Mike.Cormier@stjhmc.fidonet.org (Mike Cormier) (10/05/89)
* HIV IS A VIRUS!
* It Falls Just Short Of Being Alive,(in as much as it can cause itself to
reproduce but can't reproduce itslef)
* IT Certainly Has No Intelect as we know it.
With this in mind it becomes ridiculous to me to continue to discuss
risks in terms of race, economic classes, prefernces, or anything else
short of activity...
The spread of aids to the heterosexual community , while inevitable,
was undoubtedly best assisted by the labeling of aids as a "GAY Disease".
Now as I return to this discussion I am bombarded with ideas about the;
"Latina", "black", "inter-city", etc., communities..
The virus discriminates (,through complex protiens contained therein, I
believe,) between different types of cells throughout the body- not one
body from another. Fortunately for all of us, it choses cells that are
not easily reached from the outside of the body.
*** This is all the discrimination the virus is capable of ***
I grant that ethnic and cultural inhibitions that interfere with free
discusion of high risk activity are a serious problem when it comes to
trying to prevent the spread of aids, but I see no evidence that such
inhibitions are absent from any class, race, or other arbitrary
division of the population>(unless you want to seperate people acording
to how freely the discuss sex and drugs)..
What possible result can we hope to achieve by this kind of discussion?
Are we now launching a subtle bio-warfare attack on the white, the
bourguiosie, and the suburban/rural communities by labeling others as
"high risk" and somehow leading them to believe that they are therfore
"low risk"?
If you are in a mutualy monagamous relationship, niether you or
your partner share needles, have been this way for a year or more, both
test negative for HIV, and keep everything that way.... then barring
transfusions, needlesticks, etc. you are at low risk.. if one of the
above changes-- welcome back to the high risk world!
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Internet: Mike.Cormier@stjhmc.fidonet.org