Topics in the News: HIV-AIDS
Donald Trump on Health Care
: May 30, 2020
1993: Falsely claimed you may get AIDS from kissing
Trump's long history of spreading medical misinformation about disease outbreaks stretches back as far as 1993 during the HIV/AIDS crisis. While discussing his sex life on an episode of The Howard Stern Show,
Trump said, "I saw a report the other day, you may get AIDS by kissing." In one syndicated column from December 1992, Fauci carefully noted it was "extraordinarily unlikely" that healthy individuals can transmit the disease through kissing.
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Source: CNN K-File FactCheck on 2020 Trump Administration
Mike Pence on Health Care
: Feb 26, 2020
Smoking doesn't kill; 90% of smokers don't get lung cancer
On public health: "Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn't kill. In fact, two out of every three smokers do not die from a smoking-related illness and nine out of 10 smokers do not contract lung cancer,"
Pence said in 2000. Additionally, Pence has advocated teaching creationism in American public schools and, as governor of Indiana, had an HIV outbreak explode on his watch because he moved too slowly on approving needle exchanges.
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Source: The Daily Beast on 2020 Veepstakes
Donald Trump on Health Care
: Feb 4, 2020
Eradicate AIDS epidemic by the end of this decade
We are coordinating with the Chinese government on the Coronavirus outbreak in China. We have launched ambitious new initiatives to substantially improve care for Americans with kidney disease, Alzheimer's, and those struggling with mental health
challenges. And because the Congress funded my request, we are pursuing new cures for childhood cancer, and we will eradicate the AIDS epidemic in America by the end of the decade.
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Source: 2020 State of the Union address to Congress
Joe Biden on Health Care
: Oct 10, 2019
By 2021, ACA says insurance must pay for expensive HIV drugs
Q: With the high prices of prep and other drugs that help prevent HIV, what is your plan to make it more accessible, particularly to those in the most vulnerable communities and those without insurance? BIDEN: Under the Affordable Care Act,
there is a provision that by 2021, it will be available to anyone who has insurance, and all will be eligible for insurance. It will be available and the insurance companies must pay for it.
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Source: CNN LGBT Town Hall 2020
Kamala Harris on Health Care
: Oct 10, 2019
Federal funding for PrEP to prevent HIV/AIDS
Q: I was diagnosed with HIV when I was 20 years old. What will you do to combat the rate of HIV diagnosis in the communities that are most impacted, like mine, black gay men?HARRIS: Gay black men are twice as likely to contract HIV and AIDS.
One of the issues also that is relevant to this point is the affordability of medications such as PrEP, which is extremely expensive. I have been a leader in the US Senate to say that it should be covered by insurance and money should not be the
barrier to access to PrEP, which is obviously a life-saving drug. In terms of HIV-AIDS rates among black men in particular, it is still much higher because the hierarchy still exists within the community around access to health care, housing,
employment, and things of that nature. So I will, as president, I commit to you, deal with all of those, but also we need to deal with it in the context of having a commitment, which is my commitment, that within a generation we will end HIV-AIDS.
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Source: CNN LGBT Town Hall 2020
Marianne Williamson on Principles & Values
: Jul 1, 2019
Launched Project Angel Food: deliver meals to AIDS patients
In 1992, the Los Angeles Times called Williamson the "New Age guru of the hour." Some mocked Williamson, but she was also credited for launching Project Angel Food, a service that delivered more than 300 hot meals a day to housebound
AIDS patients in Los Angeles, and in March 2016 served its 10 millionth meal.
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Source: National Review magazine, articles on 2020 candidates
Donald Trump on Health Care
: Feb 5, 2019
Eliminate HIV/AIDS epidemic within 10 years
No force in history has done more to advance the human condition than American freedom. In recent years we have made remarkable progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Scientific breakthroughs have brought a once-distant dream within reach.
My budget will ask Democrats and Republicans to make the needed commitment to eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years. Together, we will defeat AIDS in America.
