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Main Forums => AIDS Activism => Topic started by: bimazek on June 28, 2008, 12:47:21 pm

Title: Gay leaders, Aids leaders, HIV activists Washington DC meeting at
Post by: bimazek on June 28, 2008, 12:47:21 pm
What is the current landscape of protests and actions?
What is the current landscape of protest organizations?
What are they protesting to change re. hiv-aids?
Specifically is there anyone or any group actively protesting to or against or even working with large drug companies to increase funding for research for NON-TOXIC low side effect treatments/cures?
I guess this post is regarding activism for NON-TOXIC low side effect treatments/cures?
Is there anything going on in protest area?
Why or why not?

Partly because every day or week on the front page of this site there is another terrible side effect of the meds or of long term hiv even when a person is on haart, why is there not more protests, outrage, action?

Who is active?  Please post anything u know or have seen in NYC, SF, etc all cities of world.
Who and what decides how much money goes into research, congress, universities?

Please Post Summary of Current Protests Activism Grass Roots anger - action.

Would a bike ride be considered a protest?
Would a gay parade be considered a protest for more hiv research funding?  Are these things effective?

In the new paradigm world where 1% of population has/controls 99% of the wealth.   How do we best influence them to help us?  Who are they?  Can we have gay parades in gated communities of billionaires?

Or should we just stop cutting their wives hair until the sheer horror of the hair styles forces them to help with more industry/private/govt research funding for research...
Title: Re: Please Post Current Protests Activism Grass Roots anger- actions in cities
Post by: Dachshund on June 28, 2008, 01:44:16 pm
I guess this would be the perfect place for you to list what you're doing. Your protests, your actions, your tips for activist hair care.

Title: Re: Please Post Current Protests Activism Grass Roots anger- actions in cities
Post by: goatwriter on July 06, 2008, 03:28:33 pm
I am not currently involved in activism , but would like to be. For me the things that now make me angry , that I would like to work on , have less to do with treatment and more to do we public perception of hiv.
 Things like this guy getting 35 years for spitting at someone. And the fact that people can be prosecuted for non disclosure of hiv status, even when using a condom for sexual relations.  I think it should no longer be acceptable to class these things as reckless or endangering others, and certainly not something to criminalise.
 I think it is time to stop sensationalizing these risks. The 'risk' should be transported onto the untested. Not those hiv positive who are made into scapegoats, and receptacles for peoples fears.
 I would be interested to hear from anyone who is protesting, either on the ground, or in words, about these issues.
Title: Gay leaders, Aids leaders, HIV activists Washington DC meeting at
Post by: bimazek on July 24, 2008, 05:43:12 pm
House ready to OK $48B in global AIDS fight

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jb7JQ6VIFJu7UQB0ElCfWnkvUAGwD924AEN00

will this money actually get to the people who need it- aids people?
or will it be stolen by corrupt african or usa officials or companies like halliberton did in iraq?
or will it be bloated salaries for political cronies of corrupt african or usa officials or companies like halliberton?

will meds be funded that are famous for disfigurment, in other words for example in some countries the patents are broken on many meds but  the therapy people get may be the ones that cause them to have facial wasting, is this the "punishment" the puritan  bush repulsive republicans want to put along side and with their help, just as the poor and homeless listen to jesus lessons just to get fed at
many missions, is this cruel,

is it ethical to fund and give meds that are know to cause facial wasting causing when better patented drugs are available and could be funded at higher cost?

will this further stigmatize gays in the 3rd world? 

is the medical system advanced enough to handle the thousands of cases of mutated virus that will arise from lack of adhierence      and will this cause a worse later epidemic of resistant virus that will be unstoppable?

will the confluence of poverty, close proximity to chickens, exotic birds and other animals and jumping dna strands breed a super bug, like
sars or asian flu or worse some kind of super hiv virus in these poor countries

will the rights of gay people be supported or damaged will this help gay rights or does this have just say no republican idiot themes attached?

will prevention be pro gay

will treatment be given to certain connected groups and withheld from others, who, how is this decided who gets the meds     will it be along religious lines or some other immoral decision

one-third of prevention funds be spent on abstinence education -- are we demonizing sex and gay sex and that small group people who
may be medicating thier own mental illness with promiscuous sex, are we demonizing men who have a high sex drive or high testosterone levels with this funding?

inserted a provision that more than half of funds for AIDS programs go for treatment and care.-- what does the other half go for?  only half should it be 90% for treatment and care???

when hiv people in south carolina and puerto rico are dying because they cannot get meds, do we have any moral basis for
this

freedom of speech for gays in these countries
what about trans?



