Since its release, An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary chronicling Al Gore’s quest against global warming, grossed $22,409,945 in the U.S. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby has grossed $127,806,521. Inherent in these numbers is Al Gore’s point: indeed there is something inconvenient about global warming and the truth in general — it is easier to ignore. Titled aptly, response to the movie shows that the truth isn’t sexy, funny, or a snake on a plane, and the public doesn’t care, more content to plod along in a land of digital cable, high-speed Internet and fast-food restaurants.  

But, it isn’t just a lack of entertainment value that makes the truth inconvenient. Box office numbers scream a larger problem, the reason why the truth is most inconvenient, not to the people in the theaters but the people who own them; the truth doesn’t sell, it doesn’t make money. Thus, I would like to ask a question, a question that might have an inconvenient answer.

Since 1981, more than 25 million people have died of AIDS. Each year, five million people are infected. According to UNAIDS/WHO data, there are over 39 million people living with HIV/AIDS right now.

Why hasn’t a vaccine been discovered yet?  

It is entirely possible that the science is not there yet. But, maybe that is too convenient an explanation. On February 9th, 2006, The New York Times reported a 45 percent fourth-quarter increase in profits for GlaxoSmithKline. The profit for the quarter was $1.96 billion with revenue at $10.33 billion. GSK manufactures and sells six types of anti-retroviral drugs and the average cost for a years’ worth of AIDS medication is $15,000. GSK is only one pharmaceutical titan. Combined, the market for AIDS medicines is a multi-billion dollar business. Maybe it is more profitable for enormous pharmaceutical companies not to find a vaccine for HIV.

Consider the response to avian flu where there is no market in treating the disease but an ever inflating one for a vaccine. As an airborne disease, there is certainly a need for this vaccine, but the market is waiting to be monopolized without any threat to current market shares. Since 2003, the H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed 140 people. Today, 6,000 people under the age of 24 contracted HIV.

Maybe the science is not there, or maybe the truth is inconvenient.

Aaron Charlop - Powers