2023: The Year the HIV Vaccine Went to Die
I’ve been pondering writing a “year in review” post about the most important and newsworthy developments in AIDS in 2023, and there is a lot to choose from; however, my synopsis may be underwhelming. (I may do it regardless.) The story that is to me the most significant is the fact that 2023 is the year that any hope for an “HIV vaccine” went to die. For the first time since the beginning of AIDS, there are no active HIV vaccine trials happening anywhere in the world.
And, predictably, in the absence of any hope for a “vaccine for AIDS,” another alternative has been ushered in, and that alternative is PrEP, which is coming for everyone. As I’ve said before, I don’t think the push for PrEP ( which has been around since 2011, so why is it a big thing now?) is any coincidence. The powers that be were well aware that the quest for an “HIV vaccine” was in its death throes, and decided to promote “prophylactic drugs” effectively as vaccines. I don’t think I need to emphasize how dangerous this is.
Besides the death of the HIV vaccine initiative—which was originally promised, in 1984, to eventuate in two years—is there anything else that you’d like to suggest as a significant development in HIV AIDS or infectious disease in general this past year?
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The HIV hypothesis really has gotten itself into a corner. I'm sure the scientific establishment has convoluted theories about why the body's own neutralizing antibodies don't protect from supposed HIV infection, but their synthetically derived ones somehow would. How are they determining that a vaccine trial fails? A few years ago I read a story about a 'rare' PrEP failure I think in the San Francisco area. A guy had been on it for a couple years, and during the frequent testing there was a 'blip' of a positive on one test. So they ran another test and it was negative. But wanting to hedge their bets they ran another and it was positive. All the tests were in disagreement (antibody and genetic). So they literally just threw up their hands and decided to call him positive. I'm guessing it didn't cross their minds to question the veracity of the tests altogether.
But the big problem as I see it is that PrEP is seen as safe and effective. When you look up side effects they're always downplayed as being initial short-term ones during an adjustment period of several weeks or maybe a month. Bone loss isn't going to show up in that short time frame and so guys think that if they've made it past this early phase with no or little issues they're ok. How often are doctors testing for bone loss in men they see as not being at risk? The way I see is that young healthy guys who don't feel any negatives now taking these drugs are long-term borrowing from the future in terms of their health. This is also the case with statins, psychiatric drugs and just about any long-term pharmaceutical.
Fears of a positive Covid test sank even farther in 2023. I have even started telling people that they can get five days off work if they just test themselves right after getting a vaccine or in the middle of any inflammatory illness or allergic reaction. I considered marketing a test that will always be positive every time you use it - this guarantees a five day break. And if symptoms continue for a few days after that, who’s going to complain about a brief extension?
The fears of “Testing positive“ had already sunk to incredible lows after the initial tsunami of infectious fears came through starting in March 2020, And hopefully this lesson will protect us as we go forward.
The covid experience has offered an opportunity to re-examine things like hiv, and I’m grateful your work has come back to the light, Rebecca. Hopefully we can use this new awareness to help people take care of each other when they’re ill without quarantines, isolation protocols, etc.
That said, taking five days off can be good for you especially if used wisely. - a spiritual retreat might be a bit better than a five day binge, but who am I to judge, lest I also be judged? 😇