Peter Staley 🇺🇦 Profile picture
AIDS & gay rights activist; @PrEP4AllNow, @covid19ny; @TAGTeam_Tweets; @ActUpNY; Fall 2016 @IOPfellows; subject in How To @SurviveAPlague; Author, NEVER SILENT
Potato Of Reason Profile picture 1 subscribed
Feb 6, 2023 • 16 tweets • 6 min read
Dear @NewYorkStateAG @TishJames: why are you keeping an HIV+ Black man in prison 13 years after he completed a 12-year sentence for crimes committed in his teens? Remember how Rudy Giuliani branded NuShawn Williams back then? #FreeNuShawn Image Most everyone alive in 1997 will remember NuShawn's story. Branded an "AIDS Monster" by the tabloids, he was arrested in upstate NY, alleged to have infected 13 women with HIV, including some after his diagnosis the year before (he thought the health officials were lying to him).
Jul 30, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
If the CDC has increased their Delta Ro because of the Ptown cohort, then they are overstating it for the general population. The cohort was 85% male (WaPo and NYT have both failed to mention this). Hello, it was Bear Week. @apoorva_nyc rightly mentions packed bars, etc., but /1 ... everyone is missing the horny bear in the room. Bears go to Ptown to have lots of fun which includes lots of sex. News flash, gay men KISS when they have sex. /2
Dec 24, 2020 • 10 tweets • 8 min read
We did it! A small gang of Tony Fauci's HIV/AIDS comrades managed to surprise him yesterday with an 80th birthday Zoom. We had the @TAGTeam_Tweets boys: me, David Barr (+husband @SamAvrett), Mark Harrington, @gregggonsalves, @AgostoMoises and @jimeigo, ... /1 ... along with Lawrence “Bopper” Deyton (+ husband Jeff Levi), one of the heroic, gay, frontline AIDS docs in the 80s, having helped cofound Whitman Walker Clinic in the 70s. Tony hired him in the late 80s (partly to handle the activists! see: hsph.harvard.edu/magazine/magaz…) /2
Oct 5, 2020 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Dear mainstream media: if and when @realDonaldTrump starts his #COVID19 victory lap ("I stared it down and beat it back!"), please remember what actually happened. When his own life was in danger, ... /1 ... he ditched all the conspiracy bunk he told his cult to use (HCQ, azithromycin), and stuff he forced the FDA to approve for political purposes (convalescent plasma), and latched on to the best science advice he could find. /2
Oct 3, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Great reporting by @ErinBanco & @swin24. "Central to the dysfunction, officials say, is Atlas, a Rasputin-like figure who has increasingly gotten hold of the president’s ear." @SWAtlasHoover #COVID19 /1
thedailybeast.com/its-just-fck-u… My full interview here: instagram.com/tv/CFlEMt8Kg2B/ /2 Image
Sep 26, 2020 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
During my interview with Tony Fauci yesterday, I asked him about Scott Atlas's @SWAtlasHoover attempted takedown of @CDCDirector Redfield re how many Americans are still susceptible to #COVID19. Here's my question. /1

Full interview: instagram.com/tv/CFlEMt8Kg2B… Here's Fauci's answer. "I thought it was extraordinarily inappropriate for [Atlas], in a press conference like that, to contradict the director of CDC... " /2
Sep 26, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I interviewed Tony Fauci yesterday for 45 mins. We geeked-out about how #COVID19 is transmitted, but also how Trump is no longer getting the best advice. If you’ve got the attention span it’s a very different conversation than ones he usually has.
instagram.com/tv/CFlEMt8Kg2B… Image Dr. @EranBromage's blog post that went viral in May.

