our mission
Defend Public Health is an all-volunteer network of public health researchers, healthcare workers, advocates and allies fighting to protect the health of all from the Trump administration's cruel attacks on proven, science-based public health policies. We believe that everyone has the right to what they need for a healthy life, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity.
We began with a call put out on social media in late 2024 by public health researchers alarmed at what seemed to be coming from the incoming Trump administration on health policy, including appointments such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Dept. of Health and Human Services. Hundreds of healthcare providers, scientists, advocates and allies responded, and DPH was born.
We are now a fiscally-sponsored organization under the umbrella of the Peace Development Fund, a 501(c)3 nonprofit. You can make a tax-deductible donation through this page on their website.
We have a volunteer coordinating committee that meets weekly. Much of our work is planned and organized by working groups that focus on infectious disease, social health; healthcare and health insurance; sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice; defending institutions;disability justice; LGBTQ health; climate and environmental health, and communications. We hold monthly general meetings via Zoom which usually feature guest speakers from outside DPH as well as updates on our work.
We don’t have formal membership in the sense of dues-paying or card-carrying members, but our monthly general meetings via Zoom typically attract at least 300 participants. As of early September 2025, our email list had over 5,000 names and continues to grow.
Absolutely not. Many of us have been outspokenly critical of health policy decisions made under prior administrations of both parties. But there’s a difference between thoughtful reform and taking a chainsaw to what has been, overall, the most successful health policy and medical research apparatus that has ever existed in human history, and that is exactly what is happening now. We would love to pursue a positive agenda to improve U.S. public health, and we laid out the beginning of just such a positive agenda in our report, "Improving the Health of Americans Together," released in August, 2025. But before we can move forward with a proactive agenda, we must stop the destruction before too many lives are lost – and make no mistake, lives will be lost if things keep going as they’ve been going since Jan. 20, 2025.
If you’re not already on our mailing list, please join! You can also join one of our committees here. See our Get Involved page for any current campaigns or other opportunities.
