In this episode of Science Counterpunch, we welcome epidemiologist, MacArthur Fellow, and lifelong AIDS activist Gregg Gonsalves to talk about what happens when politics is attacking public health.
Gregg was on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic with ACT UP in the 1990s, helping to force institutions like the NIH and FDA to accelerate research and expand access to lifesaving treatments. Later, he brought that same activist-scientist playbook to South Africa, confronting deadly AIDS denialism at the level of government policy.
What happens today in the US not only echoes but in many cases exceeds the terrors of the past.
We talk about state-sanctioned pseudoscience, the capture of public-health institutions by political actors and charlatans dead-set on burning down the house, and what has already been destroyed for a generation. We also dig into what activists and scientists did in the 90s to change the course of history—and what those lessons mean now, as global health systems face funding cuts, political sabotage, and a new wave of anti-science ideology.
How do you defend public health when the notion of reality itself is under attack?
You speak up. You organize locally. And you fight them for every school board, city council or community leadership seat at the tables where you can make the lives of people around you better.
Science Counterpunch is a punchy YouTube-first podcast that exists to defend the Enlightenment in an age of information warfare. We expose merchants of doubt, amplify experts under attack, and arm you with the tools to spot anti-science rhetoric before it spreads.
Evidence matters. Reason isn’t optional. Let’s counterpunch.
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