Huckabee Wanted to Isolate AIDS Patients (in 1992)

Guardian Unlimited ^ | December 8, 2007 | ANDREW DeMILLO

[dano1]

Mike Huckabee once advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal funding in the search for a cure and said homosexuality could ``pose a dangerous public health risk.''

As a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in 1992, Huckabee answered 229 questions submitted to him by The Associated Press. Besides a quarantine, Huckabee suggested that Hollywood celebrities fund AIDS research from their own pockets, rather than federal health agencies.

``If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague,'' Huckabee wrote.

(snip)

When asked about AIDS research in 1992, Huckabee complained that AIDS research received an unfair share of federal dollars when compared to cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

``In light of the extraordinary funds already being given for AIDS research, it does not seem that additional federal spending can be justified,'' Huckabee wrote. ``An alternative would be to request that multimillionaire celebrities, such as Elizabeth Taylor (,) Madonna and others who are pushing for more AIDS funding be encouraged to give out of their own personal treasuries increased amounts for AIDS research.''

(snip)

Since becoming a presidential candidate this year, Huckabee has supported increased federal funding for AIDS research through the National Institutes of Health.

(snip)

``What people do in the privacy of their own lives as adults is their business,'' Huckabee said. ``If they bring it into the public square and ask me as a taxpayer to support it or to endorse it, then it becomes a matter of public discussion and discourse.''

[Yaelle]

Yes, and I hadn’t even read yet the second article about his views on gays, which “might not help him much” in the general election. LOL.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Yeah. I don’t know if I am right or not, but I thought quarantines were used for other types of diseases. We never had quarantines for other sexually transmitted diseases, at least not that I know about.

Huckabee just didn't have the balls to advocate killing people with AIDS/HIV. His proposal for a lifelong camp/quarantine for people who have a particular incurable STD is not substantially different. Huckabee must have been a member of Westboro Baptist Church in 1992.

[GraniteStateConservative]

He was educated in Arkansas, which isn’t much different from not being educated at all.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Mike Huckabee is from the government and he’s here to help you.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

You don't help by making statements like that. You end up sounding like those Westboro Baptists yourself when you say killing them would be the same thing. What about all those who died from the disease since 1992? Maybe the absence of a quarantine killed them.

He wasn't thinking of punishing anyone. He was thinking of protecting the public health. Whether he was right or wrong to believe a quarantine could have helped, you are wrong to say it is the same thing as killing them. There is a long history of public quarantines over communicable diseases. Europe had one for syphillis before there was a treatment for that.

[mbraynard]

They were just normal people who came down with the disease.

More likely they are lying about cheating on a spouse, being on the 'down low' or using drugs.

[Anti-Bubba182]

Timeline: AIDS Epidemic

[Islander7]

AIDS and HIV were treated with political correctness and not handled as a dangerous disease in the 1980s and early 90s. Huckabee was right then.

If HIV/AIDS had been treated with the same caution and care as TB was in the 1930s and 40s, many thousands of people would still be alive today.

Ws were told (from the CDC, no less) not to wear gloves or masks because it made the patients feel ‘isolated’. I remember a nurse friend of mine was fired for refusing to treat an AIDS patient unless she could use mask and gloves. She was pregnant at the time.

She sued and won her job back and a nice settlement.

[SkyPilot]

AIDS - the only infectious disease in the history of humanity that could not quarantined for fear of the PC crowd.

[SkyPilot]

I remember a nurse friend of mine was fired for refusing to treat an AIDS patient unless she could use mask and gloves. She was pregnant at the time. She sued and won her job back and a nice settlement.

Good for her.

Would any of you want to touch this without rubber gloves and a mask?

This HIV patient presented with gingival Kaposi’s sarcoma in the retromandibular region secondary to his AIDS infection. In approximately 7.5-10 percent of AIDS patients display signs of oral Kaposi’s sarcoma, and can range in appearance from a small asymptomatic growths that are flat purple-red in color, to larger nodular growths.

[PLMerite]

Well, since we *didn’t* treat AIDS like we would other epidemics and it’s now uncontainable, funding a cure is the only thing left.

[DoughtyOne]

That information is generally taken in confidence. It’s used only for statistical purposes. While I don’t dismiss your conclusion completely, there are still people who have been married for a long time, have been monogamous for a long time and haven’t practiced the unsafe methods of obtaining the disease.

The claims of this being a sexually transmitted or blood to blood transmitted disease is true for the most part. IMO, unfortunately, that isn't the whole truth.