US doctor praises gay community at White House briefing

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, praised the ‘incredible courage and strength’ of the gay community at a White House briefing on Cornaivrus/Covid-19.

Fauci said: ‘A greater proportion of my career has been defined by HIV/AIDS. During that time there was extraordinary stigma, particularly against the gay community. It was only when the community responded with incredible courage and dignity and strength and activism… I think that really changed some of the stigma of the gay community.’

Fauci made his remarks while standing next to the notoriously homophobic Vice President Mike Pence. Pence has long supported anti-LGBT+ legislation in the US. In the US HIV disproportionately affects the black and Latino LGBT+ communities.

Fauci noted the ‘similarities’ between coronavirus and HIV. ‘Health disparities have always existed for the African American community. With the [coronavirus] crisis, it`s shining a bright light on how unacceptable that is.

‘It`s not that they’re getting infected more often, it`s that when they do get infected, their underlying medical conditions – the diabetes, the hypertension, the obesity, the asthma – those are the kind of things that wind them up in the ICU and ultimately given them a higher death rate.’