‘Trump Doesn’t Care About HIV’: Six Resign From Presidential HIV Advisory Council

“The Trump Administration Has No Strategy”

Six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) resigned this week, citing Donald Trump’s lack of interest or strategy to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Scott A. Schoettes, Lucy Bradley-Springer, Gina Brown, Ulysses W. Burley III, Michelle Ogle, and Grissel Granados all resigned from PACHA on June 13th, a decision that Schoettes, the Counsel and HIV Project Director at Lambda Legal, detailed in an editorial for Newsweek.

“As advocates for people living with HIV, we have dedicated our lives to combatting this disease,” Schoettes wrote, “and no longer feel we can do so effectively within the confines of an advisory body to a president who simply does not care.” 

Created in 1995, PACHA exists to provide advice, information and recommendations regarding programs, policies and research to promote effective treatment, prevention and cure of HIV and AIDS.

“The Trump Administration has no strategy to address the on-going HIV/AIDS epidemic,” he continued, “seeks zero input from experts to formulate HIV policy, and—most concerning—pushes legislation that will harm people living with HIV and halt or reverse important gains made in the fight against this disease.”

Schoettes noted that while both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders met with HIV advocates on the campaign trail, “candidate Trump refused, [missing] an opportunity to learn—from the experts—about the contours of today’s epidemic and the most pressing issues currently affecting people living with HIV.”

He further noted that Trump took down the Office of National AIDS Policy website the day of his inauguration, no replacement has surfaced, and that most importantly, “President Trump has not appointed anyone to lead the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, a post that held a seat on the Domestic Policy Council under President Obama.” (Obama, he pointed out, appointed someone 36 days into his administration.)

This is particularly troubling, he wrote, as “no one is tasked with regularly bringing salient issues regarding this ongoing public health crisis to the attention of the President and his closest advisers.”

Below, a current screenshot of the Office of National AIDS Policy:

“Because we do not believe the Trump Administration is listening to—or cares—about the communities we serve as members of PACHA,” the advocate wrote, “we have decided it is time to step down.”

“We will be more effective from the outside,” Schoettes continued, “advocating for change and protesting policies that will hurt the health of the communities we serve and the country as a whole if this administration continues down the current path.”

Schoettes’ full piece can be read here.

  

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Screenshot via The White House