Talk:President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

Article bias
I forgot to put this on the edit summary but I also removed the sentence which said that the response to PEPFAR has been largely positive, as this obscures the context of the situation. The response has been half positive/half negative. If someone wishes to dispute this, then a better article rather than an opinion-pieced newspaper article should be used. — Preceding unsigned comment added by CCardozo (talk • contribs) 23:59, 25 October 2011 (UTC)


 * I find that there is still some discrepancies with remaining bias within the article. I intend on adding more reputable links to the criticism section, that are not newspaper pieces. As well, I believe that "Harm Reduction" policies should be mentioned within the criticisms section, with a link to the corresponding wiki page - so I will add that as well. And finally, criticisms on the Christian philosophy that PEPFAR was under fire for, will also be added. CCardozo (talk)


 * Personally, I think that this article's author is heavily biased toward PEPFAR. The "criticsm" section does not even mention the fact that the US is pulling funding from countries that won't solely preach abstinence. I would like very much to officially dispute the neutrality of this article. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mrferr09 (talk • contribs).
 * I agree. Anyone who wishes to correct this bias should check out these links:
 * PEPFAR Watch
 * AVERT's PEPFAR page
 * AIDS Policy Watch
 * Trezatium 16:43, 21 October 2006 (UTC)


 * The criticism section seems like merely a defense of the program; no real criticism is actually listed. -Tjss(Talk) 18:09, 18 November 2006 (UTC)


 * I suspect that Thestudier may be an employee of the US government. Trezatium 09:59, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

I've removed the NPOV tag, now that the criticism section has been improved. Trezatium 21:41, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

I added in a section called "Funding Data" that included a little bit of information on the release of funding data by the Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Global Development (full disclosure: I work for CGD). This is pretty huge that this data has been released. Anyone with anything to add? Areseven (talk) 17:07, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

PEPFAR is currently waiting to be formally authorized (with Bush's signature), and this article should be updated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Luisa and Guido (talk • contribs) 19:14, 31 July 2008 (UTC)


 * PEPFAR has become a flashpoint for political disagreements between most scientists and public health experts on one side and the Bush Administration on the other. We need to be careful to maintain NPOV in this article, as difficult as that may be for some of us who criticise aspects of the program. For example, the statement about Tobias and a "pay for sex scandal" was synthesis and OR and has been removed. Keepcalmandcarryon (talk) 15:19, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

Any of you people still around? Rogue editors are attempting to whitewash the history of 2001 and 2002 when the Bush administration defended the patents of Big Pharma. I have sourced material from UN that tells the real history of that period and these editors are attempting to push the false Western narrative. Clam chowdah (talk) 05:28, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

Results?
As it is now 2010, and the initial phase of the program is "over," should sections be added to discuss results of the program? Wolfraem (talk) 18:00, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

FDA "promo" video on PEPFAR - 150 Antiretroviral Drugs?
I just viewed a YouTube video about PEPFAR (July 2012). I think what they are talking about is FDA approval of drug formulations that (somehow) were not previously available under the PEPFAR program. I don't think they are talking about new active ingredients.

This article would be improved by a list (or link to list) of drugs made available by PEPFAR.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azazUDiST2I Johnfravolda (talk) 09:30, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

my names are Chris Jennifer and am from the united state of America, am here to share a little story of my past and how i got my healing and family back again. on 11th June 2013 i felt so ill and so my husband took me to our family hospital and the medical doctor carried out a text on me and the result came out to my surprise i was HIV-AIDS positive,i felt so bad and lost all my hopes of living again, so immediately my husband left the hospital living me behind, on my getting home i discover that my husband has packed out of the house living me and the kids behind so i look for him all over the town but could not find him on the second day a friend of mine came to my house and told me that she saw my husband with a lady in a hotel, so i started crying, due to my illness my business started crumbling and i lost everything all my good friends left me due to my condition so one day i was browsing through the net i came across a priest doctor, at first i never wanted to contact him but my spirit keep troubling me to lay my problems to him so finally i did and he told me to have faith that all will be alright with me, at first i did not believe that actually,so he carried on and he prepared a herbal drugs for me and gave me the instruction on how to use it which i did for five(5) days on the sixth(6) day i was feeling some strange feelings so i immediately call him and explain my  body experience then he told me not to worried and ask me to go to the same hospital were i did my first text, which i did and the medical doctor conducted a text on me and the result was....negative i was so happy  and i celebrated with  every one around me but again felt sad because something was missing which happens to be my husband and i told priest about it he then ask for his photo and cast a spell on him, the next day my husband came back to me and started begging so we were happily together again but find it difficult to feed and i told the priest about it he then cast a spell for me and instructed me on what to do which i did, so now my friends am very glad to have meet with this man which i call a father, so my fellow people i know a lot of people will have same problem or have any other problems more that this just have the faith that all can still be alright with you all you just need to do is to contact the great priest on his mail      PRIESTAZIBASOLUTIONCENTER@GMAIL.COM      for he will accept you and solve all your problems and remember a problem share is a problem solve.............. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.220.69.104 (talk) 05:08, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

