Amen. The HIV vaccine news is really promising, although it may not be what some people are thinking. At least the way things are going right now, the vaccine is probably not going to be a shot that prevents HIV infection. Instead, it will be one that greatly reduces the chances of infection.

Right now, researchers are hoping for something like 40% efficacy. That may sound … not good, but when you look at parts of southern and eastern Africa where as many as one in five adults is HIV positive, 40% efficacy is a public-health game changer.

I wonder how many Americans today who recognize Anthony Fauci’s name know he partnered with AIDS activists early in the game and played a singular role in focusing research efforts. No one person is responsible for the accelerated development of effective treatment, but Fauci with Peter Staley of Act Up and TAG were such an important team that things would have gone very differently without them.

And the field of virology would be very different too, as you point out. If not for the intense research that activists fought for and Fauci helped marshall, we probably wouldn’t even have mRNA technology today. And it’s doubtful that Ebola vaccine would have happened the way it did.

Oh and also? The accelerated vaccine approval process that everybody is taking for granted exists because HIV activists demanded a formal process for speeding up access to effective drugs.

To the chagrin of the medical establishment, we did a lot of marching in the streets about that. It was a battle then, but something we take for granted today.

Oh, and one last comment, if a bit of a snarky one. Vice President Pence just established a foundation aimed at helping him with a future presidential run. The guy leading it is a Republican who once urged for less public spending on HIV, because we gay men and our “perverted lifestyles” were to blame for the pandemic.