Since the first reports of a “rare cancer seen in 41 homosexuals” were published in 1981, the condition we’ve come to know as HIV/AIDS has killed millions of people around the globe.
While the diagnosis was initially a death sentence, treatments like protease inhibitors have lengthened the lifespans of people with HIV by decades. The once a day dose of Pre-exposure prophylaxis—also known as PrEp—revolutionized safe sex practices with its effectiveness in preventing contraction of HIV.
The fight against AIDS has come a long way, but none of the above treatments are a vaccine.
That’s why President Donald Trump—after alluding to these advancements—got called out for off-the-cuff claims that scientists working toward a COVID-19 vaccine have produced a so-called “AIDS vaccine.”
Watch below.
Trump said:
“They’ve come up with many other cures and therapeutics over the years. These are the people, the best, the smartest, the most brilliant anywhere. And they’ve come up with the AIDS vaccine. They’ve come up with, or the AIDS, and as you know there’s various things and now various companies are involved…AIDS was a death sentence and now people live a life with a pill.”
It didn’t take long for the fact-checks to stream in.
CNN’s Daniel Dale pointed out correctly that Trump did…in a way…correct himself as he shifted the conversation to “therapeutics” but the correction was not explicit.
Others were not quite as generous.
For the 2020 budget, Trump’s administration proposed the largest ever cuts to HIV research and treatment funding.
