Miscellaneous thoughts (often
politically incorrect) from behind the front lines.
Pinch me, I must be dreaming—Senator
Jesse Helms is lobbying for more money to fight AIDS overseas.
Isn’t this one of the signs of the Apocalypse? It seems as
he draws closer to his meeting with God, humanitarian spirits
are stirring within him. (Note to Senator Helms: Based on
the experience of your colleague Senator Thurmond, you may
not be as close to that meeting as you may think.)
The Bush II administration
has pledged $500 million to the Global AIDS Fund over the
next two years. This has been widely criticized as too little
support. This may be true, but how much was pledged under
previous administrations?
It seems that if you are
part of the federal government or are an agency or program
funded by the federal government for HIV prevention you must
be very careful what you say these days. Prevention messages
are fine—as long as they say abstinence and abstinence only.
However, if you are held in high regard by the public you
can go on MTV and promote condom use without much criticism
from the White House. (Ah, the power of polling numbers.)
Now that we are in the 21st
century, isn’t it reassuring to know that the United States
government clings to old-fashioned ideals. Ideals such as
sex education where you teach only “no sex.” Ideals such as
talking to teenagers about condoms will cause them to have
more sex. Ideals such as protection of the father-(oops sorry)
homeland from the thousands (millions?) of HIV positive people
who want to visit. Of course if we did not have our immigration
ban, hordes of HIV positive people from around the world would
descend on this country, sneaking in as tourists, but fully
intending to become residents so that they could use our public
health system. Makes you wonder how the rest of the industrialized
world (who do have socialized medical systems) have managed
to withstand this mass-migration-for-medication.
And speaking of abstinence,
is it really wrong or a “sell-out” for HIV prevention educators
and providers to add abstinence to their programming? Should
we not provide support and encouragement to individuals who
believe in, or are leaning towards abstinence?
What are the long-term prospects
for newer, better HIV treatments? Are the recent mergers within
the drug industry good or bad? Do big companies have more
resources to devote to expensive HIV drug research? Or are
they now less inclined since the HIV portion of their total
business is small. Has new drug development been hurt now
that it is clear the only “profitable” markets are in North
America and Western Europe? And what impact will an HIV vaccine
have on anti-HIV drug development? If a vaccine is developed
and therefore new infections stop, doesn’t it seem likely
that new treatments for those of us living with HIV will cease?
And finally, President Bush’s
announced nominee for Surgeon General is a high school drop-out
who has made good through hard work and perseverance. Given
our semi-war footing, it’s not surprising Dr. Richard Carmona
has experience in mass destruction and bio-terrorism planning.
Too bad. What this administration needs is a voice advocating
for prevention education. Just as preventing terrorism saves
lives, so too does preventing diseases. Maybe we can count
on Senator Helms.
Dennis Hartke
Executive Director
Thoughts, comments, reactions?
Write me at
ed@tpan.com
