Why Is the Obama Administration Hiding the Data Behind Its AIDS Strategy?

Will ONAP share its data?

Since late July, Housing Works has asked the Office of National AIDS Policy to share the criteria it used to set goals in its recently released National HIV/AIDS Strategy.

Dissatisfied with the modest targets set in the plan -- most notably a reduction of HIV infections by a mere 25 percent during five years -- advocates want to see the data used to formulate them. ONAP, which has been extremely transparent and communicative in the past, has so far refused to supply the information.

On July 30, ONAP told Housing Works that the NHAS targets are the results of ONAP's collaboration with the Federal HIV Interagency Working Group. The targets were derived from epidemiological trends and formulated through research and mathematical modeling. In that e-mail message, ONAP defended the plan's goals as "aggressive and realistic." However, the office has not responded to repeated requests for the key information: the calculations and mathematical models themselves.

"From the day that Jeff Crowley started at ONAP, he's been very open. We've had unprecedented access. It's surprising to me that they are not providing the data," said Christine Campbell, Housing Works vice president of national policy and organizing. "President Obama and the NHAS document make it clear that the the national plan won't succeed without vigorous community support. If that's the case, than we ought to be given a full explanation of the criteria behind the plan's goals. Why can we reduce infections by 25 percent and not 20 percent or 30 percent? We deserve to know."

Unfortunately, ONAP is one of the government offices exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, the law ensuring public access to government records. Unless ONAP sends along its math, advocates may never see the data used to create goals set forth in the national strategy.

When the plan was released in mid-July, ONAP's Director Jeffrey Crowley called the plan's aim to reduce infections by 25 percent "an achievable but also very aggressive goal." Housing Works, however, has criticized that goal and the plan in general, calling it a strategy to manage the epidemic, not end it.

Perhaps a reduction of 25 percent is the best we can do in five years. Perhaps not. But advocates will never know until they have more information.

ONAP, where are you?