LA Times: Government revisiting restrictions on blood donations by gay men

LA Times ^ | March 13, 2010 | By Andrew Zajac

[FrankR]

"Federal health officials announced Friday that they would reexamine a 27-year-old set of restrictions on blood donations by gay men. "

Let's see now...I'm 64; when I was about 10 or 11 an epidemic of "yellow jaundice" (a form of hepititus) swept through our school and about 50 people came down with it, including me.

To this day, they will not take my blood because of that, and it was an illness that couldn't be helped.

So, if they let gay men - with possible exposure to aids - give blood, will my equal rights be violated if they still refuse to take mine? /sarc

What do these people do, sit around all day and look out at the world hunting something to apply "civil special rights" to?

The really need to get a life, and a job or hobby. An idle mind is the devil's workshop.

[DontTreadOnMe2009]

And let’s not forget that AIDS invected gays can now freely enter the USA ...

and get lifetime free AIDS medicine,

the US taxpayers must pay for it, as these freeloaders certainly will not ...

Ha Ha Stupid Americans.

You lose again, we win again.

[DoughtyOne]

Let me guess, they’re going to determine the ‘insult to gay men’ outweighs the health of the hemophiliacs.

[rbg81]

If a gay man has his feelings hurt because he is not able to give blood, tough sh!t. His feelings do not trump my family’s safety. These PC politicians watch themselves if they pull this off and people who go in for routine medical care start contracting AIDS or hepitatis for no good reason. There will be ALOT of angry people out there.

[leaning conservative]

I have to say I am completely confused as to why someone who could infect someones else w/ their blood would have their feelings hurt in the first place.

I guess it will get to the place where friends & family will keep a database of bloodtypes & contacts for a blood emergency.

I’m not a betting woman, but I guarantee you that John Kerry will not partake of the public blood supply that you & I have as our only choice. (apologies for the unbelievably stupid good parents/ kids playing in the street analogy from earlier— I just reread it & I sound like an idiot!)

[rbg81]

I have to say I am completely confused as to why someone who could infect someones else w/ their blood would have their feelings hurt in the first place.

---

It’s definitely not rational—its barely human. What it is, is a desire for “total, unconditional acceptance” for one’s self, regardless of the cost to society as a whole.

[GailA]

He doesn’t care how many people die at all period. Less Medicare and SS to be paid out.

Defeat Obamacare call list: List now contains the new MAYBES culled from FR posts.

PLEASE CALL! DC OFFICE LOCAL OFFICE State District

Code Red” - House Target List on Health Care

The National Republican Congressional Committee has published a target list on health care. In addition to continuing to contact the five Tennessee Democrat Congressmen, you can go http://www.votervoice.net/link/clickthrough/ext/94697.aspx to contact some of these targets. Much of the talk following Obama’s announcement has focused on how to defeat this second bill through reconciliation, but that is misleading because the first step to defeating Obamacare is not by concentrating on defeating the “fixer” bill but by defeating the Senate bill in the House when it goes to the floor for an up-or-down vote on Thursday, March 18th.

Rep. Lincoln Davis 202-225-6831 Columbia office: 931-490-8699
Rep. Jim Cooper 202-225-4311 Nashville office: 615-736-5295
Rep. Bart Gordon 202-225-4231 Murfreesboro office: 615-896-1986
John Tanner (202) 225-4714, Union City, (731) 885-7070, Jackson Phone: (731) 423-4848, Millington (901) 873-5690 TN (MAYBE)
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Bart Stupak (202) 225 4735 MI (MAYBE)
Brian Baird (202) 225-3536, Vancouver, (360) 695-6292. Olympia, (360) 352-9768, (MAYBE)
senator mark begich (202) 224-3004 toll free. (877) 501 - 6275 just became a MAYBE
Jason Altmire 202-225-2565, Aliquippa, 724-378-0928,
Natrona Heights, 724-226-1304 (MAYBE)

On the Bubble (Major developments from the “yes” and “no” columns in the House)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2467046/posts

Congressional Dems on Twitter
http://www.arrghpaine.com/congressional-dems-on-twitter

[little jeremiah]

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Off into the abyss. There is no common sense, no truth, no rationality, no goodness, no mercy - nothing of any value whatsoever in the leftist agenda. It is all, 100% evil and destructive. They can't even invent a nice sounding explanation for this insanity. Probably trying to do this so they can push homosexuals in the military.

They want to destroy American and as many lives in the process as they can.

[virgil]

Kerry’s an idiot. Homos engage in high risk behavior for other blood borne diseases besides AIDS. There may be some other diseases out there we don’t know about and we never know when a new one will show up. It still makes sense to screen them out. Lib-ass morons.

[massmike]

From 2006:
Gay and bisexual men — referred to in CDC surveillance systems as men who have sex with men (MSM)1 — of all races continue to be the risk group most severely affected by HIV. Additionally, this is the only risk group in the U.S. in
which the annual number of new HIV infections is increasing. There is an urgent need to expand access to proven HIV prevention interventions for gay and bisexual men, as well as to develop new approaches to fight HIV in this population.

A Snapshot:

MSM account for nearly half of the more than one million people living with HIV in the U.S. (48%, or an estimated 532,000 total persons).

MSM account for more than half of all new HIV infections in the U.S. each year (53%, or an estimated 28,700 infections).

