Two Futures--Millions of Lives
2030 will be a year of reckoning for the AIDS epidemic, marking fifty years of one of the worst epidemics in the history of the world. The 28th International AIDS Conference will be held in July of that year in Durban, South Africa. The conference will include a panel of leaders looking back on the fifty-year history of HIV and AIDS. But what will the panelists say?
If HIV and AIDS have made a strong resurgence in the 2020s, the panel will be called How We Lost the War Against AIDS, and the panelists will focus on the mistakes that led to an overwhelming human catastrophe.
But in a different future, a future in which HIV and AIDS are no longer threats to public health, the panel will be called How We Won the War Against AIDS, and the panelists will celebrate the wise decisions that led to a humanitarian triumph.
Which future will we see? Now is the time to choose.
David Barstow deftly combines the meticulous attention to order and detail that you would expect from a scientist with the persistence and passion for action you would expect from an activist.
--From the foreword by Dr. Jonathan Quick, MD, MPH, author of The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It
David Barstow's book lays out two possible storylines based on the two possible choices the world might make: a scenario of terrible human suffering or a victorious ending where humanity "wins" and the threat is averted. We can write this next chapter, but what will we write? The choice is ours to make.
--Richard Stearns, President Emeritus, World Vision US
Barstow paints a picture of what the future will look like if we do not urgently recognize that we are far from ending AIDS. He shows that Two Futures are possible. The HIV response has been one of the most successful in the history of public health. If we act now, we can get to the end. If we do not, history will not treat current policy makers well.
--Mark Dybul, Professor and Co-Director, Center for Global Health and Quality, Georgetown University Medical Center
About the Author David R. Barstow is a computer scientist turned AIDS activist. After earning his PhD in Artificial Intelligence from Stanford University in 1977, David spent the next thirty years as a college professor, industrial research scientist and engineer, internet entrepreneur, and business consultant. A remark by Bono, the Irish rock star, at a 2006 Christian leadership conference prompted him to change directions. Since then, David has focused his time and energy on strengthening the religious response to the AIDS epidemic. In 2007, he founded EMPACT Africa, a Christian non-profit dedicated to working with local faith leaders in southern Africa to address the stigma associated with HIV and AIDS. During the past decade, he has worked with numerous governmental, non-governmental, and faith-based organizations. Most recently, David worked with the World Council of Churches to coordinate the Common Voice initiative, an interreligious movement of advocacy and action to end AIDS.
