COVID-19 and WORLD AIDS DAY

On December 1, 2021, I received a booster shot for COVID-19. December 1 of each year has been an important day for most of my career because it is World AIDS Day. While I was waiting to get my shot, I began to realize how quiet this day had been. I didn’t receive any reminders in my email box that it was Worlds' AIDS Day; I wasn’t invited to any events or enlisted to give remarks as I have done so many times. For it to be World AIDS Day, it was wearily quiet. I wondered if the coronavirus pandemic had silenced the observance this year. As I sat in the chair, exposing my right shoulder and anticipating the jab into my flesh, I saw the arc of my public health career and the importance of the work that has consumed more than half of my life; I realized that I had made a difference. I reflected on the fight through the minutiae, with politicians, elected, and appointed public officials who didn’t give a damn. I remember going into dark apartments, drug dens, and rough neighborhoods to locate someone exposed to HIV. I remember telling too many teenagers of their positive status, the tears from them and me, and how quiet this World AIDS Day has been. People living with HIV have been allowed to grow gray. Reaching U equal U (undetectable and untransmittable) was a game-changer in the fight against HIV/AIDS. On this World AIDS Day, I remember all of the people who are alive because we shared with them the best scientific advice, to love them, and to encourage them. So, on this World AIDS Day, I stuck out my shoulder and received my COVID-19 booster shot and realized that I made a difference.