Title: Leaders Activists needed to pull meds out of labs with money grants
Post by: bimazek on August 04, 2008, 06:14:39 pm
Leaders Activists needed to pull meds out of labs with money grants

TREATMENT FAILURE compassionate use Drug Development hiv funding grants or
clinical trial investor costs   dev of new drugs very expensive

Can activists lobby congress, also leaders in hiv industry to give TAX BREAKS for NEW CLASSES of HIV meds or GRANTS for Different Stages of Dev. from congress for research, so that there is both a pull and a push for investors and investors in HIV meds  or  will the capitalist market be enough   especially since the big new checks congress is writing to buy hiv meds for africa and other countries, will this prime the pump?

if you want to know why and how aids meds take so long to get to market these charts and graphs on these links show why

one article below is about ten pages long it is a complex topic

another thing we can ask activists lobby congress, also leaders in hiv area and gay leaders to LOBBY for grants to PULL drugs that can help THOSE on TREATMENT FAILURE out of development and into compassionate use.  IT is only a matter of money in many ways how many new meds get into trials. 

TREATMENT FAILURE compassionate use Drug Development hiv funding grants or

TREATMENT FAILURE compassionate use Drug Development hiv funding moneys - matching funds for any trials for those who are on treatment failure for ALL meds

I guess one assuption i am making is that the thousands of aids patients who are dying each year are dying because there are no meds that will work and that the virus has mutated and this probably is only partly true.


http://www.the-scientist.com/toc/2008/08/01/

Financial Growing Pains of a Biotech

By some accounts, biotech is in trouble. Public equity investors are generally attracted only to late-stage companies, and only one biotech company has completed an IPO on a US exchange during 2008, at only about one-third of the original targeted valuation. Still, the industry remains quite lucrative. SAM HALL and ALASTAIR J.J. WOOD explain why.

http://www.the-scientist.com/2008/8/1/32/1/

The capital required for each stage of development varies, escalating significantly as a drug enters large clinical trials in the later stages of development. As a result of this growing demand for capital, different investor populations are generally involved in funding the very early versus very late stages of development.

The percentage of the company owned by founders declines significantly over time, despite significant increases in value with each successive round of financing. This effect is typically offset by the granting of stock options to founders and management in order to maintain their ownership positions at desired levels. (Series valuations based on Recombinant Capital estimates.1)


So, in this time of recession, biotech is a bad bet, right? Wrong.

Biotechnology is a pernicious business. Forty percent of all startups are shuttered after providing no return whatsoever to investors. A further 50% return something, but less than the capital invested.

This year, just eight biotechnology companies have filed for initial public offerings (IPOs), of which only one has successfully gone public. (For comparison, last year 35 went public.) Peter Winter of Burrill & Company says that "Companies will either disappear or tread water for a little bit."

So, in this time of recession, biotech is a bad bet, right? Wrong. I've been canvassing opinions from venture capitalists on the state of the industry and, surprisingly, they are fairly buoyant. Here's what I found.

Related Articles

Financial Growing Pains of a Biotech

Success from Failure
http://www.the-scientist.com/2008/8/1/13/1/
The Birth of Biotech

Big-time Biotech

There has been a transformation in biotech investment strategy over the past decade, such that the IPO numbers quoted above are pretty much irrelevant. As the feature by Sam Hall and Alistair Wood describes, a biotech's exit of choice is sale at one of several "inflection points" in a company's development.

Cash-rich legacy pharmaceutical companies (the 50 most profitable have $150 billion in reserves) are always on the lookout to fill their pipelines. And since there's a never-ending need for new therapies, market opportunities are pretty well limitless. (In practice, of course, there are substantial barriers: New products must be safe and more effective than existing treatments, and priced competitively to boot. Hence the eye-watering attrition statistics.)