erinbromage.com/post/the-risks…
Sep 12, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
TONY MEETS STELLA: A Love Story. Drove to DC yesterday for various meet-ups, including dinner at the Fauci's last night. I knew he'd been missing his daughter Megan's dog since she spent a few of the lock-down months with them, so I surprised Tony with Stella. /1 I figured that if one of the nicest guys in the world met the nicest dog in the world, maybe some healing magic would happen for all that's broken right now. Worth a try. Stella sat at his feet during the entire dinner on their deck. /2
Aug 26, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
I'm totally despondent. Fauci and Birx have been successfully sidelined. Atlas reigns supreme. @CDCDirector and @SteveFDA just follow orders, disgracing their agencies, and spitting on their hard-working, dedicated civil servants. /1
nytimes.com/2020/08/25/wor… The Atlas Axis (@SWAtlasHoover @MarkMeadows @PeterNavarro45) are trying to shutdown testing for Trump. Fewer tests, fewer cases. Kids can't spread #COVID, so force schools open. Go for herd immunity. They'd love to protect the elderly, but don't have a plan for that. /2
Jun 26, 2020 • 4 tweets • 4 min read
Dig deeper, @davidalim & @Briannaehley. Your WH source and HHS spokesperson are both lying. @NIH was not given a choice by WH. I haven’t heard who gave the order, but best guess would be @VP or his chief of staff. /1
politico.com/news/2020/06/2… Even Fauci fibbed, unless "I don’t know the reason” means “I can’t explain the conspiracy theory in @realDonaldTrump’s head.” Everyone at @HHSGov knows this was Trump’s doing. WH obviously planted this presser question to blame Obama. /2
Apr 13, 2020 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
During my @EPIDEMICpodcast interview (podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s1e…) I was provoked by @whignewtons & @DavidAFrench's Mar 23 @thedispatch podcast (podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cur…) as they mused about not wanting to judge @realDonaldTrump's COVID response until the crisis is over. 1/ You can hear their Mar 23 musings at the 5:25 & 7:45 marks. My rant (apologies to Sarah for the old last name) ended up on the cutting room floor, but my point is valid — during epidemics, 90% of a leader's job — to save lives — comes upfront. Remember Reagan's AIDSgate? 2/ Image
Apr 2, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Yes, I'm a friend, but as a hugely important public figure, Tony Fauci is not above reproach. Michael Barbaro (NYT "The Daily" podcast) asked some strong questions of Fauci yesterday afternoon, especially around the travel bans. /1 Image Since COVID-19 was spreading in Washington State in late January, the bans were either too late and/or too narrow to make much of a difference. /2
nytimes.com/2020/04/02/pod…
Mar 23, 2020 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
I feared this would happen. The crazy right has been pushing for an immediate relaxing of social distancing for everyone except "high-risk groups." @realDonaldTrump is now retweeting them. #coronavirus #COVID19 1/n Image And now he's saying he'll reassess things after the national 15-day social distancing plan ends. If this happens, our hospitals will quickly collapse, and thousands of 20-, 30-, 40-, and 50-somethings will die. 2/n Image
Mar 11, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
When Trump was at the CDC on Friday, he was asked if he regretted shutting down the White House's Office of Pandemic Preparation, and replied about the current pandemic, "who would have thought?" Listen to Tony Fauci's warnings to Trump in Jan 2017. /1
On January 10, 2017 -- just 10 days before @realDonaldTrump became president -- Tony Fauci gave opening remarks at a daylong meeting titled "Pandemic Preparedness in the Next Administration." I cued up his concluding remarks in the previous tweet. /2
Jan 21, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The @BernieSanders advisor that posted the misleading Biden video was @GunnelsWarren, the same arsehole that smeared me with a tweet in 2016, referring to me as an "activist" in scare quotes, and claiming I made a fortune from pharma. 1/4
nytimes.com/2020/01/20/opi… You know, the same "activist" whose name is currently listed on one the biggest antitrust cases against pharma in history (Staley v Gilead). Gunnels later deleted the tweet, but neither he nor Sanders ever apologized. 2/4 Image
Oct 31, 2019 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
#PrEP THREAD! After purposely delaying Descovy's development for a decade, @GileadSciences started warning doctors and people with HIV to switch from Truvada-based regimens to Descovy-based regimens, claiming it was safer. 80% switched within 3 years. /1 NOT COINCIDENTALLY, this extended Gilead's monopolies in HIV treatment & prevention since TDF, the main component of Truvada, lost patent protection in 2017. But it also switched patients from a drug used for 14yrs w/ well-documented toxicities to one that was newly approved. /2
Jun 20, 2019 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Huge thanks to @KamalaHarris for caring about PrEP access. BUT, note to presidential candidates - please talk to PrEP activists BEFORE you announce your PrEP plans. Harris's staff let her down on this, ... /1 politico.com/story/2019/06/… ... obviously not briefing her on the focus of a recent @OversightDems hearing on PrEP. Front page of WaPo exposed how @CDCgov owns all PrEP patents and can set its price. @GileadSciences was exposed by @AOC and others for gross profiteering on backs of other's work. /2
Jun 4, 2019 • 16 tweets • 6 min read
Despite having allegedly abandoned TAF research in 2004, Gilead in fact filed seven applications for patents on TAF from 2004 to 2005. /9 And then, SURPRISE, it was reborn! Six yrs later, when it was finally time to prepare for TDF going generic in the yrs ahead, Gilead told investors in 2010 that “a new molecule” would replace its TDF-based sales and add “a great deal of longevity” to its HIV franchise. /10
Jun 4, 2019 • 9 tweets • 5 min read
One of many big lies told by @GileadSciences CEO Daniel O'Day was that TAF, its next PrEP drug, is "brand new." In fact, TAF is almost as old as TDF, the main drug in Truvada. Read on for damning details. /1
@OversightDems @RepCummings @AOC @RepPressley @RepRashida @RepSarbanes Image O'Day lied twice when questioned by @RepSarbanes about TAF. Beyond saying it was "new" he also claimed Gilead was unaware of TAF's safer profile during TDF's development. Watch this 2 min clip for both lies, and @aaronsylvanlord pushing back. /2
c-span.org/video/?c480077…
May 14, 2019 • 15 tweets • 7 min read
Staley v Gilead. Actually, it's a class action antitrust lawsuit with all the payers of AIDS drugs (including people living with HIV) on one side, and @GileadSciences +3 other pharma companies on the other. If you take HIV meds you can join the class. Keep reading next tweets /1 Image The @washingtonpost just posted a great article summarizing the case. All the behaviors by the defendants described in the article and in this tweet thread are "alleged." (wink-wink) /2
wapo.st/2Q3rG6I
Mar 27, 2019 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
BOOM. @PrEP4AllNow got this story placed on the front page of tomorrow's Washington Post.

Gilead owes royalties to the CDC from all its Truvada PrEP sales since 2012, which should amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. 1/3 washingtonpost.com/business/econo… By law, the CDC can spend this on HIV prevention without Congressional approval. Why has the CDC waited this long to demand what is owed? We’ll be asking Congress to investigate. 2/3