Tag Archives: HIV/AIDS

Watching The Defectives: My Annual Pride Rant

Gentle readers, I’m rerunning my annual Pride rant for the seventeenth year. I wrote this post in 2005 a couple of days after attending Pride in NYC. In the following years I’ve reposted it in advance of NYC Pride in the hope of encouraging you to attend your local events. While the pandemic has canceled this year’s festivities in many …

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Fauci Awarded $1M Israeli Prize For “Defending Science”

The Associated Press reports: Dr. Anthony Fauci has won the $1 million Dan David Prize for “defending science” and advocating for vaccines now being administered worldwide to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The Israel-based Dan David Foundation on Monday named President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser as the winner of one of three prizes. It said he had earned the recognition …

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NY Vax Portal For Immunocompromised Opens Sunday

Gothamist reports: New Yorkers with pre-existing health conditions can begin making appointments for COVID-19 vaccines at state-run sites starting this Sunday, February 14th. Governor Andrew Cuomo listed the details at Monday’s coronavirus press briefing. Cuomo said anyone who qualifies must bring a doctor’s letter or proof of their medical condition. They can also sign an affidavit in order to receive …

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Fauci Gets Lifetime Achievement Award From Elton John Foundation For His Historic Efforts On HIV/AIDS Crisis

CNN reports: Dr. Anthony Fauci’s effort to educate the public on the coronavirus pandemic has earned him scores of admirers, but his work on the global HIV/AIDS crisis saw him cheered on Tuesday by one star-studded fan — Elton John. “What a wonderful and fitting way to mark World AIDS Day, by honoring one of the biggest champions in the …

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BRITAIN: New HIV Infections Hit 20-Year Low In 2019

The Guardian reports: New diagnoses of HIV among gay and bisexual men have dropped to their lowest level in 20 years, according to Public Health England. A PHE report reveals that overall, across all genders and sexualities, the number of people with a new HIV diagnosis dropped by 10% from 4,580 cases in 2018 to 4,139 in 2019. There was …

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1993 Miss America Leanza Cornett Dies At Age 49, Was First To Adopt HIV/AIDS Awareness As Official Platform

Deadline Hollywood reports: Leanza Cornett, the American TV personality and former Miss America winner, has died at the age of 49 after suffering a head injury earlier this month. The Miss America Organization and her former husband Mark Steines both confirmed the death in separate social media posts. Reports said she suffered the head injury on October 12 and had …

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First Person Cured Of HIV Dies Of Cancer At Age 54

The Associated Press reports: Timothy Ray Brown, who made history as “the Berlin patient,” the first person known to be cured of HIV infection, has died. He was 54. Brown died Tuesday at his home in Palm Springs, California, according to a social media post by his partner, Tim Hoeffgen. The cause was a return of the cancer that originally …

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JMG Short Story: Ricky Loved Madonna

Gentle readers, today is Madonna’s 62nd birthday. Below is a short story that first appeared on JMG on this day in 2006, a date which, as you’ll see, plays a role in the story. Ricky Loved Madonna Twenty years ago today, August 16th 1986, I was a few months into a new job with AMC Theatres, a position that I …

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TOMORROW: Disney+ Launches Documentary On Life Of Late Oscar-Winning Lyricist Howard Ashman [VIDEO]

Kevin Fallon writes for the Daily Beast: Howard, the documentary on the life of legendary lyricist Howard Ashman, opens with sounds of an orchestra warming up before launching into the first notes of “Belle,” the opening number for Beauty and the Beast, at a 1990 recording session for the Disney animated musical. The new documentary, which launches on Disney+ this …

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Injectable Drug More Effective For PrEP Than Truvada

The Washington Post reports: A long-acting drug injected every two months is more effective at preventing HIV than the pills most commonly used by people at risk of acquiring the infection, according to research released Tuesday at an international AIDS conference. The drug cabotegravir was tested on more than 4,500 cisgender men who have sex with men and transgender women …

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Watching The Defectives: My Annual Pride Rant

Gentle readers, I’m rerunning my annual Pride rant for the sixteenth year. I wrote this post in 2005 a couple of days after attending Pride in NYC. In the following years I’ve reposted it in advance of NYC Pride in the hope of encouraging you to attend your local events. While the pandemic has canceled most of this year’s festivities, …

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BREAKING: Activist, Author Larry Kramer Dead At 84

The New York Times reports: Larry Kramer, the noted writer whose raucous, antagonistic campaign for an all-out response to the AIDS crisis helped shift national health policy in the 1980s and ’90s, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 84. His husband, David Webster, said the cause was pneumonia. Mr. Kramer had weathered illness for much of his adult life. …

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RUSSIA: Black Market May Hurt Availability Of HIV Drug

Reuters reports: A black market has developed in Russia for an antiviral HIV drug explored as a possible treatment for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, according to sellers, HIV activists and the head of the drug’s main Russian producer. More than 20 trials around the world are testing Kaletra as a COVID-19 treatment or post-exposure prophylaxis. …

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Next Week: Florida’s Winter Party LGBT Fundraiser

Let’s take a break from election infighting and virus doomsday scenarios for a thirsty look at next week’s Winter Party Festival, Florida’s longest-running and largest LGBT charity event, which has raised millions for local HIV/AIDS and LGBT rights campaigns. From the organizers at the National LGBTQ Task Force: Our work to lift barriers related to HIV/AIDS reaches across a number …

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NIH Trial Of Experimental HIV Vaccine Ends In Failure

From a statement by the National Institutes of Health: The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has stopped administration of vaccinations in its HVTN 702 clinical trial of an investigational HIV vaccine. This action was taken because an independent data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) found during an interim review that …

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Feds Sue Pharma Douche Over AIDS Drug Price Hike

Reuters reports: Martin Shkreli, the “pharma bro” in prison for defrauding investors, faces a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission and New York attorney general’s office for an alleged scheme to preserve his monopoly for the drug Daraprim, whose price increased by more than 4,000% in one day. The lawsuit accuses a company that Shkreli once ran of buying …

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Britain: New HIV Cases Have Dropped 71% Since 2012

The BBC reports: The number of people diagnosed with HIV in the UK has dropped substantially since 2012, according to figures released by Public Health England. Gay and bisexual men have experienced the most dramatic decline in new infections, with rates falling by 71%. It has been attributed to a rise in the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Campaigners are …

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LAWSUIT: Gilead Withheld HIV Drug To Extend Profits

The Washington Post reports: In 2005, Gilead Sciences notified federal regulators that it was suspending development of a potentially safer, more potent HIV-fighting drug than the one on the market. The company did not restart its Food and Drug Administration application until 2010. Now the five-year delay of a promising drug is at the core of accusations by advocates that …

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HHS Announces Free PrEP Medications For Uninsured

STAT News reports: In a bid to bolster a campaign to end HIV transmission in the United States, the Trump administration announced Tuesday that it will provide free pre-exposure prophylaxis — known as PrEP — for people at risk of contracting the virus who do not have prescription drug coverage. PrEP, which is taken daily, has been shown to be …

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Trump Promises To “Eradicate AIDS In 10 Years”

Yahoo News reports: President Donald Trump is wrapping up a quiet weekend at Mar-a-Lago in Florida before heading back to Washington. The President relaxed in the way he knows best, hitting the golf course for a round in one of the few places in the US where that’s possible this wintry weekend. But before getting back on Air Force 1, …

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