MSM is the only risk group in the U.S. in which new HIV infections are increasing. While new infections have declined among both heterosexuals and injection drug users, the annual number of new HIV infections among MSM
has been steadily increasing since the early 1990s.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/docs/FastFacts-MSM-FINAL508COMP.pdf

From 2004:
....should the gay lifestyle be encouraged? Health care professionals are familiar with the medical challenges of homosexual men living the gay lifestyle. For you, the taxpayer, to be willing to pay government benefits for gay marriage or civil unions, you should consider what lifestyle your tax dollars will be supporting.
Remember, homosexual activity began “coming out of the closet” in 1973. Just eight short years later, in 1981, we have the first reported cases of an “unknown” disease killing gay men. AIDS has arrived..........

From 1981 through 1999, there were 751,965 cumulative reported cases of AIDS in the U.S. At least 56 percent of the AIDS diagnoses occurred in gay or bisexual men. In other words, two percent of the population had at least 56 percent of those reported AIDS diagnoses. The second largest group was IV drug users. What about heterosexual sex? In the U.S., persons who have been infected with HIV through heterosexual contact have usually had intercourse with someone in one of the high-risk categories — a bisexual male or someone who is an IV drug user. [13]

In the past 17 years, medications to combat HIV have been developed, which has decreased the numbers of persons with HIV progressing to an AIDS disease. A person diagnosed with HIV will be put on a complicated drug regimen (three or four drugs). The patient will be on these drugs, which have very unpleasant side effects, for life. However, one catastrophic problem combating HIV is that a person who is HIV-positive and receiving medication is still able to infect other people. The number of people in the U.S. that are HIV-positive has continued to grow. There are approximately 42,000 Americans infected with HIV each year (74 percent men, 26 percent women). The CDC estimates that 25 percent of persons who are HIV-positive are unaware they are infected, and 50 percent of all new diagnoses occur in persons younger than 25 years. Persons who have other sexually transmitted diseases (with sores) have a two-to-three times greater risk for becoming infected with HIV. It is now estimated that there are between 900,000 and 1,000,000 persons in the U.S. who are HIV-positive (included in that estimate are 400,000 to 450,000 gay/bisexual men). The medical community anticipates that there will soon be a large increase in AIDS; in the first three months of this year, there have already been 8,910 new cases diagnosed.

In addition to the physical, psychological, and emotional devastation of HIV/AIDS is the high cost of treatment. The wholesale cost for the combination drug therapies treating HIV is about $14,000 annually per patient. (Medication costs can be much higher depending on the drugs included in the regimen.) A study completed in 2002 estimated that costs treating patients who had progressed to an AIDS disease were around $34,000 annually per patient. [14] Variations in this approximation include medications, hospitalization, diagnostic costs and clinic costs. The health care costs of AIDS diseases and drugs for treating HIV have impacted your health insurance premiums tremendously. The direct costs of HIV/AIDS are similar to other very serious illnesses; however, the indirect costs are higher since HIV affects predominantly working-age persons. [15]

http://theroadtoemmaus.org/RdLb/22SxSo/PnSx/HSx/PhrmGayMrg.htm

Health risks of gay sex:
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/homosexuality/ho0075.html

Blood Donations from Men Who Have Sex with Other Men-Questions and Answers

Men who have had sex with men since 1977 have an HIV prevalence (the total number of cases of a disease that are present in a population at a specific point in time) 60 times higher than the general population, 800 times higher than first time blood donors and 8000 times higher than repeat blood donors (American Red Cross). Even taking into account that 75% of HIV infected men who have sex with men already know they are HIV positive and would be unlikely to donate blood, the HIV prevalence in potential donors with history of male sex with males is 200 times higher than first time blood donors and 2000 times higher than repeat blood donors.

http://www.fda.gov/biologicsbloodvaccines/bloodbloodproducts/questionsaboutblood/ucm108186.htm

..That’s not all! Obama has lifted the ban against allowing HIV-infected immigrants into the US (costing US taxpayers approximately $1M in health care support for meds alone!) and increasing the chances of further contamination. HIV/AIDS is rampant in India AND Haiti—in case he failed to notice. Since HIV often does not appear in blood until 6 months AFTER exposure, this idea is the DUMBEST I have ever heard! Newer “quickie” tests have proved to be very unreliable, diagnosing people with HIV when they were actually negative and vice versa.

[fwdude]

The standards also bar (and rightly so) from donating blood anyone who has ever paid for sex. Does Kerry want this restriction lifted as well?

[fwdude]

the cause is to some degree the nature of the sex but it’s in my view having watched homosexuals for decades that many of neurotic as hell and engage in destructive behavior.

I don't know any homosexuals (and I know several) who are not admittedly on a permanent regiment of psychoactive drugs to control and temper their out-of-control and destructive moods and emotions. Many abuse these, if not also alcohol and other illicit drugs, shortening their lives appreciably.

[wardaddy]

I’ve known a lot....they all have issues...

I may have known one or two who didn’t.

I think the issues create the nature to some degree.

[Albion Wilde]

This is going to be one of the proverbial camel straws for a liberal out there. Just like I had my camel straw moment— more & more people are having them.

Welcome to FR, and to conservatism. You will find that the quality of the humor and sarcasm is a lot better on this side of the divide.

There's an old saying, "A liberal is a conservative who hasn't gotten mugged yet." We might also add, "...who hasn't needed a blood transfusion yet."

[leaning conservative]

Thank you & I agree!!! That’s why I’m here-— questioning, agreeing, disagreeing, learning.