Despite the high failure rate, the healthcare venture industry has provided steady returns over its 30-odd-year lifespan, another reason for its ongoing popularity. This contrasts with other technology sectors, which have experienced massive swings: Remember the dotcom boom, and the implosion that followed it? No sector is totally recession-proof, but biotechnology isn't suffering from an acute lack of funds at the moment.

In any case, the industry seems to have undergone a shift in thinking from more capital to efficient use of it - the key to success, venture capitalists agree. An analysis last year 1 revealed that the less capital invested in a company, the better the returns. The old ploy of grabbing as much funding as you can has been replaced by an idiom that, as a Scotsman and a small business manager, strikes me as second nature: Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.

Solid science is a prerequisite for success, but what else sets apart the 10% of companies that provide the returns on which the entire industry depends? There's no real mystery, it is discipline, focus, and experience.

Discipline means avoiding building unnecessary infrastructure and fancy facilities, as well as outsourcing wherever possible.

Focus means identifying the killer experiment. And doing it. And then being brutally tough on the implications of it. Spend, but spend intelligently.

Experience brings adeptness across the board. Examples: Knowing how to access grant money for business use, sharing management costs, structuring finance around major costs, ensuring you have quality commercial diligence to match your technical diligence, having clear go/no-go decision points, and knowing when to shut down a company.

These may seem fairly obvious, but a surprising number of companies lack this basic rigor.

Still, this tinkering is not going to be enough to transform biotechnology from a solid to a spectacular performer. That will require a quantum leap. What, for example, would it take to cut the cost of drug development in half?

http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/54879/


Biotechnology companies differ from other high-tech ventures in two ways. First, biotech products are highly regulated. The necessary demonstration of safety and efficacy is a long, risky, and capital-intensive process that drives a nearly insatiable demand for financing. Second, whereas most business models are focused on developing and then commercially marketing a product, biotechnology companies today are generally in the business of developing the value of their intellectual property (IP) and then monetizing that IP through licensure or sale to larger companies. These factors mold the financial life cycle of a biotech company from birth to success.

In the biotech boom of the late 1990s and into this decade, biotech companies matured relatively rapidly from conception to a point where their founders and investors could realize an attractive return on their efforts and capital. During this era, the initial public offering (IPO) was a readily accessible vehicle for early-stage biotech investors to achieve a substantial return on their investment, and public and private investors came to biotech companies in droves.
Title: AIDS leaders must start lobbying congress and gay orgs now to help poz
Post by: bimazek on October 05, 2008, 03:59:45 pm
if the democrats get in power "politico is reporting that the Democrats are on track to potentially reach a super-majority of sixty seats in the US Senate. Sixty is a very important number in the Senate because it neuters any attempt by the opposing party to block legislation by eliminating the opportunity to filibuster.If Barack Obama is elected President, such a super-majority would in both houses of Congress would give him the type of free reign that allowed Franklin Roosevelt to pass the New Deal during the Great Depression."

ideas for priorities - not in any order

-medicare or health care for all hiv poz people in usa

-purchase of some of the millions of empty homes for housing for poz people and also elder housing as poz people age

-some kind of modification to social security so that poz people who are on disability can contribute and earn a bit more money without loosing thier govt support

- some kind of revisit of the rediculously low govt support levels (esp during times of rising prices and hiper inflation)

-  massive modification to drug war (yes drug war is fine in columbia but not in usa)  treatment and mental health help

-  some kind of training or jobs program for gays poz and not poz

-  increase in research grants

-increase in grants for ASOs

any other ideas then please post

a real health care system in usa would help alot






Title: Re: AIDS leaders must start lobbying congress and gay orgs now to help poz
Post by: Miss Philicia on October 05, 2008, 05:23:48 pm
What's up with these public rants about "aids leaders" bim?  You always do this, but then never step up to the plate yourself.
Title: Re: AIDS leaders must start lobbying congress and gay orgs now to help poz
Post by: J.R.E. on October 06, 2008, 07:49:34 am
if the democrats get in power "politico is reporting that the Democrats are on track to potentially reach a super-majority of sixty seats in the US Senate.



