Research is a lifeline. Defend science. Defend communities

I am thrilled to be part of the 27th International Workshop on HIV and Hepatitis Observational Databases (IWHOD), taking place in Toledo, Spain, from March 27th to 29th, 2025. Representing EATG, I have the honour of co-chairing Session #1: Health Inequalities in HIV Prevention and Care alongside Keri Althoff.

This session provides a crucial platform to discuss pressing issues, and we have been given the opportunity to share our insights on the far-reaching impact of the U.S. halt in global funding—examining it from both community and research perspectives.

Here is my intervention:

Hello to everyone,

Besides my role as co-chair, I’m here today as a community representative, as a proud member of the European AIDS Treatment Group, but also as a researcher, as a woman, and as someone who lives with a chronic illness.

I speak not just from theory, but from lived experience, from years of working alongside people living with HIV and hepatitis. In clinics. In waiting rooms. At borders. In all the places where health systems fail to reach or choose to ignore.

What is happening right now with the United States foreign aid freeze is not just a funding cut. It’s an attack on global solidarity; on science; on justice.

Freezing PEPFAR funds, pulling out of the WHO, reinstating the Global Gag Rule, and dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are decisions that will deeply harm people and set back decades of progress.

• They will block access to life-saving treatments.
• They will weaken already fragile health systems.
• And they will disrupt the momentum we’ve built, together, in transforming HIV, hepatitis, TB, and malaria from emergencies into manageable conditions.
• Even more, this policy shift also strikes at the heart of science itself.

Research, the kind all of us in this room do, is not just about numbers or papers. It is a lifeline. It’s how we develop better treatments, safer strategies, and more inclusive approaches. It’s how we learn what truly works — especially for the people most often left behind.

And now that lifeline is being cut short.

• Entire lines of research are being shut down.
• Data on key populations are being erased.
• Words like “abortion”, “bias”, “discrimination”, “equity”, “exclusion”, “transgender” or “woman” are being banned from official reports and scientific publications.
• Submissions from (CDC) researchers are on hold. Peer reviewers are stepping away. In the community, peer navigators and peer researchers, who play an essential role in connecting research with real-life care and outcomes, are being systematically pushed out of their roles.

Globally, scientists are being pushed to stay silent, and when science is silenced, people are put at risk, and people die.

If we can’t name the communities most affected…

If we can’t collect data on their realities…

If we can’t test solutions that reflect the diversity of real life…

Then our work loses its impact; our progress slows. And the people who most need science are once again excluded from it.

Community engagement in research is not a luxury, it is essential, because communities don’t just participate in research. We shape it. We help define the right questions. We build trust. We support follow-up. We make science matter.

And right now, many community organisations, those that have hosted studies, run trials, supported innovation, are being forced to close or scale back.

The future of new treatment options, long-acting therapies, self-testing, and prevention tools — especially for women and trans people — is in danger. In fact, as we all know, we’re already facing setbacks: the global HIV response is losing momentum; TB is resurging; Malaria still claims far too many lives — especially children’s.

This is not something we can or we will accept.

EATG stands firmly against this rollback. EATG stands fiercely in full solidarity with researchers, activists, and communities across the USA, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and beyond — with those who are already living the consequences of these political decisions and who continue to fight every day for access, equity, and dignity.

We urge the EU, European governments, and global health donors to step in. To take action. To stand up for the people and the progress we’ve made in our society.

We urge every scientist, every funder, and every policymaker here today:

Defend science. Defend communities.

Because this is about the society we want, about the future we want, and the one we refuse to give up on. As Sir Michael Marmot said today, we need not optimism, but hope. Let this be a moment of determination, not retreat.

Thank you.

Daniela Rojas Castro

Researcher

Secretary – EATG Board of Directors

About IWHOD:

The International Workshop on HIV and Hepatitis Observational Databases (IWHOD) brings senior and junior HIV and hepatitis observational database researchers together to advance the methodology and analysis of observational data. No other workshop or conference devotes attention to the methodology of setting up and analyzing observational data, despite their importance in providing critical information on population outcome in real world settings outside the controlled setting of randomized trials. We are once again aiming to include attendees representing cohort studies from all regions. As in the past, we encourage discussion of work in progress, so all data presented will not be publicised outside of the Workshop.