Bush Pick for AIDS 'Czar' Misinforms Senate, Groups Charge

Bush Pick for AIDS 'Czar' Misinforms Senate, Groups Charge Fri Oct 3, 8:54 AM ET Add World - OneWorld.net to My Yahoo!

, Africa Action

WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 2 (OneWorld US) -- During Senate confirmation hearings yesterday, Randall Tobias--ex-Eli Lilly CEO and Pres. Bush's appointee to head the U.S. Emergency Plan for AIDS (news - web sites) Relief--included in his testimony incorrect and misleading statements, according to a coalition of religious, youth, and AIDS activists that is urging the Senate to vote down the Tobias nomination "Mr Tobias has virtually no significant experience working in the field of public health or in the effort to combat AIDS....The President's Global AIDS initiative deserves to be led by a qualified individual with extensive public health experience," the leaders of 11 groups argued in a letter sent to Senators Thursday, adding, "We urge you to oppose his nomination."

During Wednesday's hearings Tobias provided incorrect information about the capacity of poor countries to absorb U.S. funding for AIDS treatment and prevention, according to the groups.

"Tobias told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that money is 'not the problem' in confronting the AIDS crisis," said Asia Russell of Health GAP. "This is patently untrue. Annual spending on AIDS in poor countries needs to reach $10.5 billion by 2005 just to utilize poor countries' existing infrastructure alone. U.S. underfunding of the fight against AIDS is a major problem."

Today, global spending on AIDS totals only $4.7 billion. "While the Administration continues to hide behind the excuse of inadequate infrastructure," asserts Russell, "it is undermining the Global Fund, the multilateral program with the capacity and legitimacy in place to save lives now."

Salih Booker of Africa Action, another group opposing the Tobias nomination, agreed. "The Administration plans to isolate and underfund multilateral efforts to combat the pandemic, even if they have to mislead the public in order to do it."

The Global Fund needs $3 billion in 2004 to fund qualified proposals. Pres. Bush plans to give only 6.6% of the total to the Global Fund in 2004, or $200 million. Bush promised $1 billion for the Global Fund as part of his $3 billion Global AIDS Act signed into law in May. Bush has broken that promise, according to advocates.

Tobias also claimed during the hearings that declines in the rate of HIV (news - web sites) infections in Uganda are the result of campaigns focused primarily on abstinence. "Promotion of abstinence has been, at best, only one aspect of a much broader campaign to reduce HIV in Uganda," notes Jodi Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Health and Gender Equity, "one that has included frank talk about sex at all levels of public discourse and widespread promotion of effective condom use, among other strategies."

Administration efforts "to portray Uganda's approach as a one-dimensional strategy serves a narrow ideological agenda, in which public health and scientific evidence are virtually irrelevant," Jacobson argued. The Bush Administration's plan to make abstinence-only strategies the core of its global prevention agenda "will unquestionably lead to a more illness and death," she added.

Before his confirmation hearing, Tobias drew criticism not only due to his lack of experience in public health, but because of a potential conflict of interest resulting from his status as former CEO of a major pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly.

Eli Lilly, in turn, is a member of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a group lobbying the U.S. Government to seek greater intellectual property rights to protect monopolies on expensive medicines in the developing world.

"Trusting this position--with so many lives at stake--to someone with no public health experience is astonishing," said Dr. Paul Zeitz, director of the Global AIDS Alliance. "Tobias told the Committee he hoped to use his background to 'get a better deal' on drug prices. Negotiations with brand-name companies have never been as effective as generic competition in reducing the prices of AIDS drugs. Will this be an initiative that favors corporate cronyism over best practice?"

Amendments to the White House Emergency Supplemental spending bill, aimed at restoring global AIDS funding to the original level promised by the President, are expected next week. Similar amendments have already been aggressively opposed by the White House, through Senate proxies, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN).

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Article and headline have little in common. Health GAP the group who accuses the Tobias of lying, disagree with his approach to fighting AIDS in Africa. Bush seems to favor abstinence programs effective in Uganda

Administration efforts "to portray Uganda's approach as a one-dimensional strategy serves a narrow ideological agenda, in which public health and scientific evidence are virtually irrelevant," Jacobson argued. The Bush Administration's plan to make abstinence-only strategies the core of its global prevention agenda "will unquestionably lead to a more illness and death," she added.

So the 100% effective way not to get A.I.D.S will lead to more illness and death?
Libthink at it's finest.

The reality is, homosexual activists and those who support them will never think enough money is being thrown at the AIDS problem.

Annual spending on AIDS in poor countries needs to reach $10.5 billion by 2005 just to utilize poor countries' existing infrastructure alone.

Just how much money do you need to spend to give out free condoms and free needles?

Why is it that religeous groups, youth groups, and AIDS activists band together lately?