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American government defended Big Pharma
PEPFAR is fine, the issue was the American government defending the Big Pharma patents in 2000, 2001, 2002 and preventing the rest of the world from getting life saving medication to Africa. So Cipla broke the HAART patents and America went to bat for Big Pharma under both Clinton and W Bush obstructing the rest of the world from saving lives. So only after America was defeated by the rest of the world did Bush bail out Big Pharma with a gift of buying their expensive medication when the rest of the world was going with the affordable generics India and Brazil were sending to Africa. Make no mistake—this was a very bad episode for America and PEPFAR is simply propaganda designed to “save face” when at any time before Big Pharma was defeated they could have offered their drugs at cost to be distributed in Africa. Fortunately the UN and Global Fund and Clinton Foundation, and Gates and Bono were busy developing infrastructure to distribute the medication while the American government was siding with Big Pharma. Clam chowdah (talk) 20:42, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Important historical context has been added
I added very important historical context because the heroes of the crisis that PEPFAR addressed were Cipla and DWB and UNAIDS and not George W Bush. PEPFAR was CYA in which the American taxpayer overpaid for medication which did end up saving Africans. I didn’t add that PEPFAR was introduced when Bush was about to invade Iraq which probably should be added because it was essentially like buying credits to absolve one of sins…except these credits did save lives with only the American taxpayers getting screwed because cheaper generics were available. Clam chowdah (talk) 04:39, 7 January 2022 (UTC)

No original research/Noticeboard discussion
In case there are any page watchers to whom this might be of interest, I have opened a No original research/Noticeboard discussion concerning 's recent edits to this article here. Regards,TheTimesAreAChanging (talk) 10:09, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

Get rid of the history section if you don’t want the actual history of the American government’s response to the HIV/AIDS in Africa crisis. Bush was the leader of a government that defended the patents of HIV medication for a full two years before taking action. Cipla broke the patents and Doctors Without Borders started distributing the generic drugs before PEPFAR. And remember PEPFAR was introduced when Bush was lying America into invading Iraq which is important context that I have left out because it would be original research although it is obviously correct. And the name of the program is just absurd over the top Orwellian propaganda—it’s hilarious like Bush spent his own money on overpriced drugs when generics were available. Clam chowdah (talk) 23:07, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

History
First paragraph is self serving and unprovable. That paragraph is fine for the George W Bush Library but should not be in a Wikipedia article. If no one is able to independently verify the first paragraph then it will be removed. Clam chowdah (talk) 22:38, 8 June 2022 (UTC)

Fauci is on record saying 2002 is when Bush sent him to Africa and he says that in 2002 is when they were developing what would become PEPFAR and so that will be what goes under history when I make the next changes. And I have a report from the UN stating unequivocally that they had to go up against Western hegemony and so if anyone changes my mind edits I will out you as a RACIST! So be prepared to be called out on exactly the same thing racist southerners did during Jim Crow and pushing revisionist history. Clam chowdah (talk) 03:53, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

The first paragraph in “history” is lifted verbatim from a 2013 puff piece, I will be changing it to reflect what was really going on around the time when Bush was inaugurated. Clam chowdah (talk) 18:42, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

It appears the current first paragraph was inserted in 2013 by the author/publisher of the website. None of the stuff of the Bushes can be verified by contemporaneous news articles and so the Bush administration’s response to the crisis can only begin with Fauci going to Africa in 2002. Clam chowdah (talk) 23:39, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

Here is contemporaneous news account of protests in America, right now the History section states Bush had begun thinking about the crisis in Africa while running for president even though I have found evidence of Bush ever mentioning the crisis in the foreign policy debate with Gore or contemporaneous news accounts:

The message of the coalition of ACT-UP, HealthGAP and Jubilee USA Network and others was simple: Donate the dollars, drop the debt, treat the people, save the lives.

