from WNYC studios. I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Monday, December 1st.

So today, December 1st is World AIDS Day. And I'm going to read something from the Centers for Disease Control website

about World AIDS Day now, and I better read it fast before the Trump administration takes it down.

I'll explain why. The CDC website says, quote, World AIDS Day is an opportunity for every community

and individual to honor the more than 32 million people

who have died worldwide from AIDS-related illnesses. Two World Health Organization

public information officers started World AIDS Day in 1988 as an international day for global

health. Since then, it has been observed each year on December 1st. World AIDS Day

is a day of solidarity for people around the world who are affected by HIV, which of course

the virus that causes AIDS, and for voices to unite by sharing experiences, remembering those lost

and standing together in the fight against

HIV. So that from the CDC.gov slash World AIDS Day page. But like I said, you better read it

quick because the New York Times reports that the State Department has instructed federal

agencies and grantees to avoid

any public messaging about the day, including on social media and speeches or through

official communications. Now, this abrupt silence comes at a moment when the administration

has frozen foreign aid and upended longstanding HIV programs worldwide,

leaving many clinics and partners unsure what support will continue,

and with estimated body counts being really shocking in the numbers that are coming in.

And it's happening just as, and here's the other piece of news, just as a major scientific

breakthrough arrives, a new HIV prevention drug called Lena Capovir, a twice a year

injectable that offered near vaccine level protection in large clinical trials,

...