04/21/2026
IF U SHARED THE BUSSY BUS U BETTER SHARE THIS!
San Francisco is proposing to cut the very programs that made it a model for effective HIV prevention.
Mayor Lurie’s budget would slash funding for HIV testing, prevention education, and linkage to care — the infrastructure that drove San Francisco’s HIV transmission rates to historic lows. These cuts don’t just harm individuals; they reverse decades of public health progress.
San Francisco has achieved dramatic reductions in STI rates, including a 24% drop in syphilis and an 18% drop in chlamydia in 2025 alone — progress that has outpaced the rest of the nation, where overall STI rates remain 13% higher than a decade ago. These results didn’t happen by accident. They are the direct product of investment in testing, treatment, prevention education, and innovative tools like doxy-PEP. Gutting that infrastructure now doesn’t just pause progress — it reverses it, at a moment when federal cuts are already threatening the national public health safety net.
Harm reduction services are also on the chopping block — and lives are at stake.
Programs that provide overdose prevention, and low-barrier healthcare keep people alive and connected to substance use treatment. Cutting harm reduction funding doesn’t make drug use go away — it makes it deadlier, and it pushes the most marginalized San Franciscans further from the help they need.
Cutting prevention now means paying far more later.
Every dollar cut from HIV prevention, sexual health services, and harm reduction creates downstream costs — in HIV treatment and care, emergency care, hospitalization, and lost lives. These programs are not optional expenses; they are cost-effective investments in public health that save the city money in the long run.
