Putting a Plague in Perspective (leading Democratic candidates want to commit at least $50 billion)

NY Times ^ | January 1, 2008 | DANIEL HALPERIN

[neverdem]

ALTHOUGH the United Nations recently lowered its global H.I.V. estimates, as many as 33 million people worldwide are still living with the AIDS virus. This pandemic requires continued attention; preventing further deaths and orphans remains imperative. But the well-meaning promises of some presidential candidates to outdo even President Bush’s proposal to nearly double American foreign assistance to fight AIDS strike me, an H.I.V.-AIDS specialist for 15 years, as missing the mark.

Some have criticized Mr. Bush for requesting “only” $30 billion for the next five years for AIDS and related problems, with the leading Democratic candidates having pledged to commit at least $50 billion if they are elected. Yet even the current $15 billion in spending represents an unprecedented amount of money aimed mainly at a single disease.

Meanwhile, many other public health needs in developing countries are being ignored. The fact is, spending $50 billion or more on foreign health assistance does make sense, but only if it is not limited to H.I.V.-AIDS programs.

Last year, for instance, as the United States spent almost $3 billion on AIDS programs in Africa, it invested only about $30 million in traditional safe-water projects. This nearly 100-to-1 imbalance is disastrously inequitable — especially considering that in Africa H.I.V. tends to be most prevalent in the relatively wealthiest and most developed countries. Most African nations have stable adult H.I.V. rates of 3 percent or less.

Many millions of African children and adults die of malnutrition, pneumonia, motor vehicle accidents and other largely preventable, if not headline-grabbing, conditions. One-fifth of all global deaths from diarrhea occur in just three African countries — Congo, Ethiopia and Nigeria — that have relatively low H.I.V. prevalence. Yet this condition, which is not particularly difficult to cure or prevent, gets scant attention from the donors that invest nearly...

[ConservativeMind]

If we were to only quarantine them...

[Graybeard58]

The fact is, spending $50 billion or more on foreign health assistance does make sense, but only if it is not limited to H.I.V.-AIDS programs.

Doesn't make sense to me and it's my money.

[ninonitti]

where clinics could not afford to stock basic medicines but often maintained an inventory of expensive AIDS drugs

The "Battle" against AIDS turns out to be a subsidy for Big Pharma?

Naw, they couldn't just be propping their stock prices while people die of diarrhea could they?

[neverdem]

Will This Case of Milk Contamination Make the FDA's Presentation?

FDA Clears First Quick Test For Drug-Resistant Staph Infections

A cold spell soon to replace global warming

[GodGunsGuts]

www.duesberg.com

[GodGunsGuts]

The American Spectator
April 2000

Tom Bethell

INVENTING AN EPIDEMIC:
The traditional diseases of Africa are called AIDS

http://www.rethinkingaids.com/portals/0/documentlibrary/Bethell%20in%20the%20American%20Spectator.pdf

[zeugma]

Widespread use of DDT could save hundreds of thousands a year in Africa, if they were interested in actually doing something useful as opposed to politically correct.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks neverdem. Personally, I think the Saudis should use some of their wealth to pay for AIDS. Oh, wait, they are? No, they're paying for *aides*.

Thanks neverdem.

[editor-surveyor]

Big welfare for big pharma; what’s new?

It’s just the same as the cholestral scam; only difference here is that the money gets run through the IRS first.

[jas3]

Answering AIDS Denialists and AIDS Lies

The Durban declaration states:   "The evidence that AIDS is caused by HIV-1 or HIV-2 is clear-cut, exhaustive and unambiguous, meeting the highest standards of science." And also, "HIV causes AIDS. It is unfortunate that a few vocal people continue to deny the evidence. This position will cost countless lives."

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What bona fide AIDS researchers and activists will and will not do when countering AIDS denialists
We will:

1. Expose the lies and the factual misrepresentations made by the denialists, particularly when these appear in the mainstream media.
2. Expose individual cases of avoidable illness or death caused by the actions of denialists.
3. Make supervising authorities or professional organizations aware of conduct by AIDS denialists, particularly scientists, journalists and civil servants, which breaches the normal standards of professional ethics or competence.
4. Assist investigative journalists in uncovering the financial links between AIDS profiteers and the AIDS denialists who provide mutual support to each other.
5. Provide factual information on HIV/AIDS to legitimate, mainstream journalists and bona fide members of the public (i.e. not AIDS denialists or agent provocateurs).

We will not:

Engage in any public or private debate with AIDS denialists or respond to requests from journalists who overtly support AIDS denialist causes. The reasons are:

1. The debate has been settled: HIV causes AIDS, AIDS kills, and AIDS can be treated with significant success by the use of antiretroviral therapy. These are the facts.
2. The information proving the above is already in the peer-reviewed science literature. The scientific facts are ignored, misunderstood or willfully misrepresented by the AIDS denialists. However, it is not our role to enlighten denialists as to their inability to understand the available information.
3. Debating denialists dignifies their position in a way that is unjustified by the facts about HIV/AIDS. The appropriate way for dissenting scientists to try to persuade other scientists of their views on any scientific subject is by publishing research in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. For many years now, AIDS denialists have been unsuccessful in persuading credible peer-reviewed journals to accept their views on HIV/AIDS, because of their scientific implausibility and factual inaccuracies. That failure does not entitle those who disagree with the scientific consensus on a life-and-death public health issue to then attempt to confuse the general public by creating the impression that scientific controversy exists when it does not.
4. Our time is better spent conducting research into HIV/AIDS and/or educating the general public about the facts about this virus and the deadly disease it causes.

This November 2003 Nature article shows why debating denialists is a waste of time.

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To help prevent lives from being lost due to ignorance or misunderstanding, we have assembled the content below to address the most common assertions made by AIDS denialists:

HIV, AIDS, and the Distortion of Science – Martin Delaney

Does drug use cause AIDS?

The Consequences of HIV Denialism – Dr. Robert Voigt

Joseph Sonnabend, M.D., makes it clear that denialists are including inappropriate references to him in their literature

AIDS Truth member criticizes AIDS denialists

Several denialist websites proclaim that two—even three—Nobel Prize winners question HIV as the cause of AIDS. Is this true? AIDS Truth investigates.

What our work means: Predictive value of plasma HIV RNA level on rate of CD4 T-cell decline in untreated HIV infection

HIV causes AIDS: An independent review of the evidence

Debunking the Myths of the AIDS Denialists

Response to the Seven Deadly Deceptions

CD4 Counts and Viral Load

Drugs, Disease, Denial

HIV, AIDS, and the Distortion of Science

AIDS denialism: still crazy after all these years - and still killing people in South Africa

Price of Denial by Mark Heywood

Bad Science: Former Denialists Wake Up

Lies, Damned Lies and Dr. Rath

Nature Medicine Editorial: Denying Science

The Curious Case of AIDS Denialist Roberto Giraldo

Echoes of Lysenko: State-sponsored Pseudoscience in South Africa

Correcting the AIDS Lies

HIV denialists ignore large gap in the study they cite

Denying AIDS and the Rwandan Genocide?

Misrepresentation of the Concorde trial perpetuated by AIDS denialists, particularly Anthony Brink

Words of Dr. Harvey Bialy

[Razz Barry]

I wish they’d let nature take its course. We have been telling people for more than twenty years how not to get AIDS. If they’re to stupid to listen, let them die. All this is about is money. Sucking money from us and pretending to fight a disease. We’re only pouring money down the drain. We have people in our country who need medical care for things not of their making. Keep our money here.