USA Today Op-Ed: With Tennessee's Leadership, We Can End AIDS by 2030
by Jenny Dyer and Josh Graves
Recently, we hosted a concert at Otter Creek Church, "Amy Grant & Friends: An Evening to Celebrate Global Health." We “sold out” tickets to the free concert, and we packed out the sanctuary. In 23 years, we haven’t dedicated a night to take a step back and celebrate the tremendous work, originating out of Tennessee, in the fight against global AIDS.
In 2002, Bono landed in Tennessee on his Heart of America tour, and he inspired artists, pastors, and people of faith alike to join him in this movement to address an infectious disease, HIV/AIDS, that was claiming the lives of one out of three people in many nations across Africa. He and then-Senator Dr. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) joined hands and spoke out together of their time overseas and bore witness to overflowing hospitals, grandparents raising orphans, and civil society coming to a grinding halt.
Tennessee took a stand and followed their lead.
And for 22 years, hundreds of faith leaders not just in our state, but across the nation, have held sustained support for what became President George Bush’s legacy: the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, as well as his support for the multilateral Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.
We didn’t know then it would work. We fought stigma. We fought discrimination. And we fought doubt. But it did work.
Foreign aid makes up less than 1% of US budget
It’s time to celebrate. Since 2002, PEPFAR has saved the lives of more than 26 million people. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria has saved the lives of more than 65 million people. These are some of the most effective and efficient programs in which the U.S. invests. Together, these programs with U.S. congressional leadership have cut the death rate of HIV/AIDS by almost 75% worldwide. This is historic for our generation.
To debunk any myths, we do not support these programs with 25% of the U.S. budget, or even 10%. Our entire foreign assistance constitutes less than 1% of the entire U.S. budget.
But we are in a moment where our current president, Donald Trump, has recommended a 50% cut to all global AIDS funding this year along with a rescission of $400 million to PEPFAR. Thankfully, Republican senators took a stand and carved out the funding for PEPFAR to rescue that funding among the other rescissions for foreign aid. We are so grateful for their leadership.
It is time for Tennessee to be a beacon for the nation once again for what Bono used to call the one-two punch: PEPFAR + Global Fund, so that we can end these epidemics for good. Scientists show that by 2030 we can end the epidemic status for AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria if we just stay the course.
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