This would be funny if it wasn't so fucking irritating! The CDC has been sitting on new data about HIV infections for... Jesus.... who knows how long. I blogged about them last November and December. Rumors of the data indicating a sharp increase in new infections have been swirling since last fall. It seems like every conference or meeting I attend with other HIV/AIDS scholars or public health officials, you can hear the whispering in the corners of every room. "Pssst. Hey, what do you know about the new numbers?"

POZ magazine has a great article detailing the controversy. There's a nice quote at the end from Julie Davids, from CHAMP in New York:

“Perhaps most troubling with the CDC’s protracted stalling and foot-dragging is how non-shocking the eventual release will be,” said Julie Davids, executive director of the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP). “Anyone paying attention whatsoever to HIV in the U.S. knows that the epidemic is far from diminished. In fact, we’ve known it is rising in distinct populations. Lacking adequate resources and leadership, this crisis has been allowed to become bigger than we ever imagined.”