Posts of: NMAC

The 2020 United States Conference on AIDS has over 3,300 registrations. Please be sure to register for free before we reach 4,000.

Dr. Anthony Fauci* will keynote the Federal Plenary on Tuesday, Oct 19th. The session will ask our federal leaders for the next steps in our efforts to end the HIV epidemic. COVID-19 has changed everything, including the way we provide HIV prevention and care.The good doctor does not need to hear from me that a movement stands behind him. I am so proud of the way the HIV infrastructure is being used to fight COVID-19. The COVID-19 Prevention Trials Network is a merger that includes the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (PVTN), the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), and the AIDS Clinical Trials Group. This clearly documents the value of our country’s investment in HIV and why Congress must increase HIV funding. Here is more information if you are thinking about volunteering to be part of a trial. As we learned on last week’s webinar from Dr. Stephaun Wallace, they need a diversity of people to volunteer for these trials, including People Living with HIV.

What We’ve Learned from Attending Other Virtual Meetings
Virtual meetings are new to most of us. Recent experiences showed NMAC that training in advance on the conference platform is vital to a good conference experience. USCHA will use multiple training tools including online manuals, webinars, and real people to provide technical support. The next two USCHA webinars will happen on:

Staff is putting together “advance” workshops to serve as models for presenters. These early sessions will be online to collect feedback on the learning formats and to give presenters an example of USCHA’s expectations. The goal is to create a “good learning experience” for communities working on the frontlines of the epidemic and to educate and train them on the latest HIV prevention, care, and wrap around services in a COVID-19 world where Black Trans Lives Matter.

If we can, we will also have a version of the conference platform online prior to the start of the meeting. It will be an opportunity for registered attendees to use the new technology in advance. Staff will use this time to get feedback and uncover any problems in advance of the start time.

Throughout my career, I’ve had the pleasure of working with countless members of Congress on an array of LGBT civil rights bills: Senator Ted Kennedy, Rep. Barney Frank, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Elijah Cummings, Rep. Jim Clyburn – while these distinguished leaders are heroes in their own right, my greatest honor was working with Rep. John Lewis.

Congressman Lewis recognized that oppression of a few is oppression for all.

Imagine if you will being a gay black man living with HIV in the ’80s.  The oppressing societal stigmas are dire.  Like a carpenter sanding 100-year-old floors, Congressman Lewis removed decades of stain from our souls.  For as long as he served in Congress, no civil rights bills were passed without his support.

Congressman Lewis recognized that in order for civil rights to be achieved, we must be vocal and vigilant.  His vision also included standing alongside LGBTQ Americans during their struggles for equality.  Mr. Lewis was extraordinarily passionate about LGBTQ Americans, particularly people of color.  He recognized the stigma gay black and brown Americans faced in their own communities – and he led an historic effort to change perceptions.

I remember the contentious debate over the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).  Those of us who were the architects of that historic legislation were very much aware that former President George W. Bush had every intention of vetoing the bill, but that mattered not for Congressman Lewis. In fact, he was adamant that for laws like ENDA to be enacted, the LGBT community needed his voice. And it is because of the powerful voice of Congressman Lewis that we were able to pass this landmark bill – the first LGBT civil rights bill to pass Congress. I invite you to watch Congressman Lewis’s speech and listen to his words.

It didn’t end there. While Congressman Lewis was instrumental with the successful passage of major laws like the Matthew Shepard and James D. Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the reversal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” he championed several lesser known, but very important pieces of legislation like:

Quite a record.

Like millions of Americans, all of us at NMAC deeply mourn his passing.  We recognize that COVID-19 may prohibit you from paying your respects to Congressman Lewis, his family, and staff. I invite everyone who wishes to express their love for Congressman Lewis to email me your comments. I’ll forward them to Michael, his Chief of Staff.

Finally, as we part with this larger than life hero, let us continue to fight for full equal rights – even if that fight includes #GoodTrouble.

Information about COVID-19 is rapidly changing. Our next webinar is an update on the new virus and the work that is being done in response.  Dr. Stephaun E. Wallace* from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center will lead the discussion. The webinar will provide an update on the COVID-19 vaccine trials and what that means to communities. NMAC is working with the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN) to bring our movement the latest information. In addition to webinars, the CoVPN will host workshops at this year’s United States Conference on HIV/AIDS. As a friendly reminder, the Abstract Deadline is July 17th.

REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR HERE

The COVID-19 webinar is on Thursday, July 16th at 1 PM (Eastern)/11 AM (Pacific). All of NMAC’s webinars are free and open to everyone. Webinars not only provide information, they train staff and potential USCHA attendees on various technology platforms being used for distance learning.The COVID-19 Prevention Network (COVPN) was established by merging four existing NIAID-funded clinical trials networks: the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), based in Seattle; the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), based in Durham, N.C.; the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium (IDCRC), based in Atlanta; and the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, based in Los Angeles, along with other collaborators. It is important to point out how the HIV research infrastructure is supporting the search for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Treatment education, whether it’s about HIV or COVID-19, is core to our work. Both viruses are infectious diseases that disproportionately impact People of Color. Solutions to ending either epidemic depend upon effective treatments and/or a vaccine. As we have learned in HIV, having tools that work is only the first step. You have to be able to convince people to take the drugs or get the vaccine. That is a complex challenge. Our unequal medical infrastructure combined with a mistrust of the government can create real barriers to ending either epidemic. Black Lives Matter is about addressing these inequities in our society. The color of your skin should not impact your access to medical care and it should not determine your belief in government but, for too many, it does.

America is hurting, more people are unemployed, and the future is uncertain. This year’s United States Conference on HIV/AIDS will hold a Virtual HIV Jobs Fair. The meeting is free for the first 4,000 participants; however, you will need to register because we are almost sold out.

What Is A Virtual HIV Jobs Fair?
USCHA and our online jobs bank are working to be a “central” depository for HIV job openings, particularly jobs created to end the HIV epidemic in America. With over $300 million in new funding just for this year, our movement will have thousands of new professional full-time positions.

A virtual HIV jobs fair is our response to the need to be socially distant while looking for employment. Specific times will be set aside during the 2020 conference for participants to go the Virtual Exhibit Hall to meet with organizations with job openings. NMAC is giving free exhibit booths to the 57 jurisdictions that are targeted in this federal effort. Since these health departments will receive the lion’s share of the new funding, they or other organizations in their jurisdictions will have the most jobs to fill.

Participants attending the virtual jobs fair will be able to download job openings and upload their resume. They can also schedule Zoom informational interviews. Access to a computer or smartphone and the internet will be needed to participate.

Jobs=Racial Justice
Full time professional employment for the communities hardest hit by HIV equals racial and social justice for communities disproportionately impacted by racism, transphobia, homophobia, and sexism. We have the ability to transform the discussion of racial justice in America by just doing our jobs and hiring people from the communities hardest hit by HIV.

When NMAC set out to work with the administration to end the epidemic, our unstated goal was jobs and economic development for communities that shoulder the greatest burden of the epidemic. As we all know, our work to end HIV will only happen when we reach people living with HIV, people of color, gay men, Black women, drug users, and the transgender community.

Hiring People from Communities Hardest Hit by HIV
In our fight for racial justice, it is important for employers to understand the impact that racism has on the communities our efforts need to reach. College and previous professional employment are not a reality for too many in our communities. Drug and sex worker arrests are too common in communities that are over policed and under protected. White standards for employment are how our world keeps White people in leadership.

Sometimes you have to take a risk and hire staff who may not have all the paper credentials but do have the life experience. For many government agencies this is impossible. That is why it is important to outsource funding to community-based organizations set up by and for those communities. If we’ve learned nothing else, the last weeks/months have shown the great distrust between people and their government.

USCHA Needs Workshops on Recruiting & Hiring
To support people looking for jobs and to help organizations looking to hire, USCHA needs abstracts on the following topics:

Abstracts are due July 17th. Please consider submitting abstracts to help people find new jobs or for employers to learn how to recruit from hard to reach communities.

We are living in strange and unusual times. Between COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter, we are asked to reexamine our relationships to health and race. Since HIV sits in that same intersection, our future work can either demonstrate that we have learned the lessons or that history will repeat itself until we do.