Somewhere in between talk of migrant caravans and attack against Robert Mueller , Trump used his State of the Union savoir-faire to announce his newly substantiate commitmentto eradicating HIVfrom the United States by 2030 .
“ In recent years we have made noteworthy onward motion in the fight against HIV and AIDS , ” Trump told the hearing .
“ Scientific breakthroughs have brought a once - distant dream within ambit . My budget will ask Democrats and Republicans to make the needed loyalty to winnow out the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years . Together , we will defeat AIDS in America . ”
Of course , wipe out a life - modify , possibly disastrous disease is a mission we can all get behind . And while it is an ambitious mark , it ’s not unrealizable . However , Trump has not put forward any existent indications on how he contrive to give this end ( other than a vague prayer for cross - party cooperation ) , and if retiring action are anything to go by , the administration is doing far more to hinder than help progress on the whole HIV - obliteration front .
Not only has Trump done his best togut fundingfor the Affordable Care Act , a lifeline for many mass with and without HIV , but he has actuallydefundedresearch into the disease andsackedhis 16 - person HIV / AIDS advisory venire . Hazarding a guess here but that ’s not a good start .
Still , perhaps even more hypocritically , Trump announced his new finish while standing in front of Vice - President Mike Pence – a valet de chambre who , for the record , is largely responsible for one of the worst outbreaks of HIV in recent years .
That is because as Governor , Pence oversaw cuts to public health funding that resulted ina spike of HIV diagnosesin rural Indiana between 2011 and 2015 . Despite clear-cut evidence that disease transmittance was mostly drive by needle - share-out , he refused to heed the advice of officials and put off write out an executive edict that would have permit fair needle substitution program to help stanch the crisis . ( He did , eventually , change his intellect after spending some sentence implore on the affair . And it worked . )
It ’s also worth notice Pence has very strong notion about pre - marital sex ( believes inabstinence - only education ) andthe LGBT+ communitythat may get in the way of his efforts to take down HIV .
This inconvenient small fact has not gone unnoticed on Twitter .
And not to forget Trump in all this :
To sum up :
On the positive side , Trump nowknows the differencebetween HIV and HPV . So , there ’s that .
[ H / T : The Daily Dot ]