http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=23492.0

Ray
Title: Re: AIDS leaders must start lobbying congress and gay orgs now to help poz
Post by: Joe K on October 07, 2008, 07:22:15 pm
I take great offense to the title of your thread.  Exactly when did AIDS activists and gay groups stop lobbying Congress to help pozzies???  How do you think we got the programs, that we have now, if not for the actions of thousands of AIDS activists?  And while our government is far from perfect, there are many people involved in politics who support the HIV community.  I suggest that if you want to discuss ideas that need attention, that is great.  However, you need to find a way to do it without slamming an entire group of selfless people.
Title: Re: AIDS leaders must start lobbying congress and gay orgs now to help poz
Post by: tokyodecadence on October 19, 2008, 12:14:53 pm
I'm not going sit here and yell at you, because from what I've been reading, that seems to be a huge part of what people do here :/ Q lastima.

In any case, I think people should stop treating positive people like lepers, and more like people struggling with a Chronic disease (yes, chronic disease. I say that because just like cancer, hepatitus, etc., with treatment, HIV can be checked, and a person can live a somewhat decent life). The whole "housing for pozzies" things just sort of came off to me in that manner, that's all.

One thing I do think though, is that there should be more youth-based initiatives for HIV. Being 18 (at the time), one thing I struggled with in attempting to get treatment was feeling like the odd man out, like I should have known better at my age, with so much information at hand, and that I'd be the only person around that was positive at my age (granted, A: I was in a commited, almost year-long relationship with someone who was pos and didn't know it, and B: I was in a beach/gofling suburb in the middle of florida, so I probably was the only one around, the fact remains :p) Obviously (and unfortunately) I was very wrong, and there are lots of people in my age group going through the same thing. But one thing I'm noticing, is that there are lots of stuff going on via the internet, I just think there should be more community-based youth programs for HIV youth. I'm actually contemplating partnering up with the LLAA and a few other hiv groups in the area to see what we can do :p



I also agree with you on the healthcare. If the healthcare system were to improve in its entirety, that would help:p



It should probably be noted as well, that the country economically tanking, so that help might not be right around the corner, not yet anyway. That's why we have the thousands of AIDS activists that killfoile mentioned! Become one Bimazek!



Killfoile those are some sweet ass tats, btw.
Title: Re: AIDS leaders must start lobbying congress and gay orgs now to help poz
Post by: Joe K on October 19, 2008, 03:46:12 pm
*BLUSH*
Title: Re: AIDS leaders must start lobbying congress and gay orgs now to help poz
Post by: Moffie65 on October 22, 2008, 10:22:03 am

-medicare or health care for all hiv poz people in usa

-purchase of some of the millions of empty homes for housing for poz people and also elder housing as poz people age

-some kind of modification to social security so that poz people who are on disability can contribute and earn a bit more money without loosing thier govt support

- some kind of revisit of the rediculously low govt support levels (esp during times of rising prices and hiper inflation)

-  massive modification to drug war (yes drug war is fine in columbia but not in usa)  treatment and mental health help

-  some kind of training or jobs program for gays poz and not poz

-  increase in research grants

-increase in grants for ASOs

any other ideas then please post

a real health care system in usa would help alot

Number one, done; and it is called Ryan White.  Fortunately it was created with incredible support and input from some real activists in the late '80's.

Number two, Cannot be done without doing same for those with Cancer and other "chronic manageable" diseases.  Constitutional law prohibits the state from doing such things anyway.

number Three, Done.  You are allowed to make up to $9,000.00 above youir SSDI, so that should help for the time being.

Number Four, Until the minimum wage is accellerated to at least $10.00/hr, there will never be a significant increase in SS  benifits.  Next year SS benefits are going to be raised by 5.8%, which is the largest raise in many years.

Number five, This is mandated under Ryan White.

Number six,  A jobs training for HIV- gays.  What country are you living in?  Shit, don't you realize that with our current political climate one of the most innovative leaders of my lifetime is having a hell of a time battling an old old battle worn supposed war hero.  I'm so very sure that one of the most aggressive, intelligent, independent subgroups of our society can get along well enough without the government supplying us with "Gay Jobs TRaining".

