Brazil was once a country known worldwide for the quality of its response to AIDS. Today Brazil experiences a clear setback, especially in the area of prevention. The text intends to analyze this situation, with the help of two concepts: the waste of experience, inspired by Boaventura Santos, and the precariousness of life, a category that builds on the ideas of Judith Butler. In line with these two categories, the text takes up the concept of solidarity, an important political organizer that gave force to the initial Brazilian response to AIDS. Brazilian public health policy deal with the AIDS epidemic today in a permanent tension between making live (expanding the supply of tests for knowledge of HIV status and universal provision of antiretroviral medication) and letting die (reinforcing the situations of stigma and discrimination in relation to vulnerable populations).
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; Brazil; Solidarity; Precariousness; Vulnerability