No AIDS Vaccine in sight

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by NYTimes

Editorial
Grim Outlook for an AIDS Vaccine

Published: March 30, 2008
Back in 1984, federal health officials, flush with excitement over discovery of the virus that causes AIDS, famously predicted that they would have a vaccine ready for market within three years. Now, after almost a quarter-century of toil and struggle, the effort has crashed in failure. No one yet knows whether a vaccine to prevent the disease will ever be possible.

David Baltimore, a Nobel-winning biologist, sounded a note of despair in an address to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February. He noted that the virus has evolved in a way that makes it virtually impossible to attack by priming the immune system, the usual goal of a vaccine. Repeated efforts have failed, he said, leaving “no hopeful route to success.” The best hope, he said, may lie in the biological equivalent of a “Hail Mary” pass — a wholly new approach that would combine gene therapy, stem cells and immunologic therapy to thwart the disease.

At a conference at the National Institutes of Health last Tuesday, AIDS experts assessed how to proceed after the failure of the most promising vaccine candidate in two large clinical trials last year. Early results showed that those who received the vaccine may actually have been more likely to become infected with the virus than those who did not.

At least one organization that treats AIDS patients has called for giving up on a vaccine and shifting the money to testing, treatment and prevention. That is too defeatist. Federal health officials are rightly determined to increase financing for basic laboratory research, curtail big clinical trials of existing vaccine candidates, and funnel money to researchers with novel ideas. There is little doubt that a vaccine would be the most effective and cheapest way to shrink the AIDS epidemic.

Truly- for someone of my age- who came out in the decade of AIDS (80's), this editorial is truly depressing.

My God My God- why has thou forsaken us?

[tymejumper]

Originally Posted by Daniel

Truly- for someone of my age- who came out in the decade of AIDS (80's), this editorial is truly depressing.

My God My God- why has thou forsaken us?

I was about 15 or 16(still sleeping with a guy and having a crush on my boyfriends female friend) when I heard about the gay=aids. Remember GRIDS? I was just realizing that I was attracted and wanted to try sex with a woman when they started to say that only 'gay' people got it and you would die if you were gay, etc. Is it any wonder why I jumped back into the closet so darn fast?

In actuality, Regan decided to cover up that fact that in Africa, Aids was a straights only disease. For 20 years before it got to America, it was an epidemic in sex workers and other straights. That is why no one from Africa can give blood to this day.

It's really sad that people still think its from gay people only. I remember in the late 90's I waited on a gay man from Nevada, I knew his family well and waited on them for 5 years before I met him. He came in and others found out that her was Hiv+ and did not want to wait on him. I was mad because by then we knew that it was spread through body fluids, like blood. I was the only one who would wait on him and afterwards he was in tears and cried and said I was one of the nicest people he had ever met, and people were so scared to touch him or anything and thank you. I hugged him bye. He THANKED me for showing him humanity and hugging him! People would not even come by me for a long time, like a few weeks after that and they avoided me cause they thought, well who knows what they thought, but they were ignorant.

I found out he died shortly afterwards from AIDS. I felt sad that no one would treat him as a human. I still cry sometimes over it when I see how ignorant people are. I get so angry about the ignorance. There is no excuse for it.

[Vanessa White]

I have two trains of thought here, one more cynical than the other:

First, what a tragedy, and I do mean, tragedy, to ALL, gay, straight, adult and child, who have been impacted by this disease, and all of those that love them. What a complete and utter tragedy if indeed, this virus is so complex and so adept at changing itself that it is hard to catch up to and combat. How sad for all of us. AIDS hits home in a very personal way, for many of us here, I am sure. I feel defeated.

My other thought, however, is if indeed, more progress could have or would have been made if this disease had been seen as worthwhile to fight from the very beginning, if indeed those afflicted had been seen as "worthy" to fight for. Why do I feel like I am right in this regard? We have been dispensable in the gay community, as have the african american community when in comes to disease and violence on the streets. They are killing each other and themselves, was/is the view.

[Zerbie]

Originally Posted by tymejumper

I was about 15 or 16(still sleeping with a guy and having a crush on my boyfriends female friend) when I heard about the gay=aids. Remember GRIDS? I was just realizing that I was attracted and wanted to try sex with a woman when they started to say that only 'gay' people got it and you would die if you were gay, etc. Is it any wonder why I jumped back into the closet so darn fast?

I was 8ish/9ish when I first heard the reports. It made me want to lobby congress, AND take to the streets in marches. I actually begged my mom to type my letter to President Reagan and CC it to every member of Congress. Then I begged her to call NBC and get me interviewed opposite Falwell so I could refute his BS. (Teehee! The confidence of an 8 year old!) I even begged her to help me find "gay liberationists" so we could hold rallies and marches together.

Let's just say mom didn't react at all well. in fact her reaction closeted me for the next 12 years.



In actuality, Regan decided to cover up that fact
*Was* there any kind of logic behind the administration's complete lack of response in those days?


It's really sad that people still think its from gay people only.

There is no excuse for that now. There was little to no excuse for it *then.* Remember the distinction between gay men and "innocent victims?"


I remember in the late 90's I waited on a gay man from Nevada, I knew his family well and waited on them for 5 years before I met him. He came in and others found out that her was Hiv+ and did not want to wait on him. I was mad because by then we knew that it was spread through body fluids, like blood.

Oh heck! We knew that by the late 80s, didn't we?? Those people had no excuse.

I was the only one who would wait on him and afterwards he was in tears and cried and said I was one of the nicest people he had ever met, and people were so scared to touch him or anything and thank you. I hugged him bye. He THANKED me for showing him humanity and hugging him!

I found out he died shortly afterwards from AIDS.
I still cry sometimes over it when I see how ignorant people are. .

Thank God for you, Tyme!!!

I was on verge of tears reading that.
What you did was give a dying man what he needed most of all, to feel loved and valued. To know that someone cared about him and what was happening to him.
What a horror that so many had to die without receiving the message that anyone cared about them! It was a nightmare, and you did the most important thing of all for that man. Thank God.

Late 90s? Geez, no there was no excuse.

In the late 90s I registered as a professional massage therapist.
We were required to take a 3 hour 'ethics' class for state registration (this was in Texas). The instructor announced that he had saved the last 90 minutes of class for an important topic. He started with a hypothetical scenario:
"Let's say you're in practice as a massage therapist and a new client comes to you for a massage. Let's say that you find out somehow that he's a homosexual. How many of you would proceed with the massage anyway?"

I was nearly livid - wondering why on earth he would ask a question like that. My hand flew up, defiantly, and I was ready to launch into an angry tirade challenging the relevance of his question. Then I happened to glance around the room.

There were 30 massage therapists in the room.
Anyone care to guess how many hands were raised?
(The answer is at the bottom of this post.)

Originally Posted by Vanessa White

My other thought, however, is if indeed, more progress could have or would have been made if this disease had been seen as worthwhile to fight from the very beginning, if indeed those afflicted had been seen as "worthy" to fight for. Why do I feel like I am right in this regard?

You *are* right. That was said. That was the general mindset for the first 5-10 years of the epidemic.

Thanks to ignorance like that, we lost YEARS in doing anything to actually combat the disease.


*****

The number of massage therapists who raised their hands was: two. (One was me, the other was a lesbian gal.)