If bravery is determined by the way someone reacts in the face of steep adversity, I recently had the privilege to speak to a room of some of the bravest people on Earth: people living with HIV/AIDS.
A blind eye towards AIDS in the 1980s allowed this pandemic to spiral out of control. But in the 1990s, activists, scientists, and policy makers worked together and made great advancements in treatment, care and research. Scientific breakthroughs combined with leadership drove advancements in the last decade. Unfortunately, that momentum has slowed to a crawl.
We are perilously close to reverting back to the same dismissive attitude that allowed the scourge of the 1980s turn into the pandemic of the 1990s. I have worked in Africa and have seen firsthand how AIDS can ravage populations when governments begin to weigh ideology and fear over science.
In 2003, 40 million people around the world were living with HIV/AIDS. More than 60 million people have been infected with HIV since the pandemic began. There were 5.8 million new HIV infections in 2003, or almost 14,000 people per day. For gay and bisexual men, the rate of HIV rate is on the rise for the first time since record lows during the Clinton administration.
Over the past four years, George W. Bush's wrong choices and failed policies have hindered the fight against AIDS both at home and abroad. Bush has consistently proposed cutting and under-funding AIDS programs. In fact, Bush owns only one groundbreaking achievement in AIDS funding: he is the only president since the advent of the epidemic who tried to flat fund the Ryan White Care Act.
Earlier this year, the Bush administration stopped two dozen government scientists from presenting at the International AIDS Conference. Just last year, a Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services spoke in Atlanta and said that abstinence was the 'only appropriate strategy' against HIV. That might be conservative, but it is hardly compassionate.
Thankfully, this November we have a choice.
I was proud of my father when he signed on as an original co-sponsor of the Ryan White CARE Act and as president, he will continue to lead the fight against AIDS with solutions based on science, not ideology. John Kerry knows that we must accelerate the research and development of more effective and affordable drugs. He will give new incentives to the National Institutes of Health and further push the pharmaceutical industry to develop an effective vaccine. A Kerry administration will live up to my father's pledge, 'We cannot set our sights lower than finding a cure for AIDS.'
When elected, he will double domestic funding for HIV/AIDS and encourage states to expand Medicaid to cover HIV-positive Americans. In addition, John Kerry will keep funds flowing to cities, planning councils, and caregivers without ideological strings.
This November we have a choice. We will not settle for four more years of political rhetoric in lieu of funding for research and development. We will not idly watch while funding cuts and ideological stands replace sound science and a compassionate world view of a deadly epidemic. The effort to cure AIDS will not accept delays and will not be ignored.
Twenty years has taught us that we can't fight the epidemic shackled by ideology. We can't fight it without the right tools and the right science. And we certainly can't fight it without funding.
We need a new leader in the White House—one who recognizes that the battle against HIV/AIDS will not be won at a press conference, but in the laboratories and public health clinics around the world. AIDS will not be overcome by manufacturing a good photo opportunity, but through the pursuit of good science.
For more than 20 years, we have struggled against this epidemic, sometimes with despair, anger and hope, but always with bravery and strength. John Kerry has been a champion of this struggle and as president, he will provide the leadership and the resources to continue the fight. The men, women and, children battling this deadly disease deserve no less.
Vanessa Kerry is a medical student at Harvard Medical School and is the daughter of Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry.
