04/03/2021
Meet Gregg Gonsalves.
When the biggest pandemic before this one hit – the HIV/AIDS crisis – Gonsalves dropped out of college. He had come out as gay and people he loved were dying. Gonsalves became a prominent AIDS activist, which also involved teaching himself the ins and outs of drug trials in order to put pressure on pharmaceutical companies to create drugs. He then continued this fight in South Africa, to make sure that HIV/AIDS treatments didn't remain only a rich country’s right.
His work was recognized with the highly prestigious MacArthur Fellowship award, unofficially known as the “Genius Grant”.
In his late 30s, Gonsalves decided to do a bachelor’s degree, so he went to Yale University. He graduated in his 40s and immediately after that he got a PhD at Yale as well, later joining the university as a Professor. He teaches at the Yale School of Public Health and at the Yale Law School. He also runs the Global Health Justice Partnership Center.
Gonsalves is HIV positive and takes medication every day. He has revolutionized what it means to hold governments accountable in a health crisis. In this episode he sits down with us to talk about his fight firsthand, how history is repeating itself, what kind of activism we need and where we need it to save lives in this pandemic and beyond.
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