Bush’s Global AIDS Plan won’t start until 2005.
The clock is ticking now.
AIDS NOT AN EMERGENCY, FOR SOME

For Immediate Release

February 12, 2003

Contact Kate Krauss 215-545-3104

(Philadelphia) Activists have scrutinized President Bush’s ambitious new global AIDS plan and concluded that because of the duplicative structure of the plan and Federal budget contingencies, the money will not be available to people with AIDS until 2005. “This new project won’t be up and running for two years—that’s six million deaths from now,” commented Michael Lauro, a member of the AIDS Policy Project and Survive AIDS (formerly ACT UP Golden Gate). According to UNAIDS, people with AIDS are dying at the rate of 3.2 million per year. The Bush program seeks to treat only 2 million people in five years. Meanwhile, forty-two million people are currently infected with the virus.

“It’s like calling 911 and having to wait two years for the ambulance,” says Lauro. “You’ll die first.”

The Bush plan, which includes $10 billion in new money, provides only $200 million per year for the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria. In contrast, the United Nations has requested at least $2.5 billion from the US per year, 12 times more than the proposed US contribution. Lauro said that instead of contributing money to the Global Fund, the Administration is counting on developing a brand-new, as yet unnamed mechanism for administering AIDS programs that observers agree will take years to put in place.

The Global Fund, however, has been operational since 2001 and has already disbursed two rounds of grants. In the process, it has overcome many of the obstacles inherent in building a large, international infrastructure. As a multilateral fund, any US money added to its coffers puts direct pressure on European nations and other countries to make their own contribution. The Global Fund is also mandated to include people with AIDS in its decision making, and has built-in mechanisms to ensure that the best plans get funded. Says activist Clare Martin, “Contributions to the Global Fund this year could go directly to programs that are up and running. They could save the lives of people who are hanging on—now, not two years from now.”

“In an epidemic, the time to start is now,” commented Stephen LeBlanc, another member of the AIDS Policy Project. “Well, I thought that was evident,” he added.

Activists are suggesting that the Administration move $1.2 million directly into the Global Fund via an immediate Emergency Supplemental to the 2003 budget. The AIDS Policy Project is also requesting that billions be added for the Fund as part of the 2004 federal budget (the US “fair share” contribution for AIDS, TB and Malaria based on the US proportion of world GDP).

“President Bush has asked Dr. Fauci to work on this; why can’t he administer a large contribution to the Global Fund, where it can start saving lives immediately?” commented Martin. Anthony S. Fauci, MD, the head of the NIH’s National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a highly respected scientist, was the primary architect of the Bush plan.

The AIDS Policy Project Asks that President Bush:

Introduce $1.2 billion in new money for the Global Fund as a 2003 emergency supplemental spending bill so that the money can begin saving lives now, in 2003.

The AIDS Policy Project is a brand-new, US-based AIDS activist organization based in Philadelphia and San Francisco.