Quilt panel displayed at the start of AIDS 2020

The 23rd International AIDS Conference opened on Monday, 6 July, with welcome words from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D San ​​Francisco) and Congressman Barbara Lee (D Auckland).

Aids quilt panels were displayed at San Francisco City Hall and Oakland City Hall on Monday morning to coincide with the opening. The conference was to be co-sponsored by two cities in the Bay Area, but it was switched to virtual format due to the crisis of COVID-19.

“San Francisco has always been at the center of the story of HIV and AIDS and always at the center of community-based research, prevention and care,” Pelosi said. “We understand that we suffer from it, we have the intellectual resources to learn from it, we work on it, and we don’t all share the same love we have for people with HIV.

Lee mentioned the “giant health disparities” that affect people of color, especially African Americans, many of which are common to HIV and COVID-19.

“I’ve been to Africa and many of the problems [there] Access, care, treatment, and prevention are the same in my district’s black community,” she said. We picked up what happened in San Francisco and across the country and put it in the cultural context needed for African American and Latin American communities. “

Dr. Anton Pozniak, Chairman of the International AIDS Association, recognized the remarkable situation of the first virtual conference in history.

“These are amazing times and decisive times,” he said. “Every conversation we have today is at the confluence of a new global calculation of COVID-19 pandemics and systematic racism. Making sure HIV remains a part of the conversation. And it’s our job to connect the dots between conversations.Our challenges We ensure that the benefits gained from HIV are not lost, the work to end HIV continues and the lessons of HIV apply. We need to double our efforts to get it done.”

Several sessions of the conference will focus on the impact of COVID-19 on HIV and AIDS, including interruptions in care and treatment, reduced use of PrEP, and delayed or discontinued studies.

“We’re not completely sure about the impact of COVID-19 on HIV,” Pozniak said.

AIDS quilt panel of city hall
Although the public release of the AIDS Memories Alkyts in San Francisco and Auckland did not happen as scheduled, members of the AIDS 2020 Regional Planning Commission and elected officers were at a quiet and socially separated ceremony at their respective city halls. Announced the panel at.

“We remember and respect the victims of the AIDS epidemic, so we welcome and use the lessons learned from the experience,” said Rebecca Kaplan, a lesbian Auckland council chairman who attended the announcement in Auckland. Let’s say.” “To successfully respond to the COVID pandemic, we need to respect science, ensure that prejudice does not undermine our response, and take steps to protect and value the entire community.

“HIV is not over yet. We need to keep protecting the community and each other, but we need to do more to respond to COVID-19.” Affirming that prejudice and discrimination undermine public health.”

Quilt co-founder Cleve Jones remembered that in 1987, Diane Feinstein occupied Room 200 with the first AIDS memorial on display from the balcony of the mayor of San Francisco City Hall.

“The quilt was never meant to be a passive memorial and its mission was to fight AIDS,” Jones told Barr, “The lesson we learned to fight AIDS today is that we have COVID- Very relevant when fighting 19 and it’s painful for me to see Many of the repeated mistakes.

“It’s a shame the conference has to be virtual, but that’s what it is.” When you actually get together in the same room, you get a lot.”

However, virtual meeting formats can also have advantages.

“It’s possible to be disguised as a blessing,” Lee said in a virtual meeting. “We will probably connect with more and more people. We really need to seize the moment and devote ourselves to making sure we are the AIDS-free generation in 2030.”

For more information and registration for AIDS 2020, please visit: www.aids2020.org

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