Petrelis Files

An Act of Congress Opens S.F. HIV Panel

It took invoking an Act of Congress, the Federal Advisory Committee Act or FACA, which was enacted in 1972, to force the San Francisco health department to tell me where and when the Community Advisory Board meeting for the HIV vaccine trials is taking place next week. Needless to say, I am very happy the board is starting to meet all requirements of FACA.

Dr. Susan Buchbinder, the HIV researcher conducting the trials and is also, I believe, the head of the advisory board, sent me an email yesterday stating that the board will meet on Tuesday, September 19 at the AIDS Office at 25 Van Ness Avenue, in conference room 330A.

While receiving this public information is a step forward in persuading Buchbinder and the health department to adhere to the federal statutes contained in FACA requiring them to easily make the advisory board's meeting times and dates available, along with advance copies of the agendas, not to mention minutes of previous meetings, it is not enough.

I believe this HIV advisory board is in flagrant violation of FACA, has been for a few years too, and I'm not sure why San Francisco's health department is having trouble keeping the gay and AIDS communities here informed about the board's required public monthly meetings.

Other federal HIV advisory panels administered by the health department, including the HIV Prevention Planning Council and the Ryan White CARE Act Council, do an excellent job of meeting all the requirements of FACA, examples that the vaccine trials advisory board should emulate.

If the vaccine trials board members, or you, want to see how easy it is to follow FACA statutes, click here for the prevention council's site, and click here for our local CARE Act council's informative web site.

And to view how the vaccine trials board is not up to snuff, click here and see what is missing.