the NIH, CDC, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) “are not just loss of grants for opportunities for researchers of the scientific world,” Chevalier said. “They are a threat to the lives of countless individuals who rely on the science and the research to live. This is a matter of life and death. For many people living with HIV, particularly in underserved communities, these programs and studies represent their only access to life-saving treatments, prevention strategies, and care. Without proper funding, not only do we lose an entire generation of brilliant and innovative minds in the world of research, but we risk losing the resources that have kept millions alive and have prevented countless people from becoming infected in the first place.”

Hyman Scott, MD, MPH, medical director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, spoke of his decision to focus on HIV after an 18-year-old with HIV was referred to him during his training. He said their clinic was a “safe haven and bastion” for study participants experiencing discrimination, including “our trans brothers and trans sisters.”

“Now with all these cuts, they’re trying to silence all of our voices,” Scott told the crowd. “This attack on science is an attack on all of us, and it’s an attack on you, it’s an attack on me, it’s an attack on our chosen families, our blood families,” he said. “When we come together, we have so much strength to be able to fight for what we deserve, and we need to ensure we demand access to science, access to research, access to care, so we don’t move backwards.”

Kevin Vandenbergh, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1987 and full-blown AIDS in 1994, said this was his first rally but he felt it was too important not to come.

“I can’t stand the Trump administration and their attack on science and knowledge and education,” he told MedPage Today. “First they came for the scientists, and then they came for the educators, and that’s why I’m here.”

Joseph Cherabie, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who is attending CROI, came to the rally to support “not only my patients and speaking up on their behalf, but also my colleagues whose funding is actively getting cut as we speak,” he told MedPage Today. “We all need community now more than ever, and it is nice to see a global contingency and just to be surrounded by people who believe in science.”

Mark Harrington, executive director of the Treatment Action Group, told the crowd that “everyone has a right, not just to health, but to science — to science being done for every community.”

“When they try to say what we can study and what we can’t study, they’re imposing fascist restraints on the kind of science that we need,” Harrington said.

Courtney Liebi, a project manager for Getting to Zero San Francisco, held a sign saying “No Going Back! Protect HIV Research and Programs.”

“We need to push back and insist the government reinvest in funding HIV research, and that we continue to support the development of researchers so we can finally end the epidemics and get to zero here in the U.S. and globally,” Liebi told MedPage Today.

In its statement, CROI said the organization stands firm “for freedom of expression and against any censorship of science, targeting of scientists, or withdrawal of research or programmatic funding…. Throughout nearly 45 years of the HIV response, our community has faced tremendous hardships and challenges, yet we have never backed away from our commitment to science and advocacy. That must be as true today as it ever has been. We look forward to standing strong with you as we navigate these difficult times.”

This story was updated to clarify a quote from Liebi.

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