WORLD AIDS DAY 2020
Panel Looks at COVID Impact on Ending HIV Epidemic
Amida Care, Gay City News team up to discuss dual health crises with expert panelists
BY MATT TRACY
A panel of health experts
joined Amida Care and
Gay City News on October
22 for an hour-pluslong
webinar focused on the coronavirus
pandemic and its impact
on New York State’s plan to end
the HIV/ AIDS epidemic, as well as
other issues pertaining to the state
of HIV prevention efforts.
The panel featured Doug Wirth,
CEO of Amida Care; Johanne
Morne, director of New York State
Department of Health’s AIDS Institute;
Dr. Anisha Gandhi, acting
assistant commissioner and director
of Racial Equity and Social
Justice Initiatives for the New York
City Health Department’s Bureau
of HIV; Dr. David Collymore, chief
medical offi cer and senior vice
president of clinical affairs at Acacia
Network; Dr. Asa Radix, senior
director of research and education
at the Callen-Lorde Community
Health Center; and Ahmed
Mohamed, a PrEP consumer and
civic engagement and community
organizer at the New Pride Agenda.
Gay City News editor-in-chief Paul
Schindler moderated the discussion.
The webinar came just days before
the state health department’s
second annual PrEP Aware Week,
aimed at enhancing public understanding
of the treatment’s HIV
prevention benefi ts.
Panelists shed light on an array
of relevant topics spanning from
PrEP uptake to barriers to healthcare
during the pandemic, cultural
competency issues, and important
statistical realities that have
emerged throughout the course of
a crisis that has forced the community
to adapt to new circumstances.
Morne — noting that full data on
the state of the epidemic through
2019 will not be available until
early December — laid out the epidemic’s
contours as of the end of
the prior year, pointing out that
new diagnoses of HIV decreased
and viral suppression among those
living with HIV increased. She specifi
The COVID-Plan to End the HIV Epidemic webinar participants were (top, l. to r.) Paul Schindler, Johanne
Morne, Ahmed Mohamed, (second row, l. to r.) Dr. Asa Radix, Dr. David Collymore, Doug Wirth, and
(bottom row) Dr. Anisha Gandhi.
cally spoke about a 38 percent
decline in HIV incidence between
2014, when the state’s plan to end
the epidemic was launched, and
2018, and to approximately 32,000
PrEP prescriptions in the latter
year. On all of those indicators,
Morne said, 2019 saw continued
improvements.
The progress in 2018 and 2019,
of course, came before the emergence
of a coronavirus pandemic
that forced those confronting the
HIV epidemic to adjust on the fl y.
Each of the panel participants
talked about how their organizations
made necessary adjustments
to their work in response
to COVID-19. Wirth elaborated on
the different ways in which Amida
Care, for example, shifted from inperson
operations to remote work,
identifi ed pharmacies that could
deliver medication to members, authorized
medications to be fi lled for
a longer period of time, and connected
members to telehealth options.
Wirth’s team at Amida Care published
a briefi ng paper last week
outlining ways in which the coronavirus
pandemic has impacted
healthcare in New York, particularly
surrounding HIV treatment
and prevention, along with recommendations
regarding how the
state can stay on track to end the
epidemic.
Collymore also said he and his
YOUTUBE/ SCHNEPS MEDIA
colleagues at Acacia Network had
to shift to telephonic and virtual
options for patients, but the team
noticed a strong need for in-person
services, as well. The Acacia staff
members were already back in the
offi ce within a matter of weeks of
most of the city shuttering in the
early spring.
“We saw that many of our clients
and patients did not have access to
technology or maybe did not understand
the technology, so in-person
services were absolutely essential,”
Collymore said.
Radix pointed to some of the
challenges that have emerged in
HIV prevention efforts during the
pandemic for those who are already
on PrEP. Radix cited the
diffi culty in achieving regular lab
testing and said some folks have
had to turn to labs closer to their
home that are not always LGBTQinclusive.
One way Callen-Lorde
has moved to alleviate that issue
is to provide cultural competency
training at labs.
“When people come to Callen-
Lorde and get blood testing done,
they’re in an affi rming environment,”
Radix said.
Radix also noted that Callen-
Lorde has not seen as many new
PrEP users during the pandemic
as during a comparable recent
period of time. One way conversations
about PrEP are typically initiated
is if a lab test reveals STIs, so
a decline in such tests during the
pandemic could be why the number
of potential PrEP users did not
grow at what otherwise would have
been the expected pace.
Unsurprisingly, the pandemic
has exacerbated issues that existed
prior to COVID-19. For example,
the lack of trans-specifi c advertising
and trans-inclusive healthcare
was already among the roadblocks
hindering HIV prevention efforts
focused on trans and non-binary
individuals.
“Before you can initiate on PrEP,
you need to have a discussion with
a provider that involves a discussion
about your personal risk,
and many providers are just not
equipped to discuss sexual health,”
Radix noted. “And we need to do a
much better job of that.”
In turn, the absence of transinclusive
messaging has left some
transgender and non-binary individuals
wondering whether PrEP
could negatively interact with hormone
therapy, but Radix made
it clear that is “not the case” and
clarifi ed that PrEP does not interfere
with other gender-affi rming
interventions, including surgeries,
either.
Panelists also pointed to a
broader lack of LGBTQ-specifi c
sexual health campaigns. Mohamed
recalled his experience as
an undergraduate at Duke University,
where he said the institution
places an emphasis on health and
wellness but tends to steer safe sex
outreach toward cisgender, heterosexual
students. He said he fi rst
learned about PrEP through someone
he was dating.
“Even when I would go get tested
regularly, the local Duke doctor
wasn’t the one who initiated conversations
about being a potentially
good candidate for PrEP,”
Mohamed said, noting that he had
to take the initiative to ask his doctor
about it.
On that point, Gandhi acknowledged
that she and her colleagues
are aiming to deviate from the approach
of identifying “candidates”
➤ HIV-COVID WEBINAR, continued on p.19
November 26 - December 2,10 2020 | GayCityNews.com
/GayCityNews.com