The coalition criticized the $200 million U.S. contribution to the global AIDS fund, arguing that it's too little to make a significant dent in the problem and noting that it is a mere fraction of the $2 billion-plus Annan has requested from the U.S. government and industry. (So far, the only American organizations besides the government that have stepped forward to pledge funds are the Gates Foundation, which is providing $100 million, and Coca-Cola, which says it will use its massive distribution network in Africa to assist the U.N. with its prevention programs.) Activists also demanded that anti-retroviral cocktail treatments be provided to the tens of millions who are already sick with AIDS, and that industrialized nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund immediately forgive debt to the hardest-hit countries so they can instead use their annual debt repayments to purchase the lifesaving drugs.

https://www.salon.com/2001/06/25/aids_11/ Clam chowdah (talk) 23:36, 10 June 2022 (UTC)

The tour is the result of a meeting a year ago when the two men met in O'Neill's office. Initially reluctant to meet, O'Neill later said he was impressed by the singer's knowledge of Africa.

Bono has said he was determined to show O'Neill that aid can be put to good use in Africa.

Both men hope the tour will bring worldwide attention to the devastation HIV is bringing to Africa. O'Neill said he was astounded to find out that so much of aid money coming into the country was being used for prevention instead of treatment.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/emotional-visit-for-bono-oneill/

Clam chowdah (talk) 00:04, 11 June 2022 (UTC)

Fauci said that he and Thompson went on the "fact-finding" trip to Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana and Ivory Coast to "see first-hand the extent, the depth and breadth of the problem" and to understand how the African countries "depend" on U.S. health agencies' funding for HIV/AIDS programs. According to Fauci, Thompson feels "very passionately about our responsibility to help out Africa," particularly in preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission, and the trip allowed Thompson to "strengthen his own personal resolve" to the issue. Fauci said that some governments are making "serious, positive attempts" to fight the disease.

https://khn.org/morning-breakout/dr00010553/ Clam chowdah (talk) 00:07, 11 June 2022 (UTC)

Today I announce that my administration plans to make $500 million available to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. This new effort, which will be funded during the next 16 months, will allow us to treat one million women annually, and reduce mother-to-child transmission by 40 percent within five years or less in target countries

https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020619-3.html Clam chowdah (talk) 00:19, 11 June 2022 (UTC)

Today, a year of HIV treatment is under Security Council resolution 1308, the Millennium Development Summit and the first-ever United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS all galvanized action with targets and goals. MICHEL: They did something more: they brought together heads of state and people living with HIV and all the different partners and actors that had been running and supporting the AIDS response until then. That is the biggest difference about this movement: it has ensured that every sector and every layer of society is engaged and accountable. Immediately people thought about the barriers, about what is keeping people from staying alive. One of the great breakthroughs was the belief that nothing was impossible and no one was out of reach. That included reaching people in remote villages and people living in the shadows, but it also meant not being afraid of going after pharmaceutical companies and unfair trade practices. Take the price of first-line treatment: US$ 10 000 a year in 2000. When you adjust for inflation, a one-year supply would cost about US$ 14 000 in todayÕs terms. The pharmaceutical industry had a tight grip on government policies and an even tighter grip on prices. And donÕt forget this was also the time when world leaders were negotiating protection of intellectual property rights at the WTO [World Trade Organization]. Any concession could open the floodgates for exceptions. US$ 100 So when Brazil and Thailand started manufacturing generic antiretroviral medicines they did something very smart: they revealed that the pills were relatively low-cost to make. This took the wind out of industry claims, and it opened the door for UNAIDS to start negotiations with companies to bring down prices No one wanted to be in the room: business leaders didnÕt want to be accused of price fixing and activists thought we were crazy to even convene such a meeting. It was a big first stepÑa step that led to differ- ential pricing based on ability to pay. Then came another breakthrough: manufacturers started making generics in India. In 2001, Cipla dropped antiretroviral medicine prices from US$ 800 to US$ 350. I remember clearly when former [United States] President Clinton announced that, after leaving office, he would make it his mission to work with everyone to bring down prices even moreÑand today, a year of HIV treatment is under US$ 100.

https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/MDG6Report_en.pdf Clam chowdah (talk) 23:31, 12 June 2022 (UTC)

United Nations Security Council resolution 1308, adopted unanimously on 17 July 2000, was the first resolution to address the impact of HIV/AIDS worldwide.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1308 Clam chowdah (talk) 23:35, 12 June 2022 (UTC)

Establishment of The Global Fund Edit Towards the end of the 1990s, increased awareness of the destructive potential of epidemics such as HIV/AIDS pushed public health issues to the top of the global development agenda. In April 2001, Annan issued a five-point "Call to Action" to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Stating it was a "personal priority", Annan proposed the establishment of a Global AIDS and Health Fund, "dedicated to the battle against HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases",[54] to stimulate the increased international spending needed to help developing countries confront the HIV/AIDS crisis. In June of that year, the General Assembly of the United Nations committed to the creation of such a fund during a special session on AIDS,[55] and the permanent secretariat of the Global Fund was subsequently established in January 2002.[56]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kofi_Annan#

