Gary Bailey, MSW, ACSW is currently a Professor of Practice at Simmons School of Social Work and at the Simmons School of Nursing. At the School of Social Work he coordinates the Dynamics of Racism and Oppression sequence. He chairs the School of Social Work Awards Committee; is Chair of the Simmons University Black Administrators, Faculty and Staff Council (BAFAS); is a member of the Simmons Faculty Senate; is vice chair of the Simmons President’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council (PDIAC) and co-Chaired the Simmons University Initiative on Human Rights and Social Justice.
This year marks the 33rd annual World AIDS Day, a time to honor and remember those we have lost to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. December 1 is made more meaningful given that we are in the midst of another pandemic - COVID-19 and its variations.
For me, my introduction to AIDS came in the spring of 1986, I found myself in the intensive care unit at Tufts Medical Center. I was the only person visiting a dear friend who just five days prior had been diagnosed with pneumocystis pneumonia. At the time, this type of pneumonia was known as a difficult to treat opportunistic infection. It was also an indicator that my friend had AIDS. I listened to the respirator that helped him breath, and watched helplessly as his life ebbed away. I had no idea that this was not to be just one heartbreaking loss, but rather the beginning of a period of intense grief that would last for years, as countless of my friends died of the disease.
In those very early days, there was little outreach being done about AIDS in the Black community. In fact, it was hard to find any information at all. But then I met Larry Kessler, who had founded AIDS Action. I got involved as a volunteer, specifically to get the word out into communities of color that AIDS was something that as a community we needed to pay attention to. In those early days of the crisis, many of our friends, family, co-workers, and other loved ones were suffering and dying from this devastating disease. Fear and discrimination were prevalent—even in health care—and those suffering with HIV/AIDS had limited options.
In 2019, more than over 36,000 new cases were reported – adding to the more than 1 million people in the US living with HIV/AIDS. Blacks still account for approximately 42% of all new cases. We must not think of the AIDS epidemic as some bygone, eradicated condition.
What we learned from the AIDS pandemic, and which has been reinforced by COVID-19 is how much more work we have to do to ensure Equitable Access for people who are immune-compromised. HIV/AIDS like COVID-19 laid bare the fact that communities of color were being devastated by the virus at a disproportionate rate – should fuel a national movement to build a fairer health system – something that many of us have been advocating for decades.
Far too many Americans lack adequate access to healthcare. That, in turn, leads to a huge disconnect between people acquiring HIV but never getting tested for it. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 13% of all people with HIV/AIDS in the US don't know they have the virus. We have so much more work to do
People who know better, do better. We owe it to those who didn’t make it, to do what we can now, to end this disease — after all, that’s what friends are for.