Posted on June 20, 2017
Source: CNN
"Six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS resigned last week, owing to 'a president who simply does not care,' one member wrote in a Newsweek op-ed on Friday headlined 'Trump doesn't care about HIV. We're outta here.'
'We cannot ignore the many signs that the Trump Administration does not take the on-going epidemic, or the needs of people living with HIV, seriously,' wrote Scott Schoettes, the HIV project director for Lambda Legal, a civil rights organization focused on the LGBT community and people living with HIV. Schoettes was appointed to the advisory council during the Obama administration.
Schoettes said that advisers on the council, known as PACHA, had suspected the president's 'lack of understanding or concern' for HIV/AIDS issues during the presidential race, but decided to stick around in hope of making change from within the administration.On Inauguration Day, however, they noticed that the Office of National AIDS Policy website had been taken down.
'There was no mention of people with HIV anywhere (on the government website),' Schoettes, who is openly HIV-positive, told CNN.
Since becoming president, Trump has not appointed anyone to lead that office, vacant due to the change in administration, said Schoettes.
'This means no one is tasked with regularly bringing salient issues regarding this ongoing public health crisis to the attention of the President and his closest advisers,' Schoettes wrote in the op-ed. He said the piece was endorsed by other council members who resigned: Lucy Bradley-Springer, Gina Brown, Dr. Ulysses W. Burley III, Grissel Granados and Dr. Michelle Ogle."
