rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo) (11/06/84)
The following is a blatant attempt to influence how you vote on November 6th. It's addressed to all voters who think they may vote for Reagan, but especially to closet Republicans, [Ll]ibertarians, and gay people. (The views expressed herein are my own, & not those of my employer.) PART SIX The Reagan AIDS record is pretty awful. Here's an assortment of info culled for a couple of articles, sketching a history of the (lack of a) Reagan administration response to the AIDS crisis. [from NYNative, 8/15-28/83, Larry Bush "Reagan Response Blasted In AIDS Hearings", pp. 14-15] By 1983, Reagan administration (RA) response was so inadequate that Ted Weiss (D-NY), who chairs the House Subcommittee for Gov't Opera- tions & Health (HSGOH) which has a mandate to act as "watchdog" over all federal health agencies, had to institute hearings just to find out what was going on. Weiss accused Assistant Secretary of Health Edward Brandt (Dept. of Health & Human Services, HHS) of OBSTRUCTING HSGOH investigtion of AIDS crisis response by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) & the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He noted: -- an NIH memo which asked all employees, including scientists, to allow interviews only if a top Reagan health official was present, something that would clearly have a "chilling effect" on the interviewee. -- that both CDC & NIH withheld research proposals & results from HSGOH. Brandt countered: -- HHS wished to protect employees against "intimidation". Yet many government scientists have indicated a willing- ness to talk publically, except when "intimidated" by their boss, the Reagan administration. -- HHS wanted to protect confidentiality of research subjects & victims. This defense is particularly ironic: this fall over 300,000 blood donors to a project to study the extent of HTLV3 in the population were informed AFTER THE FACT that HHS could not guarantee confidentiality (that insurance companies, employers, etc. would not get hold of the info)! In addition, US Statute law governing epidemics seriously violates confidentiality & other ethical cornerstones of medical practice & civil rights. The HHS is certainly aware of this: confidentiality is thus not a "cornerstone" of CDC operations. Brandt's defense was feeble (a characteristic of RA reaction to criti- cism & demands throughout the AIDS crisis). Republican members of HSGOH echoed Reagan's overdue declaration that "AIDS is our number one health priority" and sophistically went on to say that that "doesn't make AIDS the number one funding priority". (In fact, AIDS funds were very low among HHS funding.) 18 months after federal AIDS effort began, no new information on the epi- demic was available from HHS. Yet non-HHS sources regularly announced new statistics, facts, & research results during this period. Virginia Apuzzo, of the National Gay Task Force (NGTF) testified: The Reagan Administration was in the absurd & outrageous position of following, not leading, not only the scientific community, but the general public, in what is precisely what HHS & CDC (& even NIH) were created to deal with: national medical emergencies, particularly complex & intractable ones, whose scope swamp private & academic medical resources. Steve Endean of the Gay Rights National Lobby (GRNL) pointed out the situ- ation's even worse than that: concerned organizations & even the legisla- tive branch HAD TO LOBBY HHS & the executive branch to get them to move on resolutions they'd already adopted, to make crucial already due decisions about rudimentary matters, or even to get any information AT ALL about the HHS AIDS effort. Others who testified commented on the extremely inadequate funding the administration budgeted for AIDS. Stanley Matek, the previous president of the American Public Health Assoc. testified: "The administration's marching order to these [AIDS effort] program directors is unequivocal: `Don't ask for any money; make us look as good as you can with what you've got.'" Bruce Voeller, NGTF founder, & member of 2 scientific advisory panels on AIDS created by the Reagan administration, charged: "HHS has not convened a single national meeting of research scientists & physicians from the private sector [where most of early work on AIDS was done] & gov't to collaborate in developing a comprehensive master plan." Voeller said the administration effectively gagged researchers: "Those in gov't quite reasonably fear quick termination of their gov't careers if they state their considered scientific beliefs in the face of explicit gov't gag orders. University researchers equally clearly tell me that they fear gov't reprisal if they appear before these hearings or speak their minds. These women & men are dependent upon gov't research grants in order to carry out their scientific research." Marcus Conant, codirector of SF's Kaposi's Sarcoma clinic & a physician at U of C said: "I have to characterize the federal response to AIDS as bordering on the negligent....I cannot help but conclude that federal officials who say that enough money is being spent on AIDS are simply mouthing some required political line that has nothing to do with real- ity." CONTINUED: MORE ON REAGAN & AIDS Cheers, Ron Rizzo "Why, dahling! The Left is what's left over, the Right is what's wrong, & the Middle-Of-The-Road is no place for a lady." -- Electra Collage, Miss Ballot-box of 1947 Washington, AC/DC
thill@ssc-bee.UUCP (Tom Hill) (11/13/84)
> > The following is a blatant attempt... > > ...CONTINUED: MORE ON REAGAN & AIDS > > Cheers, > Ron Rizzo Oh Ron, please tell me another fairy tale! :-)
nxs@fluke.UUCP (Bruce Golub) (12/21/84)
>From thill@ssc-bee.UUCP (Tom Hill) Tue Nov 13 07:23:23 1984 >References: <1106@bbncca.ARPA> > >> The following is a blatant attempt... >> >> ...CONTINUED: MORE ON REAGAN & AIDS >> >> Cheers, >> Ron Rizzo > Oh Ron, please tell me another fairy tale! :-) I'm sure we will have four more years of fairy tails to live with, that is if we live. Bruce Golub John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.