Steven Blum

When Jeff Taylor, a longtime AIDS advocate and survivor, learned about clinical trials for the new Covid-19 vaccine in his hometown, Palm Springs, California, he leapt at the opportunity to participate. “I always want to be the first person to try something,” he said. But Taylor’s enthusiasm was short-lived. As soon as he told a recruiter over the phone that he was HIV-positive, Taylor was informed that he was ineligible to join. “I argued with him, but he said: ‘I don’t make the rules. This is what our sponsor told us to do,’” Taylor, 58, said. Taylor understood, in a […]