Trump Administration Takes Huge Step Toward Ending AIDS
I am pretty critical of Donald Trump and his administration, but credit must be given where credit is due. Yesterday evening, Trump retweeted a series of tweets from early May by Sec. Alex Azar (the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services), which announced a huge step along the path of ending AIDS in the United States. The official statement from HHS.gov explains that the Trump Administration has arranged a deal with pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, the manufacturer of the drug Truvada (Tenofovir Emtricitabine). The details of the deal include arrangements to provide access to Truvada for PrEP for 200,000 Americans per year for up to eleven years.
Truvada is a once-per-day pill which can be taken as a preventative for those at an elevated risk of HIV exposure, a group which consists largely of men who have sex with men. When taken consistently, Truvada for PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) has been found to be significantly more effective than condoms at preventing HIV infections that result from anal sex with an HIV-positive partner.
The Department of Health and Human Services website explains that this initiative by the Trump Administration to end the AIDS epidemic could reduce new HIV infections by 90% by 2030. This is absolutely groundbreaking news.
I am a big proponent of PrEP; I personally use Truvada and can attest to its effectiveness. If you are interested in learning more about PrEP or how you can get it for free (with or without insurance), please feel free to reach out to me and/or check out this info packet from the CDC.
It is also worth pointing out that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently received a lot of well-deserved media attention for calling out Gilead Sciences CEO, Daniel O’Day, for the outrageous price of Truvada in the United States (nearly $2,000 per month, for those without insurance), given that it is available in other countries for dramatically less (just $8 per month in Australia).
Unfortunately, neither the right-wing nor left-wing media outlets decided to give the Trump Administration much recognition for their undeniably positive work in securing access to this drug for Americans who need it, because it doesn’t fit their established models of relying on identity politics to draw in audiences. It must have been unfathomable for Fox News to consider recognizing Donald Trump for doing something to benefit gay people, given that so much of their support of him is founded on his appeal to their largely homophobic audience. Similarly, it would have been nearly impossible for any of the left-wing news outlets to give Trump credit for helping gay people, because so much of their negative coverage of him is predicated on the fear-inducing idea that he is homophobic and poses a threat to LGB Americans. This is a perfect example of why identity politics is so harmful—an unarguably positive story from Washington got practically no airtime because it didn’t benefit the news outlets to present it, even though the story itself is extremely beneficial for their audiences.
Both the left-wing and right-wing media have been on this path for a while, and the LGB people of America have played right into the identity politics. The truth is that Donald Trump is not out to get LGB people. In fact, he promised to protect them:
“As your president, I will to everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens”
(Crowd cheering)
“And I have to say, as a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said. Thank you.”
—Donald Trump, RNC Nomination Acceptance Speech, Jul. 21, 2016
Additionally, there’s this photo of Trump holding a rainbow flag at a campaign rally in Greely, Colorado, adding further support to the idea that Trump genuinely wants to make a positive impact for LGB Americans.
Whether you think his previous claims of supporting LGB people were genuine or not, this latest move is definitive proof. Working to provide Truvada for PrEP for 200,000 people has the potential to be the greatest impact of his term, and it very well could be the nail in the coffin for the AIDS epidemic in the United States.