Profs and Pints Online presents: “Applying AIDS Lessons to Covid-19,” with Joseph Osmundson, professor of biology at New York University, expert on molecular microbiology, author, and queer activist.

A viral pandemic sweeps the world, killing hundreds of thousands as scientists scramble to come up with a vaccine or, at the very least, treatments. America’s black, brown, and working-class communities are being hit especially hard. Daily life is forever changed and—for the most vulnerable among us—the risk of contracting a virus is always on the mind.

We have been here before. In the 1980s and 1990s, the HIV/AIDS pandemic became a public health disaster in the United States, similarly preying especially hard on the marginalized and vulnerable.

Come learn what lessons we can draw from that previous health crisis in a talk being staged by Profs and Pints in honor of Pride Month and in collaboration with Out in STEM DC, an organization devoted to queer representation in in STEM fields. The speaker, Professor Joseph Osmundson, is an activist, molecular microbiologist, and scientific advisor on Covid-19 diagnostics, treatment, and vaccines for Treatment Action Group, a science advocacy group.

He’ll recount how, in response to the AIDS crisis, a generation of largely young, mostly queer activists – including many activists of color—formed groups like ACT-UP, media watchdog GLAAD, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and GMAD (Gay Men of African Descent). And he’ll describe how in dealing with Covid-19, a group of HIV/AIDS activists, many of them queer ACT UP alumni, have been working behind the scenes to push governments to respond more aggressively

In his interactive, online talk, he’ll review the basic biology of SARS-CoV-2, talk about what we know about this virus and what we don’t, consider the best actions we can take at a personal and governmental level to stop its spread, and discuss the ways that queer and other marginalized people often lead us in moments of crisis. He will also ask how we can transition from a phase of crisis response to living-with COVID-19 until scientists develop a vaccine or treatment, applying lessons on HIV risk management from the 1980s to our situation today.

Professor Osmundson is a founding member of the COVID-19 Working Group – NY and has published in Cell, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, and Nucleic Acids Research. His talk promises to leave you not just informed, but newly empowered.

Profs & Pints Online: Applying AIDS Lessons to Covid-19