Biden HIV/AIDS strategy calls racism ‘public health threat’

By AAMER MADHANI

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration in its new HIV/AIDS strategy is calling racism “a public health threat” that must be fully recognized as the world looks to end the epidemic. The strategy released Wednesday on the annual commemoration of World AIDS Day is meant to serve as a framework for how the administration intends to shape its policies, research, programs and planning over the next three years. The strategy also asserts that over generations “structural inequities have resulted in racial and ethnic health disparities that are severe, far-reaching, and unacceptable.” Nearly 38 million people are living with HIV, including 1.2 million in the U.S.