White House Meeting on AIDS

About 130 people will be invited from around the country to a one-day White House Conference on HIV and AIDS on December 6. The invitees will include "people living with HIV and AIDS as well as experts in the areas of research, prevention, care, discrimination, and health and income support."

The program is still being put together, but at this time it looks like there will be about ten workshops in the morning, for discussion of particular topics; the people will be invited for a specific workshop. In the afternoon, President Clinton will arrive for a plenary session.

In the White House, the Office of National AIDS Policy is now setting up electronic and other channels for people "outside the Beltway" to have input into this process. ONAP is also planning a publication after the conference, to record what happened there, as well as the ideas, information, and experiences forwarded from the public.

Comment

So far the announced plans are getting diverse responses. People question what can be done with a one-day meeting where many of those coming together are likely to be unknown to each other. Current plans seem to be not to announce the invitees in advance, limiting opportunities for prior organization.

On the other hand, we do not rule out the possibility of constructive results. Ideally, Clinton could find a path by which the public could respond to AIDS as a mainstream issue in a way which has not happened before.

Our suggestion to Clinton would be for a long-term, high- profile initiative to improve and support medical research overall. This would offer a readily perceived benefit to everybody, since it could save the life of anyone in the United States or elsewhere. At the same time, it builds on U.S. technological and economic strengths, helping to secure our economy and our future. It need not cost much, since big money is already being spent, often ineffectively; this project should focus on low-cost activities such as developing strategic relationships. A number of relevant ideas have already been articulated; the first step of a White House initiative would be for a small, high-level team to borrow from the existing work, and craft several possible options for moving forward.