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PWN is fighting to #endMHS (Molecular HIV Surveillance) and one crucial way to do that is to spread awareness of what MHS is and why it’s harmful to people living with HIV.

A recent article from Kaiser Health News, Critics Worry Government Surveillance of HIV May Hurt More Than It Helps, states:

“…molecular surveillance has met considerable opposition since it was rolled out nationally. Service providers, health equity advocates, and people living with HIV worry the risks of the approach outweigh the benefits, and their concerns have gotten louder as awareness of the tool grows. Some have called for the practice to stop until federal health officials address concerns about patient consent, data security, and the potential for HIV criminalization.

“’This program — without having safeguards and guidances attached to it — has the real capacity to cause damage,’ said Andrew Spieldenner, vice chair of the U.S. People Living With HIV Caucus, which has issued a formal call for the CDC to stop the practice.”

This is why it’s so poignant that a group of researchers using data collected from MHS decided to stop and listen to our concerns. Instead of publishing their original study, they asked themselves crucial questions about ethics in research and decided to pause their project, publishing instead the lessons they learned through this process.

Join us for a fascinating conversation with the authors of “Lessons Learned from Community Engagement Regarding Phylodynamic Research with Molecular HIV Surveillance Data,” a recently-published paper discussing the importance of consulting people living with HIV (PLHIV) about the research methods that affect our lives.

You know the state of things. On June 24th, the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion. States across the U.S. have already begun to eliminate access to abortion and anti-abortion lawmakers are pushing for the nationwide ban they’ve wanted all along.

Make no mistake: Abortion restrictions and bans are anti-Black, racist, sexist, classist and ableist. They are part of a larger tradition of state-sponsored reproductive oppression of marginalized communities in order to serve the interests of white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism.

Are you outraged? Are you furious and ready to fight? Join PWN-USA for our Reproductive Justice Teach-in. We’ll have a community discussion about what reproductive justice is, what it means for the HIV movement, and steps you can take for reproductive freedom.

Naina Khanna, co-executive director of PWN published an opinion piece on POZ.com detailing how the HIV movement finds its way from here. “PWN will do what we have always done. Ride with us if you want to survive,” she said.