Research funded by the federal government has been crucial in many of the defining technologies of our time: the internet, A.I., crispr, Ozempic, and the mRNA vaccines first used widely in the COVID pandemic. Between 2010 and 2019, more than 350 drugs were approved in the United States, and virtually all of them could trace their roots to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Now this administration is endangering our health by cutting funds to academic medical centers. Moreover, there are threats to Medicaid, as well as ongoing cuts to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Many universities have paused hiring due to the uncertainty at the NIH and are curtailing graduate programs. Biotech investors are warning of a contraction in medical innovation. NIH grants have been terminated on ideological grounds, which have resulted in clinical trials shutting down. Global health programs worldwide have been cut. A discussion on these destructive policies on medicine in our country is needed.

About the Speaker

Monica Gandhi M.D., M.P.H., is a professor of medicine and associate chief in the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She is also the director of the UCSF Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and the medical director of the HIV Clinic ("Ward 86") at San Francisco General Hospital. She serves as the associate program director of the ID fellowship at UCSF. Her research focuses on HIV treatment and prevention optimization, HIV and women, adherence measurement in HIV and TB, adherence interventions, and on optimizing the use of long-acting antiretroviral therapy (ART). She is a long-standing NIH-funded researcher.