Number seven.  Research grants are not going to be increased until there is some stability in the economy under any circumstances.

Number eight.  We have been lobbying for more money for ASO's since about, oh, 1985, when there were virtually no grant monies available anywhere.  In the last eight years, those monies have dried up.  How would you suggest this be done?  Hundreds of thousands of HIV/AIDS workers all over this country are waiting to hear that answer.

All in all, it seems like the OP should probably do some activism, and civics homework.

Just my thoughts.
Title: Re: AIDS leaders must start lobbying congress and gay orgs now to help poz
Post by: denb45 on October 22, 2008, 11:22:03 am
*BLUSH*

Yes I like the tats too, nice work of art, and very sexy too  ;D WOOF!
Title: Aids housing, aids senior housing, aids retirement housing activism needed
Post by: bimazek on January 01, 2009, 08:51:50 pm
Aids housing, aids senior housing, aids retirement housing activism leadership needed

We need to have some leaders of the hiv community get involved in washington DC now at many levels to help provide housing for our homeless aids people in usa,

there are millions of empty homes, foreclosed homes, homes in every city that are being distroyed or sold at ten cents on the dollar to investors and we need a fund to by up these on national level or we will have a major housing problem in future

esp. gay seniors and our aging aids population

is there anyone who is a leader who can take meetings

perhaps it will take a joint venture between govt and a new charity

Aids housing, aids senior housing, aids retirement housing activism leadership needed
Title: Gay leaders, Aids leaders, HIV activists Washington DC meeting at
Post by: bimazek on January 11, 2009, 05:28:10 pm
Gay leaders, Aids leaders, HIV activists--- we must have a meeting asap in  Washington DC a meeting at the super rich offices of our "LOBByists" 

www.hrc.org
or
www.VictoryFund.org
or
ahf

etc

we must steer and map agenda... make sure there is help for hiv seniors, housing for hiv seniors,
health care for hiv and aids in usa

we must make sure our leaders do not focus only on

transgendered rights, rights to marry, gays in military, etc

we must push them to get meetings with obama admin early
and house and senate democrats

the owners of this site who are making money from the drug companies should be one of the main people who create these meetings in DC, if they can fly to every EXOTIC foreign hiv research meeting
with microphone in hand to do yet another repetitive interview  (the info is already in the papers published) 

they can get on a plane or train and get to DC in this historic time for a few months.

we need our leaders calling each other so that

change is made in new admin

that cannot be revoked when republican pukes who have have already nullified the election by tanking the economy (on purpose?) get back in power in 8 years.

now is the time to act

the numbers living with hiv are exploding in usa, because we are living longer, this requires planning




this is old link but gives the point
Gay Rights Groups Map Common Agenda. Priorities Include Right to Marry, Ending Restrictions on Military Service
ourhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14261-2005Jan16.html
Title: Re: Gay leaders, Aids leaders, HIV activists Washington DC meeting at
Post by: Peter Staley on January 11, 2009, 07:00:19 pm

the owners of this site who are making money from the drug companies should be one of the main people who create these meetings in DC, if they can fly to every EXOTIC foreign hiv research meeting
with microphone in hand to do yet another repetitive interview  (the info is already in the papers published) 

they can get on a plane or train and get to DC in this historic time for a few months.


While I no longer own AIDSmeds.com, I can't help but think this comment was meant for me and/or Tim Horn and/or David Evans.

I'm always perplexed when someone I've never heard of before (at least in the world of AIDS activism) starts demanding that those with well-known histories of effective activism immediately drop everything and do the heavy lifting on that someone's bright idea for changing the world.

I got a better idea -- get off your butt and do it yourself!
Title: Re: Gay leaders, Aids leaders, HIV activists Washington DC meeting at
Post by: anniebc on January 11, 2009, 10:16:32 pm
I got a better idea -- get off your butt and do it yourself!

I'd like to second that Idea, those in favour say Aye.