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Source: 2019 State of the Union address to United States Congress
Mike Pence on Principles & Values
: Oct 4, 2016
Clinton Foundation is platform for Clintons' world travel
PENCE: The Trump Foundation is non-profit. The Trump Foundation is a private family foundation. They give virtually every cent in the Trump Foundation to charitable causes. Less than ten cents on the dollar in the
Clinton Foundation has gone to charitable causes. It has been a platform for the Clintons to travel the world, to have staff. KAINE: The Clinton Foundation provides AIDS drugs to 11.5 million people.
Hillary as secretary of state took no action to benefit the foundation. But let's compare this with the Trump organization. His sons have said that the organization has a lot of business dealings in Russia.
And the Trump organization is not a non-profit. It's putting money into Donald Trump's pockets, whereas the Clinton Foundation is a non- profit and no Clinton family member draws any salary.
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Source: 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate at Longwood University
Donald Trump on Civil Rights
: Aug 23, 2016
1980s: personal lawyer gay & closeted & Trump kept secret
In the Fall of 1984, Roy Cohn fell ill, maintaining that he had liver cancer. But he was suffering from the effects of HIV infection. Trump had always known that Cohn was gay. Cohn was "invariably with some very good-looking young man,"
Trump wrote in his first book. "But Roy never talked about it. He just didn't like the image. He felt that to the average person, being gay was almost synonymous with being a wimp." If someone brought up gay rights,
Trump noted, "Roy was always the first one to speak out against them."As Cohn's health deteriorated, his unethical behavior as a lawyer caught up to him. A host of luminaries rose to defend Cohn's good character, including
Trump, returning to his friend's side and inviting him to visit Mar-a-Lago.
In 1986, Cohn was disbarred. He was fifty-nine. His friends held a memorial service for him. Trump attended, standing silently in the back.
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Source: Trump Revealed, by Michael Kranish & Mark Fisher, p.111-2
Mike Pence on Drugs
: Sep 24, 2015
Signed legislation allowing needle exchange
Officials report the HIV outbreak has mainly been fueled by individuals sharing needles used to inject prescription painkillers. John Gregg finds Gov. Pence's initial hesitation to address the issue troublesome. Pence signed legislation in May which
allowed the installation of a needle-exchange program, but by that time, the number of infected people already had reached 150."You know, that's asinine," Gregg said. "I mean, we've got to realize there's a drug problem.
And to say that we would not do a needle exchange, that's irresponsible. They're going to be using the drugs, and we might as well see to it that that's a great way to stop the HIV virus.
His attitude on that is akin to people who don't want to talk about sex education because if we don't talk about it, then, you know, the kids won't be procreating. I mean, how do you think we all got here?"
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Source: Kokomo Tribune on 2016 Indiana Gubernatorial race
Mike Pence on Foreign Policy
: Jul 30, 2008
$48B to Africa for AIDS program is a moral calling
In a rare display of bipartisanship in an overheated election-year, members of both parties and the White House joined forces to enact a five-year, $48 billion reauthorization and expansion of Pres. Bush's global AIDS program.
The measure was signed into law July 30. "We have people who can't take care of their own health needs and are at risk of losing their homes, and we are going to spend $50 billion in Africa?" asked Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA).
Pence, a fiscal conservative who supported the bill, saw it differently. "I believe
it's possible to be responsible to our fiscal constraints while being obedient to our moral calling," he said.
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Source: CQ Almanac 2008, "Global AIDS Programs Expanded"
Joe Biden on Health Care
: Jun 28, 2007
Got tested for AIDS after blood transfusion; no shame in it
Q: African-Americans, though 17% of all American teenagers, are 69% of the population of teenagers diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. What is the plan to protect these young people from this scourge?BIDEN: You're asking, how do we prevent these 17-year-olds from
getting HIV? All the things that were said here [by the other candidates] are good ideas; but they don't prevent that. There's neglect on the part of the medical and the white community focusing on educating the minority community out there. I spent last
summer going through the black sections of my town, trying to get black men to understand it is not unmanly to wear a condom, getting women to understand they can say no, getting people in the position where testing matters. I got tested for AIDS.
I know Barack got tested for AIDS. There's no shame in being tested for AIDS.
OBAMA: I got tested with my wife Michelle, in public, when we were in Kenya.
BIDEN: And I got tested to save my life, because I had 13 pints of blood transfusion.
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Source: 2007 Democratic Primary Debate at Howard University
Page last updated: Nov 02, 2024
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