Clam chowdah (talk) 23:39, 12 June 2022 (UTC)

The G8 formally endorsed the call for the creation of the Global Fund at its summit in July 2001 in Genoa, Italy, although pledges were significantly lower than the US$7 billion to US$10 billion annually Kofi Annan insisted was needed.[15] According to the G8's final communique, "At Okinawa last year, we pledged to make a quantum leap in the fight against infectious diseases and to break the vicious cycle between disease and poverty. To meet that commitment and to respond to the appeal of the UN General Assembly, we have launched with the UN Secretary-General a new Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. We are determined to make the Fund operational before the end of the year. We have committed $1.3 billion. The Fund will be a public-private partnership and we call on other countries, the private sector, foundations, and academic institutions to join with their own contributions – financially, in kind and through shared expertise."[16]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Global_Fund_to_Fight_AIDS,_Tuberculosis_and_Malaria

Clam chowdah (talk) 23:42, 12 June 2022 (UTC)

We also did something else. We engaged the pharmaceutical industry. I met with the chairman and CEOs of five pharmaceutical industry [companies] twice, urging them to reduce the price of medication. Yes, they were determined to protect the intellectual property, but as I told them then, if you insist only on intellectual property and you do not take any measures to ensure that the poor have access to affordable medication, the whole regime is going to come under serious pressure.

What regime do you mean?

The protection of the intellectual property, because for most people, it will not be defensible. I think they have come a long way. Not only have they responded; the prices have dropped, and some of the companies have offered medication free of charge in certain countries. The relationship between them and some of the governments in the Third World has also changed. The inroads made by generic producers, they are not and no longer [are] resisting the governments' invoking emergency to be able to produce a medication, and at that time, and initially, they were. In fact they took Mandela, President [Nelson] Mandela, to court for trying to invoke an emergency. In the end they dropped the case and then began to cooperate much, much more.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/interviews/annan.html

Clam chowdah (talk) 00:46, 13 June 2022 (UTC)

You went to see [then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza] Rice … in early 2001. Were you talking about the Global Fund then, and what was her reaction?

I came in to the White House, the first year of the Bush administration. I came in to see Condoleezza Rice, with whom I worked in 1989 when I was advising the new post-Communist Polish government, and she was in the National Security Council. ... I went in 2001 to say, "Here's another chance for a wonderful initiative; we need to help treat people that are dying of AIDS; ... here's a $3 billion-a-year plan," and put it forward.

It was interesting, the reaction. Well, first Condoleezza Rice said, "The president is interested in this." Thank goodness. And "It's interesting to hear you discuss this, but our experts tell us that people can't be treated." And I said: "Well, that's not true. Not only have I seen it with my own eyes, but I'm lucky to have as colleagues some of the world's leading scientists and clinicians in AIDS, and they've all just agreed on the fact that treatment is feasible, and it's even feasible in the clinical conditions you would find in impoverished places." Well, there was lots of philosophical argument -- no, it's only cost-effective to do prevention, and all sorts of misunderstandings. ...

I was utterly shocked, I think, completely stunned, when the newly appointed head of USAID [United States Agency for International Development], Andrew Natsios, then made the most remarkable and chilling set of statements about all of this as he was coming into office. He said: "Well, you can't treat Africans. Africans don't know Western time. They won't know the time to take their medicines." He said: "They may know mornings; they may know noon; they may know night. But they don't know Western time." Hard to fathom, actually, how a senior American official could ever make such a statement. But that was the statement of the USAID agency -- in his early days, admittedly, but absolutely shocking. And I talked to [then-Secretary of State] Colin Powell and others, and of course Secretary Powell said: "I've been to hospitals all over Africa. This statement is not our policy." But it showed how steep the hill was going to be with this administration.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/interviews/sachs.html

Clam chowdah (talk) 01:07, 13 June 2022 (UTC)

Criticism should focus on generics and Tobias
Tobias was the former CEO of Eli Lily that left politics due to a scandal according to his Wikipedia page. And so the chronology makes clear the precipitating factor was the introduction of generics into Africa and so PEPFAR was really a way to get the brand name drugs to Africa by fleecing American taxpayers while treating fewer patients. So from Center for Public Integrity:

Cipla chairman Hamied told the Center that if PEPFAR used generics in place of brand-name drugs, it could treat 10 times the number of HIV-infected patients that now receive treatment. PEPFAR’s own study this year found some examples of generic ARVs costing as little as a 10th of the price of their brand-name counterparts.

https://publicintegrity.org/health/pepfar-policy-hinders-treatment-in-generic-terms/ Clam chowdah (talk) 21:30, 11 June 2022 (UTC)