Another great piece on the hypocrisy and malfeasance of AHF dictator Michael Weinstein —
I’m slightly resistant to writing this piece, because it requires me to reveal some personal truths that have nothing to do with my politics (which I’m very used to expressing with little reservation). But a somewhat bizarre conversation is happening around a relatively new use for a not so new drug on the market. And much the same way as gay activists from Harvey Milk to Frank Kameny once proffered, coming out of the closet is the quickest and best way to turn a homophobic tide, it seems like there is a new tide, and a new closet from which to emerge.
“Michael Weinstein’s comments were not only idiotic and counter productive, they were designed to mock and humiliate people for making intelligent, and not necessarily easy, choices.”
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a relatively new HIV prevention approach where HIV-negative individuals use anti-HIV medications to reduce their risk of becoming infected if they are exposed to the virus. In 2012, despite efforts to derail it, Truvada became the first and only medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for HIV prevention. Doctors had been prescribing it off label well before the FDA approved it, and for good reason.
The use of PrEP is being hailed by some, including physicians as one of the most promising new drugs in the reduction of new HIV infections, which now total about 50,000 a year in the U.S. according to a recent Associated Press story that focused on PrEP or its brand name, Truvada.
As the AP story put it, the remarkable efficacy of Truvada has led to a “rancorous debate among gay men, AIDS activists and health professionals over its potential for protecting uninfected men who engage in gay sex without using condoms.” And how remarkable exactly? In a 2010 clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, even in those patients who didn’t adhere perfectly, their risk of contracting HIV still dropped by more than 90 percent. Yes, you read that correctly — 90 percent.
For those taking Truvada daily, as prescribed? A whopping 99 percent reduction.
The results of three successful PrEP studies, iPrEx, PARTNERS and TDF2 are pretty much incontrovertible. As Joe Biden would say, this is a big fucking deal.
[…] Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a relatively new HIV prevention approach where HIV-negative individuals use anti-HIV medications to reduce their risk of becoming infected if they are exposed to the virus. In 2012, despite efforts to derail it, Truvada became the first and only medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for HIV prevention. Doctors had been prescribing it …read more […]
What we see here is another example of how the gay community has made itself a force to be reckoned with. They do not forgive or forget when wronged. They don’t take up a cause-of-the-week and then move on to the next thing. Hard political practice has taught them that effecting change takes time and determination and patience.
No one knows this better than Michael Weinstein. It should indeed keep him awake for many nights to come because those he’s enraged with his vile opposition to life-saving medications aren’t going away.