Advocates and health clinics are sounding the alarm over reports that the Trump administration is mulling drastic cuts to HIV prevention at the CDC, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The CDC spends about a billion dollars a year on Domestic HIV Prevention, according to HIV.gov.

Much of that money is dispersed to states and local programs through grants, explained Terri L Wilder, an HIV/aging policy advocate for LGBTQ+ elder advocacy and services organization SAGE.

A few million dollars and several local programs are at risk in Minnesota, Wilder said.

LGBTQ+ elder Jeff Weinstein, who joined the interview on Sunday, vividly remembers a time before preventative medications and testing existed.

“I don’t think people understand how really terrifying, how really frightening it is to know that it would mean that you could — your life was at risk, if you were yourself, if you were in love, if you were having sex,” Weinstein shared.

“And I watched my friends, my colleagues, and others sicken and die.”

Now 77 years old, Weinstein also recalled that fear finally subsiding decades later with the rollout of medications that could prevent infection.

“We were in tears because we couldn’t believe that this pill could prevent this. And it has, and it saves lives.”

Nowadays, clinics across Minnesota and the U.S. receive money from the CDC to provide prevention services, but Weinstein and Wilder worry it’s all at risk.

“Minnesota gets over $4.5 million for HIV prevention,” Wilder said. “I mean, it’s huge. I do not see how our state can make up for that money.”

Minneapolis-based The Aliveness Project told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS it has received nearly $700,000 in related CDC grants. The organization held a free HIV testing clinic in the past week at the Minneapolis American Indian Center.

“Prevention saves lives, saves people from contracting the disease,” Indigenous Peoples Task Force Executive Director Sharon Day said on Thursday.

“Prevention also saves money. It costs much less to provide prevention programming than it does to treat somebody.”

“Folks may or may not remember, but we had an HIV outbreak in Minnesota just a couple of years ago,” Wilder cautioned.

The Minnesota Department of Health declared an outbreak in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties in 2020, and another in the Duluth area in 2021.

Wilder and Weinstein also worry potential funding cuts could have trickle-down impacts that could affect SAGE’s ongoing efforts to increase affordability and education surrounding HIV.

“You can live a very long time with HIV. But if people don’t know they have HIV and are not getting connected to care, they’re very vulnerable to death,” Wilder said. “This is going to be devastating for our country.”

“It terrifies me that friends and other people can be lost again,” Weinstein added. “And this is what we have to stop because it will happen again.”

The Trump administration has not publicly announced any decision or a timeline for potential cuts.

In his first term, then-President Donald Trump bolstered funding for HIV prevention and treatment with the launch of the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative in 2019.