Consistency in HIV Information Across Public Resources:
A Nonpartisan Strategy to Improve Public Health & HIV Knowledge.

All legal changes are logistically complicated for the involved agencies to implement. What these asks are is legislatively simple, as well as popular: The public wants accurate, consistent health information from government agencies, especially in the era of COVID-19. If these changes are written narrowly, it will be easy to find support for them. Implementation by the Depts. of Education and Labor may be more challenging, but opposing the dissemination of accurate public health information due to bureaucratic inconvenience is not an easily defensible position — especially if a law has been passed requiring the Departments to make changes, and many of the agencies’ own employees support those changes. In some cases, compliance could be as simple and cost-effective as requiring posters to be hung in schools and workplaces so that people in need know where to look for reliable information.

A) Sex Ed and HIV Ed are already regulated separately and considered separate health topics. They are controversial for different reasons, and it is common for communities to support one but not the other. By regulating them separately, there is a protective effect on HIV Ed when Sex Ed is under attack (and vice-versa). Though not ideal, it is possible to teach about HIV without teaching about sex (and vice-versa). Oftentimes, HIV is covered only briefly in comprehensive Sex Ed classes, as there are many other topics to cover.

B) Secondly, and more importantly, Sex Ed and HIV Ed are regulated separately because HIV is first and foremost a chronic illness that is transmitted several different ways, not just sexually. By only teaching about HIV in Sex Ed, we forget that it is a common, lifelong chronic illness with a risk rate of approximately 1 in 70 here in New York State — this is one of the reasons HIV Education begins in Kindergarten, while Sex Ed typically begins in middle school. We must teach students how to manage and live healthfully with HIV, not just how to avoid it. Focussing on HIV as a preventable and treatable chronic illness has become easier with the advent of medicinal prevention (pills) in the forms of PrEP and TasP, which work for all transmission methods (including non-sexual ones). By giving HIV lessons their own dedicated instructional time and materials, including for young children, we ensure that it is covered thoroughly for the many students who already live with HIV in their families or communities.

No. BBP materials should provide accurate information on transmission methods, prevention, and treatment options for both HIV and applicable strains of hepatitis, making the differences between them clear. Right now, many BBP documents are written such that anything that is true for one BBP appears to be true for all of them, even if this is false. Breaking down the differences between HIV and hepatitis transmission, prevention, and treatment will reduce stigma and improve outcomes for all BBPs.

New York City has passed supplemental labor laws in the past, to, e.g., regulate the construction industry or ensure protections for hourly workers. Requiring workplaces in New York City to post health and safety information that is more detailed than what is required by the State fits within the requirements of OSHA/PESH, and may result in statewide changes due to NYC’s influence on NYS law. The related resolutions (page 4) demanding reviews of federal and state OSHA/PESH BBP regulations should encourage similar changes at other levels of government, which could be duplicated from NYC’s, if our supplemental law is written and implemented well.

A) By setting durable, high standards, all City resources become more consistent and medically-accurate over time without increasing spending. Rather than update everything at once, changes to each set of materials should be made each time they are reviewed during future scheduled updates, ensuring there will be few additional costs beyond what was already going to be spent on those updates. In the majority of cases, it will be possible to modify existing HIV resources using information from trusted City agencies, like the DOHMH, as regular updates occur. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.

B) HIV information resources reach about 20% of New Yorkers during our already-required work and school HIV lessons, including high numbers of people from the most at-risk demographics. By improving information quality for the general public, we improve information quality for the demographics the general public is composed of, and reduce doubts about inconsistencies.

C) Ensuring City resources – especially DOE and workplace resources – are consistent and regularly checked for medical accuracy will reduce HIV exposures, transmissions, and associated costs over time by improving both public knowledge and trust in local government. Even requiring just one consistent, well-placed safety poster can make a huge difference – Heimlich maneuver posters are a perfect example.

D) The City may be able to sell or license any HIV resources it chooses to develop – such as an educational module for students, trainings, or printables – to other jurisdictions, which are likely to be interested in copying our regular medical accuracy updates if they are written and implemented well. There is also precedent for Departments charging workplaces fees for printed materials in order to recoup costs.

A) Virtually all HIV/AIDS advocates, and advocates in related areas, are in favor of the changes we’re proposing, and data indicates the public is as well. In fact, the public — and many AIDS advocates! — think the HIV information shared with students and employees is medically accurate already, and are surprised to learn it isn’t. We have behind-the-scenes support for these asks, but would like to have a bill number for at least one of the proposed changes before publicly circulating a formal sign-on. This will ensure the sign-on is meaningful and actionable.

Requiring government agencies to share medically-accurate information is common-sense and bipartisan. The only opposition we’ve identified is from:

• a) People responsible for implementing the changes, who are concerned that they will be burdensome. We respond to this by saying that the Depts. of Education and Labor are already required to share HIV information with the public, and what we are proposing is that the information government agencies are already legally required to share be updated for medical accuracy whenever they are next updated, and thereafter at regular intervals of no more than 10 years.

• b) People who mistakenly believe that HIV advocates are calling for biased or political information to be taught. We respond to this by saying we are asking only that the HIV information shared by the Depts. of Education and Labor be consistent with the medically-accurate information already shared by other trusted, nonpartisan government agencies like the DOHMH, CDC, and NIH.