Thank you to Peter Staley, Michael Barbaro, and the crew at The Daily. Fabulous, one of the best podcasts, so great the way it went through the history of AIDS and the activist response. So many do not know this history! Such a horrible time for so many. Two of my close friends lost gay/HIV pos brothers to suicide in the early 90s. Just wondering how did Peter make it through those first almost 10 years before AZT was available, so glad he did...remarkable story and still so much work to be done to get treatment for all who need it regardless of where they live, socio-economic status, race, class, etc.
This was so good. Great job. Brought me to tears.
Cure? I live in Appalachia. Our HIV clinics (public health) are all deliberately located in far away places we simply can't get to. Even if we could, the rules and regulations (for sexual abuse survivors this means forced physicals and very rough exams that get repeated over and over again) how do we manage to overcome the dark depression that descends from day one of what public health calls treatment.
Actual HIV neighborhood ghettos are being formed because the poor need to get to the clinic so often or lose coverage.
This is torture, not care.
After you arrive at the clinic, you can wait six hours to be seen. The clinics are filthy. I have seen mothers changing baby diapers on the floor. I have gone to the public health pharmacy to be told they don't have the meds and try another time. It is hopeless.
They scream at you to stay in care, but how. Care is simply so often actually abuse.
Public health experts wring their hands in exasperation because the suicide of people in care is so high. The high incidence of suicide makes perfect sense to me. Punishment is endemic. It is institutional and unfair. Who wants to be consistently punished.
HIV treatment is in no way a cure for anything. Personally, I don't believe a word of it. There is always a jubilant journalism that seems desperate to point toward some mythical future. Meanwhile, most of us are stuck in public health clinics that have nothing to do with public health and a lot to do with stigma and humiliation.
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@Tim Barrus I know it may be impossible, but consider moving to San Antonio, Texas. I have bee HIV+ for 6 years and have received nothing but phenomenal care at UTHSC FFACTS clinic. The facilities are state of the art and beautiful too. The staff is friendly and does not look down on you if you are on assistance. I have never had a problem getting my meds and have been undetectable for 5 and 1/2 years now. Bless you on your journey to wellness.
This was one of the most moving episodes I’ve heard. With thanks to Dave Straly, I offer my apologies as a straight white woman who could have and should have done more to support ActUP. I highly recommend Rebecca Makai’s The Great Believers if you want to immerse yourself in a based-on-fact fictional depiction of a group of friends and their experience of AIDS from the late 80s to today.
In tears. My first husband and 6 dear friends all died of AIDS. Thank you so much for this episode. Peter Stanley, you are my new hero.