HHS to Spend $7.5M to Find Mistrust Among Hispanic Gay Men

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will spend $7.5 million to prevent HIV by identifying areas of medical mistrust between Hispanic and Latino gay and bisexual men.

The grant, funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, begins by noting that, “Medical mistrust is associated with HIV disparities among Hispanic/Latino gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men by preventing or delaying access to HIV services.”

To remedy this, the grant aims determine why Hispanic/Latino men who have sex with men have distrust for medical providers and find a way to build trust “to improve access and utilization of HIV prevention and care services.”

The grant also plans to evaluate the implementation of interventions “that build trust in health and HIV prevention services.”

While HIV prevention is a laudable cause, this grant does very little to reduce medical mistrust or prevent HIV. By simply studying “drivers of medical mistrust” and evaluating the feasibility of interventions, nobody is actually being helped by this grant, despite the high price tag.

This grant would accomplish much more if the scope also included implementing these findings to reduce HIV rates. Instead, it merely studies causes of medical mistrust and potential interventions with no action. It’s outrageous to spend $7.5 million on a study with no action associated with it.

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This article was originally published by RealClearPolicy and made available via RealClearWire.