Free Republic

There will always be three who give us heartburn. Shockingly, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who has become the new John McCain of the Senate regarding being a thorn in the side, opted not to break ranks on the recissions package, which codifies some $9 billion in cuts. The gutting of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio is included in this package, which barely advanced on a key vote to move the bill forward. Vice President JD Vance had to go up to the hill to break the 50-50 tie. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME), and...

IRVINE, Calif. — On the morning of Feb. 28, 2000, a man in a black hood ran up to Patrick Riley in front of his office, shot him flush in the face and fled. The bullet missed his brain, and Mr. Riley, a biotechnology entrepreneur, survived. But two days later, his business partner, a doctor named Larry C. Ford, killed himself with a shotgun after learning he was suspected of being the mastermind behind the shooting. That is where the story probably would have ended — a lurid but ultimately local piece of intrigue played out in the sun-splashed Orange...

A recent study published last year in the journal Cell has identified the ancient origins of a genetic mutation that confers resistance to HIV, and how it first appeared in an individual who lived near the Black Sea between 6,700 and 9,000 years ago. Named CCR5 delta 32, the uncommon genetic variant disables a key immune protein used by a large majority of strains of the HIV virus to enter human cells and therefore "locks out" the virus in individuals who carry two copies of the mutation.HIV is a relatively new disease. It was only identified in the last century,...

The Insurrectionists have a tendency to spit in the face of the National Guardsmen/women, and others. These Patriots are told to accept this, it’s just the way life runs. But not in the Trump Administration. IF THEY SPIT, WE WILL HIT, and I promise you they will be hit harder than they have ever been hit before. Such disrespect will not be tolerated!

Finally, some good news this week about lawmakers. The governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, signed into law a bill that decriminalizes HIV. Specifically, the bill repeals an old law that made it a crime to “knowingly transfer or attempt to transfer” HIV to another individual.

On a morning in early April, Geoffrey Chanda's phone was going off almost constantly. Truck drivers were calling him. "They are crying: 'We've got no [HIV] medicine. Where do you get [it] from?' " says Chanda, 54. For 15 years, Chanda has been meeting truckers in dusty parking lots at the border of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to give them their HIV medications. Now, he says, he doesn't know what to tell them. He's lost his job as a community health worker. The U.S.-funded program he worked for — which supported the mobile clinic where he collected...

The U.S. is still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic with more and more long COVID cases emerging. Bird flu is a growing threat. Measles outbreaks have been occurring. Antibiotic-resistant organisms continue to spread in healthcare settings. So what do you do next if you are in charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is supposed to protect the health of humans in the U.S.? How about lay off the entire staff of the U.S. government’s Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy?

The entire staff of the federal government's Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy is expected to be laid off, multiple federal health officials told CBS News Friday. The moves are part of a broader restructuring plan ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that involves cutting 20,000 HHS positions. Much of the government's efforts to buoy lagging childhood vaccination rates nationwide have been run through OIDP, including a new campaign called "Let's Get Real" that had launched in the final months of the Biden administration to provide resources and information to health care providers talking...

An Evangelical mission doctor has warned that millions of lives are at stake surrounding the potential dismantling of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), as country music artists led by Amy Grant have called for the program's reauthorization. PEPFAR, launched in 2003 under President George W. Bush, is the largest global health initiative focused on a single disease, HIV/AIDS. PEPFAR has sent over $100 billion to more than 50 countries in the last two decades, providing antiretroviral therapy (ARVs) life-saving treatment and infrastructure support to regions most affected by the epidemic, particularly in Africa. However, recent aid...

I'm still enjoying immensely the new Administration's daily flood-the-zone approach to the news cycle as it moves into its second month - including all the petty stuff, like Trump not bothering to come to the front door for Macron and delegating it to the White House Deputy-Assistant-Under-Director of Janitorial Services. However, I confess a little disquiet about the ongoing access to the President of Doctor Moobs. From Paula Jardine at The Conservative Woman: On January 17, 2025, it was reported that Gates and an unnamed Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) staffer had a three-hour dinner with President-elect Trump and...

