Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Momentum

This week's flurry of HIV/AIDS research news took me back to the top of a long, hot climb through the Catskills. "Cure" talk contains increasingly more hopeful nuggets, even the bees are taking some credit. Things are looking up on the way to the top...



Upon arrival, your feet hit the ground long enough to wipe your brow and catch your breath. At that moment in my memory I heard the exasperated groan of my young (and exhausted) companion who had also caught a glimpse, not of the screaming downhill at our feet, but at the even higher hill to climb on the far side of it...

In the same week, the National Institute of Health (NIH) put the brakes on the largest, most recent HIV vaccine trial and sequester cuts lead to $1.6 billion in unfunded biomedical research grants, threatening to close HIV/AID research labs across the country and instantly set back progress two or more years.

"That hill? No problem," I tell my young friend, "You can pedal almost to the top on momentum alone!"  A little extra work on the downhill spin makes that uphill journey shorter and far less painful.

We may only inject a few thousand dollars at a time toward ending AIDS and easing its impact on the world but we do it every year and it always makes a difference. Emory University may receive less research funding in 2013 but the Emory Vaccine Center can count on the money we raise this month in the AIDS Vaccine 200 to keep their labs open through the downturn. Research cuts are forcing an abrupt end to the cutting-edge AIDS research by the George Mason University lab we've supported the last 4 years. Dr. Yuntao Wu's AIDS research has momentum and the $7,369 raised by last fall's Stealth Ride is seeding a grassroots effort to keep his lab open until NIH funding can be reinstated.

Thank YOU for helping to maintain the momentum necessary for the long haul journey of ending AIDS by donating a little this year, and every year, until there's a cure.
Donate to the AIDS Vaccine 200 benefiting Emory Vaccine Center.
Donate to Dr. Yuntao Wu's AIDS research at George Mason University

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