gerri@watson.ibm.com (Gerri Oppedisano) (06/27/91)
Now, wait one minute and let's be a little bit realistic. I think
that it's understandable and it doesn't surprise me in the least
that Ms B feels more victimized than the person who contracted
AIDS from engaging in the activities that are much more commonly
tied to AIDS and HIV. For a while there was a big Political
Correctness debate here talking about how there should not be any
utterance of a High Risk Group, there are only High Risk Behaviors
and people should refer only to High Risk Behaviors and not associate
a particular group with these behaviors. Two big high risk behaviors
are IV drug needle sharing and unprotected sex. Sex and IV drug usage
are so commomly tied into AIDS that even those well informed people
who practice safe sex have a small fear of the possibility of contracting
AIDS. In general, people engaging in these activities should be prepared.
Going to the hospital to get your baby delivered is not considered a high
risk activity. Barely anyone is prepared to accept contracting AIDS from
this, and I don't understand your feeling that people should.. You want people
NOT to be hysterical? I think if just about any situation which puts me in
contact with another person is a possibility for contracting AIDS I'd be pretty
paranoid. People do not expect Doctors who have an infectious disease to
openly expose this disease to their patients. It's a normal expectation.
Now whether this woman in fact contracted her AIDS from this doctor and whether
he did in fact come in contact with her without using protective gloves, I
really don't know. But if this doctor does have AIDS and did stick his/her
fingers in her mouth with open soars on his/her hands and examined her vagina
under the same condition then the doctor IS acting unrightfully. How can you
disagree with that? At any rate, contracting AIDS from your doctor delivering
your baby is uncommon and is a special case as far as I'm concerned. And I
could say in my well informed mode that although I might understand how the
transmission took place in retrospect I would still be much more upset, bitter
and resentful had I contracted AIDS from getting my baby delivered than from
having sex. I think if you expect people to be prepared for contracting AIDS
no matter what they do and under almost any circumstance you're being very
unrealistic, and I also think you are the one who is being self righteous.
I didn't see the Newsweek article and perhaps it was written in such a way as
to make people angry or paranoid, which I don't think is right, however this
woman Ms B is angry and Newsweek is printing her viewpoint. People are free to
interpret the situation any way they want. It's a free coountry.. freedom of
speech, expression etc.. Why do you feel so free to your opinion and at the
same time denying Ms. B hers?
gerri@watson.ibm.com
****** The following is a COPY *****************************
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 91 13:25:54 pdt
Reply-To: "Sci.Med.AIDS Newsgroup" <AIDS%USCVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Sender: "Sci.Med.AIDS Newsgroup" <AIDS%USCVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
From: "Support Account for SCI.MED.AIDS" <aids%cs.ucla.edu@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: (3299) Drs. & AIDS/Newsweek
To: Multiple recipients of list AIDS <AIDS@USCVM>
>From: <SECBH%CUNYVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Approved: phil@wubios.wustl.edu
Subject: Drs. & AIDS/Newsweek
Date: Wednesday, 26 Jun 1991 14:32:59 EDT
Organization: City University of New York/ University Computer Center
Note: Copyright 1990 by Daniel R. Greening. Permission granted for
Note: non-commercial reproduction.
Archive-number: 3299
I have just finished reading the cover story in the July 1, 1991 issue
of Newsweek, "Doctors and AIDS".
My immediate reaction is that despite presenting both pros and cons on
testing of medical personnel and disclosure of test results, the most
likely result will to be terrify the public and inflame popular opinion
to the point where rational discussion of the issue will not be
possible.
Perhaps the most "dramatic" part of the article is the story of Dr.
Philip Benson. Dr. Benson is described in the article by one patient
as having "oozing sores" on his hands and arms when he examined her
newly born infant, and examining the child's mouth and vagina while
ungloved. A TV station has a film which purports to show Dr. Benson
delivering a baby while gloved, but with "sores' on his bare arms.
Considerable attention is given to describing the condition of Kimberly
Bergalis in the terminal condition of AIDS.
It is my feeling that the material presented on Dr. Benson and Ms.
Bergalis is likely to freak most readers right out of their wits
if they do not have some first-hand knowledge of AIDS.
I found myself struggling to control anger against Ms. Bergalis as I
read her comments about her condition in the article. In another
newsgroup I refrained from entering a discussion concerning her
letter to Florida health officials which was released to the press by
her parents because I felt that its contents were not extreme.
I feel quite different about her comments (other than the letter) as
quoted in article. And, I feel that Newsweek which opens this article
with her story and quotes from her shows a decided lack of overall
perspective.
Having seen dozens and dozens and dozens of men and women die of AIDS,
some of them as young or younger than Ms. Bergalis (she is 23), I can
say that there is nothing especially gruesome or more poignant about
her condition and her fate than there is about the fate of those many
others who have sickened and died with AIDS. Yet I got the impression
that Ms. Bergalis and Newsweek thinks there is.
Chop my fingers off, but here goes: There is nothing special about
Kimberly Bergalis, and if she doesn't know it and Newsweek doesn't
know it -- who's fault is that? It's the Ryan White Cry-athon for
for the Great Straight White World to get all teary and self-righteous
over.
I could show Ms. Bergalis and Newsweek two 23 year olds about twenty
blocks from here who are in the same condition as she is. They didn't
ask to have AIDS any more than she did. The difference is that they
don't think what is happening to them is special. Somehow they have
made a connection in their 23 years which this woman has not, they
know that they are dying of AIDS and not of a disease called
Innocent Victim. Ms. Bergalis seems to be suffering as much from
the latter.
She has had a chance to find out what death by AIDS is in the 23 years
she has been alive; Newsweek and the rest of the media has had the
opportunity deflate the myth of Innocent Victim.
As far as I am concerned both parties must take a great deal of the
responsibility for the bitterness surrounding her dying, and for
the mischief that it will let loose among us.
Jack Carroll
<^>v Via SCI.MED.AIDS => AIDSNEWS gateway / aids@cs.ucla.eduscott@bbxsda.UUCP (Scott Amspoker) (06/28/91)
In article <1991Jun27.155347.15084@cs.ucla.edu> gerri@watson.ibm.com (Gerri Oppedisano) writes: >Going to the hospital to get your baby delivered is not considered a high >risk activity. Barely anyone is prepared to accept contracting AIDS from >this, and I don't understand your feeling that people should.. You want people >NOT to be hysterical? One has to wonder how the baby was conceived. Perhaps hysteria begins the morning after. -- Scott Amspoker | Touch the peripheral convex of every Basis International, Albuquerque, NM | kind, then various kinds of blaming (505) 345-5232 | sound can be sent forth. unmvax.cs.unm.edu!bbx!bbxsda!scott | - Instructions for a little box that | blurts out obscenities.