As Final AIDS LifeCycle Ride Ends, Where Does AIDS Research Stand?

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When the first AIDS LifeCycle ride rolled down the California coastline in 1994, AIDS was the leading cause of death for people aged 25 to 44. Today, HIV is no longer a death sentence and can be treated, though not cured. This weekend, the ride, which has raised $300 million for research, crosses the finish line for the last time. We take this moment to look back on the strides made in AIDS/HIV research and advocacy and explore the impact federal funding cuts to healthcare will have on stopping the spread of AIDS in the U.S. and around the world. Guests: Jeff Sheehy, long-time AIDS activist and first openly HIV+ member of SF Board of Supervisors; former board member, California Institute of Regenerative Medicine Monica Gandhi, infectious disease expert; professor of medicine, UCSF Jennifer Kates, senior vice president and director of Global Health & HIV Policy, KFF Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for Key QBD Podcasts comes from San Francisco International Airport.
0:05.1	At SFO, you can shop, dine, and unwind before your flight.
0:09.2	Go ahead, treat yourself.
0:10.6	Learn more about SFO restaurants and shops at flysfo.com.
0:15.8	Greetings, boomtown.
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0:32.2	From Kikiwit in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:48.2	When the first AIDS life cycle ride rolled down the California coastline in 1994, AIDS was the leading cause of death
0:55.9	for people aged 25 to 44. Today for Americans with resources, HIV is no longer a death
1:02.9	sentence and can be treated. This weekend, the last AIDS life cycle ride will cross the finish
1:09.3	line. So we're going to take this moment to look back on the strides that have been made in AIDS HIV
1:14.5	research and explore the impact that federal funding cuts to health care and humanitarian aid
1:20.1	will have on the battle against the disease.
1:23.0	It's all coming up next right after this news welcome to forum welcome to forum i'm alexis madrigal
1:39.9	1994 was a turning point for the hiv epidemic after causing so much pain and suffering in the gay community in the 1980s with remarkably little help from the powers that be awareness and concern about HIV AIDS had fully saturated the mainstream.
1:58.8	The movie Philadelphia, the play Angels in America, Pedro Zamora,
2:02.9	on the real world. But despite the increasing attention, the disease continued to kill so many
2:09.3	people here in the Bay Area and across the country. It wouldn't be until 1995 that the first
2:15.3	protease inhibitor was approved by the FDA, eventually ushering
	...

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