Bill Gates, in a speech this afternoon to the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna, speaking about the slow roll-out of HIV prevention and treatment efforts:
Two decades ago, the skeptics said: “We can’t make drugs to treat a virus.” But you persisted – and now they can. Then the skeptics said: “We can make the drugs, but we can’t make them cheap enough.” But you kept pushing – and now they do. Then the skeptics said: “We can make the drugs cheaply, but we don’t know whether people will stick to the regimen.” But you insisted – and now they know.
Gates gave a presser immediately after the speech, in which he was asked a question about the Robin Hood Tax, a tiny 0.05% tax on currency transactions that would raise at least $700 billion a year to help fund HIV treatments and prevention.
I don’t think that would work – I’ve heard a number of experts from the financial sector say they don’t think that would work. So no, I’m not in favour of the Robin Hood Tax. [1]
Aren’t those the same arguments he just criticised a few minutes before? Is he blind, hypocritical or just dumb?
Note 1. Not a direct quote, but an accurate representation of what Gates said. Sorry I didn’t get it down verbatim.
Having spent the last six weeks gallivanting around Europe and the Middle East, you’d think I’d have become used to culture shock by now. Arriving in strange countries where you don’t speak the language and have no local currency, crossing international borders in the middle of the night – yes that’s all part of the rich tapestry of travel. But on Saturday morning I found myself in the first (pre-conference) session of the International AIDS Conference – after six weeks of holidays that was quite a culture shock in itself.
“Oh yes, AIDS,” I thought to myself. “Where were we?”
It hasn’t taken long for the old instincts to kick back in and I’m working my arse off getting to sessions, meeting people and talking, thinking, living, sleeping, eating and drinking nothing but HIV for the whole week. Vienna is nice enough although it wouldn’t have been on my list of cities to visit had it not been for this conference.
I have a nice apartment in Kuttenbrückegasse which, to my surprise, is conveniently located directly across the road from Vienna’s most popular gay sex club. Naturally I have not ventured in there, being the paragon of moral rectitude I am, but the front entrance is visible from my apartment window and I have set up an infra-red video monitoring system so I can blackmail all the AIDS Conference delegates that I catch going in and out. Please have your chequebooks ready when I call as I have a big holiday to pay off.
Things are moving swiftly here and it looks like there could be some exciting news on microbicides tomorrow. I really enjoy these events and get really energised about my work, but they run from dawn to dusk every day and there is little let-up, so they are exhausting. There are some photos in this Flickr set and that will be added to over the week. Plus I’m doing some posts for napwa.org.au if you want the serious take on what’s happening.
Last week’s arrest of an African-Australian circus acrobat accused of transmitting HIV to a Queensland woman has, predictably, generated more than its fair share of media excitement.
In some ways it’s this particular case represents is a kind of perfect storm for reporting about criminality and HIV transmission: not only does the alleged perpetrator conveniently come from deepest, darkest Africa (racism is well and truly alive) but he’s devastatingly handsome and has conveniently left a trail of news-ready shirtless photos and even video of his appearances on a TV talent show.
Plus, he has “admitted to having sex with a number of women in several states” (in other words, he’s cooperating with the police investigation, although you won’t hear it put that way in the press) so we readily have the ‘hunt for victims’ angle and the story gets to run for days and days as we get trickle-fed details about his life and the trail of broken hearts he has presumably left in his wake.
At this point it bears pointing out that one woman on the Gold Coast has tested HIV-positive; she is the complainant that led to the investigation and his subsequent arrest and extradition. It has not yet been proven that he is the source of her HIV infection, and he is entitled to the presumption of innocence until such time as it is.
But you might think differently if you don’t read the media carefully (emphasis added in the following quotes):
AN HIV-infected circus performer who had sex with up to 12 women without telling them of his medical history will appear in a Queensland court today, as health authorities continue to search for the women involved. (‘Zimbabwe-born acrobat to be tried for infecting women with HIV’, The Australian 26 May)
A HIV-positive circus acrobat who appeared on Australia’s Got Talent has triggered a national health scare after allegations he had unprotected sex with at least 11 women, including some from NSW. (‘Hunt is on for HIV man’s partners’, Daily Telegraph 26 May)
GODFREY Zaburoni allegedly boasted about sleeping with more than 500 women and sometimes brought home three different girls a week, says one of his former flatmates. (‘Zaburoni’s drunken boast of conquests’, Gold Coast Bulletin 27 May)
THE tragic story that dozens — possibly hundreds — of young women may have been infected with HIV by one man is a timely reminder that more education is needed of this deadly modern plague. (‘Awareness of AIDS will save lives’, Gold Coast Bulletin editorial, 27 May)
Is this the evolution of a moral panic? One woman has been confirmed HIV-positive, then within days there are 11, 12, dozens, hundreds of women imagined by the media to have been infected with HIV. Then to top it off we have the crucial detail that his Facebook profile “has more than 300 friends, many women.” So has mine, and probably yours.
These are my remarks for the launch of World AIDS Day 2009 this morning at Parliament House in Melbourne.
Since its inception in 1988, World AIDS Day has provided a moment for all of us to reflect on the impact HIV has had in our lives and communities, to recommit ourselves to ending the HIV epidemic, and to remind the broader community that, while HIV may have almost disappeared from the headlines, it is still with us.
