Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
For Some HIV Advocates The Trump Administration's Past 'Actions Speak Louder Than It's Words'
President Donald Trump has vowed to end the nation鈥檚 HIV epidemic in a decade 鈥 but to do so, he鈥檒l need to win over skeptics in the health community and on Capitol Hill, tamp down concerns from faith leaders and navigate hurdles inside his administration. The ambitious State of the Union pronouncement has been undermined by Trump鈥檚 own actions: He鈥檚 tried to cut nearly $1 billion in global HIV/AIDS funding, roll back protections for patients living with the disease and strike down health benefits for LGBTQ Americans. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of distrust between the community and the administration, understandably,鈥 said Carl Schmid, deputy executive director of the AIDS Institute, who was recently tapped to help lead Trump's advisory council on HIV/AIDS. 鈥淭his could be a good opportunity to show they鈥檙e committed to this.鈥 (Diamond, Cancryn and Ehley, 2/9)
In the summer of 1985, Mike Petrelis was savoring life as young, openly gay man in New York City. He'd landed a cool job working for a film publicist who mostly handled foreign art films. He'd found an affordable apartment 鈥 not far from the gay mecca of Greenwich Village. Then one day, Petrelis noticed a sort of blotch on his arm. He went to a doctor, who ran a new kind of test, and gave Petrelis the verdict: "You have AIDS." (Aizenman, 2/9)