Friday, November 01, 2013

Chelsea-Clinton = NYC's Highest HIV Rate: Corey's AIDS Plan?

(Johnson with Hillary Clinton at a fundraiser for God's Love We Deliver, a hot-meals program for people with AIDS in New York City. Credit: Johnson's Twitter account.)

The New York City Department of Health's semi-annual HIV epi report, published every October but which is being discontinued, measures HIV diagnoses per 100,000 population as one method of determining trends. This measurement is broken down by borough and then districts.

For the entire city, the Chelsea-Clinton district of Manhattan has had the highest rate per 100,000 persons for all of the semi-annual reports from 2005 through 2011:

2005: 135.0

2006: 150.4

2007: 148.8

2008: 167.5

2009: 155.3

2010: 140.1

2011: 126.3

Gay Democrat and openly HIV positive Corey Johnson on Tuesday will be elected to replace Christine Quinn as the District 3 representative on the City Council, which includes the Chelsea-Clinton district.

Back in July, I blogged about his non-existent history on AIDS activism. His campaign's web site mentions he supports funding for direct services to people with AIDS, but a comprehensive plan for combating HIV transmissions in his district is nowhere to be found.

In August, Duncan Osborne profiled Johnson and had this to report about his AIDS resume for Gay City News:

In an obviously choreographed story in May in the Times, Johnson said that he was HIV-positive and had known his status for over eight years. It is not clear if the piece was meant to minimize the disclosure or maximize attention to it, but it received little play in the press.

Other than having Community Board 4 call for increases in AIDS funding in the city budget, Johnson has no record on HIV matters. Asked what were his notable achievements on AIDS issues, Johnson said, “I actually think me being honest and telling my friends and me being a role model.”

Good of him to publicly disclose his positive status, but he also needs to develop an AIDS plan and present it to the LGBT and HIV communities.

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