Some 400 calls for help went unanswered when the helpline at Ukraine’s Veteran Hub went silent for a week after key funding from the United States was abruptly cut last month. The Ukrainian NGO gets all sorts of calls. Some come from military families who have just found out their loved one was killed on the frontline. Some are from injured veterans who are struggling to cope with their return to civilian life or need help navigating the bureaucracy.

Life for Mike Elvis Tusubira, a motorcycle taxi rider with HIV in Uganda, has been turned upside down since US President Donald Trump halted foreign aid last month. Not only does the 35-year-old fear for his own survival as he takes life-saving anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs - but he says he will have to split up from his wife as they can no longer have safe sex. His partner is HIV-negative and relies on PrEP, a medicine that reduces the risk of contracting HIV. "It means that even my marriage will end, because actually without the preventive measures, she's not going...

Chemonics International Inc. agreed to pay a fine of $3.1 million to the U.S. government over the fraudulent activities of its Nigerian subcontractor Zenith Carex for inflating its bills, massively overcharging U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for distributing sensitive HIV/AIDS treatment packages. USAID had awarded the contract of delivering certain healthcare products to Chemonics, which later hired Zenith Carex for last-mile delivery (LMD) and long-haul delivery (LHD) services to execute the contract. Zenith Carex, a logistics and freight forwarding company based in Abuja, Nigeria, inflated its invoices to deliver the products which include HIV test reagents, a financial crime...

Awareness days help educate the general public and specific communities about HIV and AIDS.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) dropped extremely disturbing news during a House oversight hearing on Thursday, revealing just how taxpayers are funding some of the most cruel experiments imaginable.Thursday’s hearing, titled “Taxpayer-Funded Animal Cruelty,” proved a welcome break to the blowups in recent days and weeks as both parties found common ground on the issue. As TGP readers know, the federal government has spent years funding barbaric animal experiments to the tune of $20 billion.Disgraced former NIH Director Anthony Fauci, who was widely criticized for his lies, coverup, and involvement in gain of function research funding, is one of the key...

Last August, a federal judge ruled that Americans living with HIV who maintain an undetectable viral load can enlist in the U.S. Armed Services, thus striking down a long-running and discriminatory ban. However, as NBC News reports this week, several people with HIV say they’ve been prohibited from enlisting or have faced roadblocks. What’s more, advocates are concerned that the Biden administration did not move fast enough to ensure the implementation of the judge’s ruling and has likely left the issue in the hands of the incoming Trump team, which has already signaled its hostility to LGBTQ service members.

The FDA’s elimination of the 3-month deferral recommendation for men who have sex with men (MSM) when they wish to donate blood could lead to a slightly increased rate of deferrals for blood donations, according to a study published in Transfusion.

It’s amazing how many leftists are ashamed of their bodies but have absolutely zero shame about their minds, their belief systems, or their sexual choices. It’s also amazing how Orwellian Newspeak has conquered the English language. “Gay” used to mean “happy.” Now it means “homosexual.”***Geneticists have yet to find a “gay gene.” Homosexuality (and other peculiarities it spawns) evidently arises not from nature, but from nurture: environmental factors.Drill deeply enough into homosexuals’ memories, and far too often, there’s a history as a child sexual abuse victim. And there’s an entire community — online, at school, in the big city —...

Speaking at the 16th International Aids Conference in 2006, the then UNAids executive director, Peter Piot, remarked: “Since the beginning of the epidemic, stigma, discrimination and gender inequality have been identified as major causes of personal suffering, and as major obstacles to effective responses to HIV.” Now, in the fourth decade of the HIV crisis, this statement remains largely true. Despite the leaps and bounds that have been made in the treatment and prevention of HIV, stigma and discrimination continue to harm the lives of people living with HIV, and hinder efforts to stem the epidemic globally.

More New Yorkers were newly diagnosed with HIV in 2023 compared with 2022, but public officials say that doesn’t necessarily mean new diagnoses are on the rise after years of steady decline, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s (DOHMH) 2023 HIV Surveillance Annual Report. In 2023, 1,686 people were newly diagnosed with HIV in New York City, up 7.6% from 2022.