Jon Cohen

1 month ago | science.org | Sara Reardon |Jon Cohen

The threat hanging over South African HIV/AIDS researchers for the past week has become a reality: The Trump administration this afternoon began terminating or putting on hold their grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). The cuts appear in part linked to an escalation of NIH efforts to terminate grants, at least some of which the government has decided have components of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

1 month ago | science.org | Jon Cohen

Since June 2022, John Nkengasong has led what he calls “the greatest act of humanity in the history of fighting infectious diseases”: the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a U.S.-funded program to fight HIV in more than 50 countries. PEPFAR has saved an estimated 26 million lives since its launch in 2003 by then-President George W. Bush and has enjoyed bipartisan support.

1 month ago | science.org | Jon Cohen

“It’s been very rough the last few weeks,” epidemiologist Wafaa El-Sadr said here on 9 March during the opening ceremony of the largest annual HIV/AIDS conference in the United States. El-Sadr had a major grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which President Donald Trump’s administration terminated, and Columbia University, where she works, saw $400 million in other federal grants and contracts cut over its alleged failure to address antisemitism on campus.

1 month ago | science.org | Jon Cohen

Pacific Grove, California—On a nearly still and moonlit night last week, some 75 people formed a circle on Asilomar State Beach around a sand pit ringed by seaweed. Four dancers swayed around the pit to the sound of the crashing waves. One by one, people stepped into the circle, scooped up some sand, and tossed it into the pit. Passersby might have thought they were witnessing a pagan ritual or a hippie gathering.

1 month ago | science.org | Jon Cohen

Deaths linked to a bat, the rapid spread of a mysterious illness through remote communities, people dying within 2 days of the onset of symptoms. Once again, a frightening disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has raised global fears that a deadly new infectious pathogen, such as the Ebola virus that first appeared in the African nation in 1976, has made the jump from an animal host into people.