Jan
Title: Re: Gay leaders, Aids leaders, HIV activists Washington DC meeting at
Post by: Miss Philicia on January 11, 2009, 10:41:44 pm
Good luck getting any reply.
Title: Re: Gay leaders, Aids leaders, HIV activists Washington DC meeting at
Post by: YaKaMein on January 12, 2009, 12:25:18 am
Biz,
IMHO, it's insulting to Peter, Tim and countless others [many gone] who have been on the battlegrounds fighting and creating awareness for HIV treatment and prevention.

If you aren't already, get involved locally by joining a community advisory board or council, volunteer to start letter campaigns, phone banks, contact your local, state and national legislators, send letters to editors ... etc.

Take action and tell us about it. Inspire others. Start leading by example, I have.

Just, please stop blaming and whining. -YaKaMein
Title: Re: Gay leaders, Aids leaders, HIV activists Washington DC meeting at
Post by: Tim Horn on January 12, 2009, 02:16:58 pm
You NASTY little man.

For MONTHS, you have flooded these forums with the most incomprehensible, totally convoluted and most self-centered posts I've ever seen. And its never about seeking information to make you a better activist -- or an activist at all, for that matter -- but all about you, you, you... and about your own needs... and about helping you wrap your own incredibly thick head around your own diagnosis and your own future.

Who the hell are you to tell the "owners of this site" -- who, I assure you, aren't quite as rich as you'd like to believe or jet-setting like Anthony Bourdains of the HIV/AIDS world -- to make these meetings happen, when you obviously have no idea that Peter, David, Andy, Ann, Jan and myself already spend CONSIDERABLE time, on our own dimes and hours, organizing and attending the very same HIV/AIDS and gay-rights meetings that you seem to believe haven't even occurred.

I'll tell you what... like Peter suggests, I highly recommend halting your totally asinine and pointless Web searches and posts to these forums and actually GET INVOLVED. Man, what you don't know about the actual work being done is a lot -- and believe me, that says a lot more about you than it ever will about anyone else associated with this site.

Tim Horn
Title: Re: Gay leaders, Aids leaders, HIV activists Washington DC meeting at
Post by: Andy Velez on January 12, 2009, 02:37:26 pm
I'm totally with Peter on this one. ...or as Gandhi said, "Be the change you want."



Title: Re: Gay leaders, Aids leaders, HIV activists Washington DC meeting at
Post by: Moffie65 on January 12, 2009, 03:44:32 pm
I am going to take the liberty to weigh in here also. 

I don't know for the life of me who you are Bimazek, however everything you sloppily placed in the OP, is primarily unimportant.  That being said, if these things are so important to you, I suggest you get on that plane or train and get your fine looking self to Washington D.C. and get yourself known right now.  You have a limited time of about 8 years to pull off some magic and to get something accomplished.

I for one have tired of all those people like you who constantly beg for Activists like me to stop our lives, no matter how much we are doing for HIV work in our individual states; and jump to the latest plea for help from those lke you, who are perfectly capable of doing for themselves. 

When was the last time you went to a Ryan White annual planning meeting?
When was the last time you purchased a plane fare to attend a conference that was really mandatory for the work you were laying out at home?

I could go on, but I would be wasting my time and effort. 

Thankfully I got smart, and after 28 years of activism in my life; I retired so that youngsters like you could take over and do something creative. 

PLEASE DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S.  One of the most important things you must remember in Washington D.C. is that Aids is not a word, but an acronym, and must be placed in writing this way........    AIDS!!!!
Title: Re: Gay leaders, Aids leaders, HIV activists Washington DC meeting at
Post by: mewithu on January 13, 2009, 12:35:41 am
You have insulted all of us who are sick if you are not giving advocate information and what to do . If all yu want to do is insult people, that with which some of us still have energy to fight in the right orginazations then your wasting time and insulting yourself and all people with HIV/AIDS and their families.
Title: Re: Gay leaders, Aids leaders, HIV activists Washington DC meeting at
Post by: Dachshund on January 13, 2009, 11:00:30 am
I'm surprised that anyone is surprised by anything Bimazek posts. I mean c'mon he was given his own research thread in an attempt to try and control his meandering threads. We all know to try and engage him in discussion is futile, so why bother?

I expect he'll continue posting his unique, weird viewpoints on HIV. I stopped reading him long ago because it's my belief that he's not even positive.