The Trump administration is actively dismantling decades of progress in HIV research, prevention, and care, undermining core principles of public health. Despite an earlier commitment to end the HIV epidemic by 2030, the administration has reversed course—cutting funding to hundreds of research grants, halting clinical trials, and dismantling infrastructure like the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the U.S. Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy. These actions have jeopardized access to antiretroviral therapy for millions globally and could lead to millions of new infections and deaths, particularly among children in sub-Saharan Africa. Domestically, researchers fear a resurgence in transmission due to slashed CDC programs and weakened public education efforts. Experts suspect political motivations, especially President Trump’s disdain for Dr. Anthony Fauci and broader hostility toward the public-health establishment born out of the HIV and COVID eras. The administration’s actions disproportionately harm marginalized groups—LGBTQ people, Black and Latino communities, and low-income populations—who are already at heightened risk for HIV. Wu also traces how HIV reshaped modern public health: pushing officials to engage stigmatized communities, expand care access, and prioritize health equity. Activists’ efforts in the 1980s and ’90s revolutionized clinical trials, drug approval, and international health aid. These hard-won advances are now being reversed, and researchers warn that this could unravel trust and infrastructure built over decades. Ignoring infectious disease and the populations it affects will not make it disappear. Instead, such neglect fuels stigma, worsens outcomes, and weakens the nation’s readiness for future outbreaks.
Reviewer: Chidera Ejikeme
February 03, 2026
News from: theatlantic
In the never-ending quest to figure out what we are supposed to eat, a new boogeyman has emerged: seed oils. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pointed to seed oils—a category that includes common varieties such as canola, soybean, and corn—as a major culprit behind America’s chronic-disease problem. Kennedy is far from the only prominent seed-oil critic: On his podcast, Joe Rogan has declared that “seed oils are some of the worst fucking things your body can consume.” These claims about the dangers of seed oils are not based in science; nutritionists believe that they are not only safe but also good for you in moderation. But that hasn’t stopped the charge against them from going mainstream. You can now find products labeled Seed oil safe at Whole Foods and Costco; according to one poll, 28 percent of Americans are actively avoiding seed oils.
Reviewer: Chidera Ejikeme
February 03, 2026
News from: theatlantic
On Sunday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met with the families of two girls who had died from measles in West Texas—and raised doubts about the safety of vaccines. “He said, ‘You don’t know what’s in the vaccine anymore,’” Peter Hildebrand, whose 8-year-old daughter, Daisy’s, funeral had been held just hours earlier, told me. “I actually asked him about it.”
Reviewer: Chidera Ejikeme
February 03, 2026
News from: theatlantic
When you inhale a microscopic speck of soot, its journey may go like this: The particle enters your nose and heads into your lungs, penetrating even the tiny air sacs that facilitate gas exchange. Next it may slip into your bloodstream and flow into your heart, or past the blood-brain barrier. Most of us inhale some of these tiny particles every day. But inhaling enough can turn the act of breathing into an existential hazard, prompting or worsening asthma, COPD, respiratory infections, and permanent lung damage. In the heart, the specks can trigger heart disease, heart attacks, and most of the cardiovascular disorders you can think of. Air pollution is also associated with depression and anxiety, and with higher rates of suicide. It can trigger strokes and is linked to dementia or—even at average levels in this country—Parkinson’s disease.
Reviewer: Chidera Ejikeme
February 03, 2026
News from: theatlantic
The current U.S. measles outbreak follows, in some ways, a classic pattern: The virus first found a foothold where childhood vaccination is low—among Mennonites in Texas, in this case—before rapidly spreading to other communities and states. It has sickened mostly children and has now killed a second child, whose death was reported this weekend. With cases still ticking up, experts expect the outbreak to persist for a year.
Reviewer: Chidera Ejikeme
February 03, 2026
News from: theatlantic
When Korean skin care arrived in the United States several years ago, it became the stuff of legend among beauty enthusiasts. They raved about the sunscreen from the Korean brand Beauty of Joseon, which used advanced UV filters and left no white film behind; currently, it costs $18—its closest American counterpart would be about $40 and gloopier. Korean snail mucin promised to hydrate skin and improve fine lines, and prompted a buying frenzy, during which I did drop my own American dollars on a facial “essence” made from the secretions of snails. It has made my skin softer and only grossed me out twice.
Reviewer: Chidera Ejikeme
February 03, 2026
News from: theatlantic
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