Breakthrough: FDA Approves 1st long-acting injection to prevent HIV (and awful WH response in the 80s)

Having lived through the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s a vaccine to prevent HIV (human immunodeficiency virus - the virus which becomes AIDS - Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is long overdue. Finally, over 40 years later we have our first vaccine against HIV. We know several people who passed from AIDS in the 1980s when they were in their 20s and 30s.    Vaccines are amazing things (As we know during our COVID-19 pandemic).  

   Side Note: Then President Reagan called it a "gay disease" and refused funding for vaccines in the 1980s. In fact, he made Budget Cuts! - You can read the History of that injustice at the end of the article). NOW, here's the GOOD NEWS:

 1st long-acting injection to prevent HIV has been approved by the FDA

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The world's first injectable medication to reduce the risk of acquiring HIV has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency announced Monday (Dec. 20).

The injectable drug — called Apretude or its generic name, "cabotegravir extended-release injectable suspension" — provides an alternative to daily pills for HIV prevention, such as Truvada and Descovy. These pills are up to 99% effective at preventing the sexual transmission of HIV, but must be taken every day to be that effective, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

By contrast, to start Apretude, people initially receive two shots, spaced one month apart, and then they receive an injection every two months thereafter, according to the FDA statement.

Full Story: Live Science (12/21) 

PRESIDENT REAGAN'S HEARTLESS RESPONSE TO THE AIDS CRISIS - The Atlantic ran an article about Ronald Reagan's awful reponse to AIDS (click for link to article) 

In short: The Reagan administration responded with massive budget cuts to public-health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control. 

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the nation’s main backer of biomedical research, was also struggling with a funding squeeze. The president of the United States did not so much as publicly utter the name of the disease until September 1985. Even then, it was only because a reporter brought it up at a news conference. 

Not until the spring of 1987 did Reagan give a major speech about AIDS. By that time, the disease had already struck 36,058 Americans, of whom 20,849 had died. The Reagan administration’s unwillingness to recognize and confront the AIDS epidemic has gone down in history as one of the deepest and most enduring scars on its legacy.

Reagan believed that homosexuality was sinful. In the spring of 1987, he discussed the AIDS epidemic with the biographer Edmund Morris and said that “maybe the Lord brought down this plague,” because “illicit sex is against the Ten Commandments.”

Full Story:  

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/04/full-story-nancy-reagan-and-aids-crisis/618552/