Opposition to HIV vaccines
The issue of how to deal with opposition to HIV vaccines when one becomes available is already being discussed.
As companion pieces to this article are “The Safe sex debate after an HIV vaccine and cure,” “HIV Developments and the Alphabet South,” “Vaccination — Our Superpower over Anti-Gay Christians,” and “Trans, Alphabet Democrats and Gay Health.” The links are at the end of this article.
This article appeared in Nature magazine. One of the two major scientific magazines in the English speaking world. The title is, “Preparing society for a HIV vaccine.” This is the link.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d44151-022-00050-4
What it is about is how to prevent or overcome anti-vaxxer sentiment when an HIV vaccine comes out. It is about promoting HIV vaccines in India.
From the article:
At a 2017 workshop in Chennai to understand people’s hope for a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccine, a participant said such a vaccine may make society more “morally corrupt”. He believed that a preventive vaccine may encourage more people to engage in unsafe sex with multiple partners. The respondent had HIV and had experienced stigma and discrimination.
This is called survivor’s bias, a common behavioural reaction, but there is a lesson in his response for HIV vaccine developers — the acceptability of an HIV vaccine will not be an easy journey.
The article explains that the issue of how to over come anti-vaxxer sentiment is being written because there is a lot of hope that an HIV vaccine might become a reality with mRNA technology. Also, the article explains that that growing anti-vaxxer sentiment is one of the major health hazards the world faces.
The article then goes on to discuss different strategies to overcome resistance to vaccination.
I reference this article to show that it is possible that HIV vaccines could face opposition and to consider that this opposition might impact the availability of HIV vaccines.
Given how many years the Gay community has waited and hoped for an HIV vaccine that there might be an anti-vaxxer opposition to an HIV vaccine seems outrageous.
However, we need to start thinking now about what we might do and the issues that might come up that block or undermine our ability to get an HIV vaccine.
Right Wing Opposition — Morality
It might be thought that the idea of “moral corruption” wouldn’t enable anti-vaxxers in the United States, but that would be wrong.
When it was originally mandated that school children get an HPV vaccine there developed strong opposition from Christian groups to getting the HPV vaccine since it was thought it would encourage teenage sex.
These anti-Gay Christian groups are very likely to oppose schools mandating HIV vaccines even though teenagers are sexually active.
They might block HIV vaccine availability for people in prisons. For those who might not be concerned about prisoners, it needs to be remembered that HIV will be combated by preventing new cases for the population as a whole. Prisoners who contracted HIV while in prison when released will be in the general population and a potential source of HIV transmission.
It also needs to be understood that an effective HIV vaccination program may not be blocked by one thing, but by many small things undermining it.
Right Wing Anti-vaxxers
There is growing opposition to vaccines. What originally was the delusional beliefs of silly people who believed in alternative medicine and concentrated on the West and East Coasts, has now become a major element of right wing politics. It has gone from just opposition to Covid vaccines to opposition to vaccines in general.
I don’t think they will push for a law that will block getting vaccines outright, they might undermine efforts to get the word out to the public about getting HIV vaccines or efforts to support the distribution of HIV vaccines. It might
They might want to hinder or block U.S. efforts to make HIV vaccines available overseas. Again, this may not seem significant, but the U.S. population travels outside the U.S. and back and the prevalence or lack of HIV elsewhere is going to be an important factor in preventing HIV in the U.S.
The Alphabet Soup LGBTQXYX
Also, the Gay community might find itself somewhat isolated on this issue. In the LGBTQIA+ how many letters are really concerned about HIV and a vaccine.
The asexuals aren’t going to be concerned what ever their leadership might say. I don’t think Lesbians are impacted that much. Trans aren’t likely to be that concerned either, they aren’t particularly sexually active. Other letters are probably not that sexually active.
The various Gays that are complaining about Gays at the Gym, Circuit Parties, Bars, and talking about body positivity are complaining about these Gays since they won’t have sex with them and generally they aren’t getting laid.
Respectability Gays who hoped that Gays would all get married and adopt some children have understood that the end of HIV means the revival of a Gay culture oriented to sexual liberation and non-heterosexual normative Gay lives.
Anti-sex elements in the LGBTQXYZ are not going to be happy with an HIV vaccine, though they might not say it directly. We are likely to hear sanctimonious moralizing statements that will go something like, “Now that we have an HIV vaccine I hope we can choose to do such and such and not do such and such and revert to the bad old days and be positive in our relationships.”
We might find that Alphabet Soup groups and media deprioritize or drop the issue of getting people HIV vaccinated.
All those involved in teaching safe-sex face the end of their employment. If I am vaccinated against HIV will I want to have regular testing for HIV? If I am vaccinated will I still take PREP? There is a whole infrastructure built around treating HIV patients as well. An HIV vaccine would negatively impact the economics of the provision of goods and services.
I don’t think people involved in the anti-HIV efforts to block an HIV vaccine, but they will likely have their special approaches to the availability of HIV vaccines. Hopefully mostly not a problem. They may still urge PREP and testing even when people have been HIV vaccinated which might be a good idea until the incidence of HIV is largely eliminated, but they might also be pushing safe-sex practices and condoms long after they necessary.
This article is at this point is speculative. It seeks to look at the possibilities of opposition to HIV vaccination which when available will be of vital concern to the Gay community.
The important lesson of the Nature magazine article and of this article is to realize that it is possible that their could be an anti-vaxxer opposition to an HIV vaccine which would negative impact the Gay community.
An anti-vaxxer movement negatively impacting the Gay community isn’t impossible.
This article is to prepare us to realize that it is possible and think of what we might do.
One thing that can be done is to oppose anti-vaxxer sentiments in the Gay community. Those who are anti-vaxxer we should point out haven’t taken the HPV vaccine and are disease risks and won’t be taking the HIV vaccines. They can be sexually isolated from the Gay community to some extent and Gay community opinion can be made to be really hostile to anti-vaxxer sentiments.