Times Square Protest for World AIDS Day

November 29, 2017 – Times Square was filled with nearly 100 protesters and thousands of onlookers on Wednesday night as ACT UP New York and sister direct-action groups Rise and Resist and others staged a ‘die-in’ action while educating passersby and visitors to the famed landmark on the eve of World Aids Day 2017:

Last year over one million people died from HIV/AIDS globally. Today, only 21 million people are accessing treatment for HIV/AIDS out of the 36.7 million people living with the disease. ACT UP asks “Why is HIV still going untreated?”

Thirty years after the founding of ACT UP, the messages are both loud and alarming: Trump has proposed plans to defund PEPFAR, eliminate global research and treatment, repeal the ACA, and most recently with the tax bill he and congress have made it clear they don’t care about people with HIV–except as a means for profit by pharmaceutical companies. They have recently sought to defund national and global AIDS efforts by over 1.7 billion dollars annually. So far, their efforts have been somewhat stymied yet congress still proposes cuts of $50 million domestically and $350 million to international efforts.

Trump and the Republicans appear uninterested in AIDS due to the fact that it is seen as disproportionately affecting people of color and other folks they consider to be societal outcasts (such as drug users and sex workers).

HIV criminalization continues to be a major issue from street corners to the ‘ends of the Earth’ as there are a total of 67 laws enacted in 33 states that explicitly focus on people living with HIV and an additional 71 countries also have laws–all that in varying degree require persons that have HIV to disclose their status to sexual partners or be jailed. The vast majority of laws were passed before studies showed that antiretroviral therapy (ART) eliminates the risk of HIV transmission and most do not account for HIV prevention measures, such as condom use, ART, or pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

ACT UP calls on legislators to eliminate these laws, especially because current evidence regarding HIV transmission risk shows no risk with those being successfully treated and because laws are not the best vehicle to reduce and eliminate the spread of HIV AIDS. ACT UP NY asserts that stigma caused by these very laws is a root cause of the continued spread of the virus.

PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) costs $7 per month to make and $1500 to take.

Undetectable = Untransmittable

The continuing problems of the unyielding spread of HIV/AIDS are clear: stigmatization and greed are the root factors that prevent the elimination of the spread of the virus. The cost of manufacturing an entire year’s drug regimen to successfully treat–and thus render the virus as untransmittable–is just $100 yet corporate greed, lack of funding and perpetuate stigma thereby prevent 42% of people living with AIDS from being treated.

This lack of treatment ensures the HIV epidemic’s continuance in that the drug companies have new infections, as “warehoused”, to be added in sufficient, increasing numbers to maintain their market projections and their future year’s profit goals. The term “warehouse” is used internally at drug companies among executives, in boardrooms and with their analysts, to describe the future profit potential they calculate based on the numbers of untreated “market” in the future.

Treatment has been proven to work to eliminate HIV-transmission yet those in power don’t want treatment for all because that would soon decrease profits. The cutting of government funding, misinformation-fueled stigma and sufficiently high drug prices ensure future market and continued profit potential.

ACT UP asks that you take action NOW and call Sen. Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to tell them we need full funding for our domestic and global AIDS response. Even if you called earlier this year or have written or signed petitions, we now need to be loud and clear to Congress.

Chuck Schumer
New York City: 212-486-4430
Albany: 518-431-4070

Kirsten Gillibrand
New York City: 212-688-6262
Albany: 518-431-0120