The Global AIDS Alliance has awarded U.S. President Barack Obama a “mediocre grade” for his 2010 response to the global AIDS challenge.
“President Obama did take praiseworthy actions in the fight against HIV/AIDS in 2010. What is missing is the bold audacity with which President Obama has embraced other issues,” Global AIDS Alliance Executive Director Paul Zeitz says in a blog entry published in the Huffington Post where he revealed that the organization gave the president a ‘C.’
The grade is higher that his 2009 rating but below the “superior grades” earned by former U.S. President George Bush, Zeitz says. He praised Obama for the three-year funding pledge the U.S. made to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria but argued that the USD4 billion contribution was far less than the country’s USD6 billion “fair share.”
How can Obama lift his HIV/AIDS response grade in 2011?
“For President Obama to improve his HIV/AIDS report card in 2011, he must fulfill U.S. promises to fully fund PEPFAR and the Global Fund, and this will require him to build bipartisan support for PEPFAR, the Global Fund and GHI. Meantime, President Obama also must hold fast during the next Congress to one of his key AIDS successes: Lifting PEPFAR’s most onerous restrictions, such as a Bush Administration focus on abstinence education and banning syringe exchange,” Zeitz says.
