'Dark Age' for HIV treatment as vaccine sceptic wields the axe

With millions cut from research funds, scientists fear impact of US health secretary's 'anti-science ethos'

- Evan Moffitt

It was supposed to be a banner year in the fight against the HIV epidemic. Nationwide infection rates were gradually falling, and on 18 June the US Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug that could significantly limit its further spread.

Lenacapavir, a twice-annual shot that proved 99% effective at preventing HIV transmission in clinical trials, belongs to a class of drugs called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, which Donald Trump made widely available during his first term. In his 2019 state of the union address, Trump called on Congress to increase funding to end the Aids epidemic in the US, and to renew Pepfar, the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, which officials estimate has saved more than 25 million lives, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Then along came Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump's eccentric health secretary and the country's most prominent vaccine sceptic, who has taken an axe to the nation's infrastructure for fighting infectious diseases.