Health Care Access

ANEA & AIDS United transition memo to the Biden-Harris administration  

Act Now: End AIDS (ANEA), in partnership with AIDS United, released their transition memo to the Biden-Harris administration asking that they to recommit to the Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America (EHE) and to center people living with HIV in the efforts.

They emphasize the importance of centering in the EHE plan those those who are simultaneously most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, like Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities.

In doing so, the memo calls out EHE’s singular focus on the biomedical aspects of ending the epidemic and demands that the next iteration work as a complement to what HIV advocates have been demanding for years: universal health coverage, racial health equity, housing assistance, food security, and support for all social determinants of health.

PWN is honored to have helped with the drafting of this memo as a member of the ANEA coalition.

New task force on health equity

President Biden created a new task force focused on health equity in the pandemic response which will be led by Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a Black woman who was previously an associate professor of internal medicine, public health, and management at Yale University.

The task force was inspired by legislation that Vice President Kamala Harris introduced in the Senate in April 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the health inequities faced by BIPOC communities that HIV advocates have decried for years. Not only is structural racism pervasive in our medical system, but BIPOC communities also face institutionalized barriers to accessing resources such as food, transportation, and housing.

The effects of this are plain: Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people contract COVID-19 and are hospitalized with COVID-19 at higher rates than white Americans. Worse, they have died of the coronavirus at nearly three times the rate of white people.

The creation of this task force is long overdue, and Dr. Nunez-Smith plans to waste no time in targeting medical resources and relief funds to vulnerable communities. She also knows that this alone is not enough and has stated she also hopes to be able to address “housing stability and food security and educational equity, and pathways to economic opportunities and promise.”

PWN has asked the Biden-Harris administration to prioritize these economic and social indicators of health as well. You can read more about our priorities for the new administration here.

Moderna working on an HIV mRNA vaccine

Moderna, one of the companies that created a mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, announced this month that it will use similar technology in three new vaccine development programs which it is starting this year. One of these programs will focus on developing an mRNA vaccine for HIV.

Currently, Moderna has two potential HIV vaccines in the preclinical development stage, both using mRNA technology. mRNA vaccines work by providing the body with a set of instructions for how to create a natural immune response which will teach the cells how to do so in the future if they encounter the virus.

The potential HIV vaccines are expected to enter Phase 1 trials this year. If you are interested in how mRNA could be used in HIV prevention, the topic will be covered during a session of the 4th HIV Research for Prevention Conference.

Economic Justice

Black women, who have suffered the highest rates of job losses, are most at risk of losing homes

Prior to the pandemic, Black women faced evictions at twice the rate of white people in at least 17 states. Now, about 30% of Black women are behind on rental payments, which is about twice the rate of white men and women.

While the federal government has placed into effect an eviction moratorium, it is unequally applied across the county, does not cover all situations, and does not forgive rental payments. Once the moratorium is no longer in effect, the entire amount of rent a person owes for the time the moratorium has been in effect will become due, and the predictable effect will be that there are mass evictions around the country.

On top of all this, economists are referring to the past year as the first female recession. By the end of December, only 44.6% of the jobs that women lost in February and April came back. While men lost jobs as well, it is clear from the numbers that overall, men gained more jobs by December than they had lost this year, and women had lost more than they had gained.

It will come as no surprise that Latina and Black women have struggled the most to re-enter the job market. About 252,000 fewer Latinx people were employed in December and about 26,000 fewer Black workers were.

On President Biden’s first day in office, he extended the federal eviction moratorium. While this is an important first step, it is simply not enough for these women who still do not have funds to pay for rent and for whom the threat of eviction looms overhead, especially as they struggle to reenter the job market.

The administration must take steps in the next COVID relief package to cancel rent for these communities facing mass evictions and deal with the underlying issues of housing insecurity and economic injustice rather than continue to kick this ever-present problem further down the road.

COVID-19 relief package and fiscal year 2021 funding

In late December 2020, Congress passed a fiscal year 2021 funding bill as well as a COVID-19 relief package. The appropriations bill provides $175 million to the Ending the HIV Initiative, which is a $35 million increase compared to the funding provided in fiscal year 2020 funding.

The Division of AIDS Prevention and Division of TB Prevention and Title X received the same level of funding as in fiscal year 2020, and the Ryan White program received a $35 million increase compared to fiscal year 2020 funding. The National Conference of State Legislatures has created a detailed bill summary.

The COVID relief package provided for $22.4 billion for testing and tracing for states, localities, territories, and tribes, including $2.5 billion to improve testing in minority populations and rural areas. It also increased weekly unemployment benefits by $300 and provided $600 relief checks to adults and children.

The relief package is insufficient to meet the moment, especially for women and caregivers. It does not mandate paid sick leave or family leave, only increases SNAP benefits by about $25 per month per family, and the cash benefits it does provide are far less than what is needed, given the economic fallout from the pandemic. With the incoming administration, we must push for a comprehensive stimulus package that provides real relief.

You can sign this Moms Rising petition asking Congress to sign into law President Biden’s COVID relief plan, share the petition on social media, and call your representatives (find them here) and tell them what you need to get through this pandemic.

Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice

Supreme Court’s decision on medication abortion

Ending Criminalization

New report draws on HIV advocacy to provide alternatives to sharing COVID-19 with police

Alternatives to sharing COVID-19 data with law enforcement: Recommendations for stakeholders, published in Health Policy, responds to the practice in some areas of sharing COVID-19 data with law enforcement. It presents an overview of the research demonstrating the harms that come from involving law enforcement in matters public health and case studies of Minnesota and Ontario which engage in COVID data sharing with the police.

The article provides seven alternatives to this practice, including the following:

• Decline to share COVID-19 data with police.
• Decline to build COVID-19 data infrastructures that are interoperable with law enforcement.
• Report improper data sharing.

North Dakota rejects HIV modernization bill

An HIV modernization bill sponsored by Representative Gretchen Dobervich in the North Dakota legislature was given a “do-not-pass” recommendation by the North Dakota House Judiciary Committee and subsequently voted down by the full House.

Currently, people living with HIV face up to 20 years in prison and a $20,000 fine if they are convicted of exposing a partner to HIV without their consent. While the state criminalizes exposure to other sexually transmitted infections, the punishment for other STIs is only a fine up to a $1,000.

The modernization bill, House Bill 1106, would reduce the punishment for HIV exposure to be in line with that for other sexually transmitted infection, a fine up to $1,000 and no jail time.

If you have questions about your rights and HIV criminalization, PWN has a helpful know your rights guide.

Ending Violence Against Women

Community Justice Action Fund’s new Policy Agenda prioritizes ending gender-based gun violence

The Community Justice Action Fund has released a policy agenda which recognizes the importance and need to prioritize ending gender-based gun violence. It specifically recognizes the disproportionate effect that gun violence has on Black women and transgender women of color.

As PWN recognizes in its policy agenda, intimate partner violence which often can lead to gender-based gun violence is a risk factor for women in relation to HIV acquisition. The Community Justice Action Fund is inclusive in its vision, calling for survivor support services catering to “the unique needs of women of color, inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, two spirit, trans and gender non-conforming people.”

Some concrete solutions offered include:

• Keep guns away from people who stalk, abuse, or otherwise harm women and LGBTQ people.
• Modernize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) to focus on community-based violence prevention instead of a carceral methods
• Envision policy that funds domestic violence and sexual violence community organizations, rather than solely funding SVU police units
• Provide robust funding for tribal nations facing an epidemic of sexual violence and femicide