Below is the text of my President’s address to the Annual General Meeting of People Living With HIV/AIDS Victoria, on 18 October 2009.
The last year has been a busy one for PLWHA Victoria, and there is much we can be proud of. Our organisation is strong, highly professional and our dedicated staff and volunteers deliver work of high quality that makes a real difference to people’s lives.
But I don’t want to use these few minutes listing our achievements: our Executive Officer, Sonny Williams, will cover the year’s activities in greater detail. You can also read about them in the Annual Report, which will be available at the end of this meeting.
Instead, I want to ask a question: why are we here?
British artist Luke Jerram’s glass sculptures of microbes including HIV, SARS, H1N1and smallpox are strikingly beautiful.
Says the artist:
These transparent glass sculptures were created to contemplate the global impact of each disease and to consider how the artificial colouring of scientific imagery affects our understanding of phenomena. Jerram is exploring the tension between the artworks’ beauty and what they represent, their impact on humanity.
Yesterday I spoke at an ARCSHS forum on HIV and the media – Reckless Transmissions: Engaging with the news media around sexual health – along with Michael Hurley, Daniel Reeders and Abi Groves.
An interesting discussion looking at the way the media reports on HIV, especially the way gay men are presented as ‘complacent’ (Reeders) or, when they come before the law, as members of a ‘seedy underbelly’ or ‘sinister subculture’ (Hurley). My presentation focused on the ways that community organisations can try to have positive stories about people with HIV reported in the media, as a counter to all the ‘bad’ news. Abi Groves introduced the AFAO media guide, Reporting HIV in Australia: Information for Journalists 2009.
There will (probably) be a podcast of the event at some point in the future. In the meantime a copy of my slides is below in PDF form.
Governments around the world – including Australia’s – are implementing new border protection measures to protect their populations from swine flu.
Here’s my simple recommendation for Australia:
1. Immediately ban all incoming travellers who arrive by air, no matter who they are or where they come from. Planes are notorious incubators of viral respiratory illnesses.
2. The only legal method for entering Australia will thus be by sea, with arrivals in leaky Indonesian fishing boats earning extra points for effort. (Those coming by faster boats will henceforth be referred to as “queue jumpers”.)
3. Obviously, the long sea journey will ensure any arrivals who make it into Australian waters are H1N1 free.
After nine years, two months and 11 days, yesterday I said goodbye to efavirenz. I’ve continued to have good results with this well-loved combination, but the side effects have finally worn me down.
Efavirenz causes most people who take it to have a range of central nervous system side effects – things like sleeplessness, vivid dreams, agitation and so on. It’s kind of like getting stoned, except not in a nice way and every single day. To combat this, you take the drug at bedtime which means at least you’re asleep when you’re fucked up, except when you’re lying in bed wide awake, which for me has been part of almost every night for the last nine years.
The official line is that these side effects usually go away after a few weeks, but for me they continued in one form or another for the whole time I was on the drug. Occasionally the effect can be moderately amusing, verging on lucid dreaming. Occasionally it can be deeply disturbing. Mostly its just annoying and often means I wake up more tired than I was when I went to bed. But I’m a stubborn bugger and I put up with what I felt were manageable side effects so that I could be sure of being on the best therapy available to combat my HIV. In those nine years I’ve never had a detectable viral load, so I’m pretty happy I stuck with it.
Lately it’s started to veer more towards the annoying/disturbing end of the spectrum. More than a few times lately I have woken in the night (or dreamt that I was awake – it’s hard to tell which) and been unable to remember who is the person in bed with me. I’m not interested in not knowing who my husband is, so I decided it’s time to change at last.
When I started that combination at the end of the last century, I was running out of treatment options and the efavirenz was really my last good chance – another reason I stuck with it. In the intervening period there’s been a bunch of new drugs come along, some good and some not so good, so I do have more options for the future, although almost all of them involve taking ritonavir, which I prefer not to.
With some forceful argument on my part, yesterday my doc agreed that the best option for me was etravirine, the new (not yet licensed) non-nucleoside being developed by Tibotec, so he got me onto the special access list.
It’ll be interesting over the next couple of weeks to feel the efavirenz wash out of my system and my fevered brain return to normal. I have a slight fear that after so long on this drug my brain will either have become addicted to the efavirenz (in which case I’ll go into withdrawal) or my brain chemistry will have been permanently altered by it (in which case I’ll have to put up with the symptoms anyway). But I have no reason to think these things beyond my normal paranoia.
So it’s goodbye to efavirenz and hello to etravirine from this point on. Hopefully I’ve made the right choice.
Christine Maggiore, the notorious AIDS denialist who barely escaped felony charges in 2006 after her baby died untreated for HIV, has herself succumbed to the disease she claimed did not exist. [Joe. My. God.]
Poz.com blogger Peter Staley reacts to Maggiore’s death:
What should we call it? A suicide? What should we call it when a woman dies because she refuses to believe she has a treatable illness? And what should we call it when a woman lets her baby daughter die because she refuses to believe the baby has a treatable illness? A murder? AIDS denialism has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths in South Africa (see my previous post explaining why), and now two more here in the U.S. Any other idiots want to kill themselves or their children today? Anyone else out there with an HIV diagnosis want to just believe it’s a harmless virus?
