Biden says HIV/AIDS strategy needs to confront inequity

President Joe Biden on Wednesday unveiled his new HIV/AIDS strategy to end the more than 40-year-old epidemic, calling for a renewed focus on vulnerable Americans - including gay and bisexual Black and Latino men, who his administration says are too often stigmatized even as they are disproportionately affected.

The new strategy, which declares racism a “public health threat,” was released on the annual commemoration of World AIDS Day. It is meant to serve as a framework for how the administration shapes its policies, research, programs and planning over the next three years.

But Biden acknowledged that the country still needs to work to destigmatize HIV/ AIDS and noted that LGBT and racial minority groups have “endured the brunt” of the epidemic that’s killed more than 36 million worldwide, including 700,000 Americans.

“I want to make sure that everyone in the United States knows their HIV status, and everyone with HIV receives high-quality care and treatment that they deserve and that we end the harmful stigma around HIV and AIDS,” Biden said.

The new strategy asserts that over generations “structural inequities have resulted in racial and ethnic health disparities that are severe, far-reaching, and unacceptable.”