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Liberals Indifferent to the AIDS
Time-bomb
I’m writing this column because I’m
appalled how liberals remain impervious to the fact
that our current strategy to controlling AIDS has
proven to be a disastrous failure.
Last month the District of Columbia health
department announced that 3% of the city’s
population is infected with HIV, putting the
nation’s capital on a par with parts of
AIDS-ravaged Africa. Worse, the majority of these
persons are Typhoid Marys who aren’t aware
their bodies harbor the deadly germ. So the disease
is likely to continue its ghoulish advance.
I’ve traced the unfolding of the AIDS
epidemic since the first cases were reported in
1981. I’ve recoiled at the disbelieving horror
of young men as they were informed they were
HIV-positive. I’ve listened to infected
20-somethings grimly discuss how they plan to spend
the remaining years of their lives. I’ve seen
patients in advanced stages of the disease, their
bodies ravaged by infection.
From the beginning we knew the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was spread mostly by
having sex with persons outside of a long-term
committed relationship. And no surprise, when
countries implemented the so-called ABC approach
(Abstinence, Be faithful, and Condoms as a last
resort), infection rates plummeted. In Uganda the
“no-grazing” message succeeded in
dramatically reducing extra-marital sexual activity
and the occurrence of HIV in pregnant women.
But liberals want nothing to do with ABC because
abstinence and marital faithfulness resound of
old-fashioned morality. So instead of relying on
proven approaches, the AIDS establishment continues
to tout anti-retroviral treatments, so-called
“safe sex,” vaginal microbicides, and
vaccines.
But the truth is, AIDS treatments are little
more than sugar-pill nostrums that lend false hope
to victims. They also divert billions of dollars
away from the programs that could actually be doing
some good.
The safe-sex message is a cruel joke because it
tells people to go ahead and be sexually
promiscuous, just so long as they use Russian
roulette methods like condoms. As the Pope
commented during last month’s trip to Africa,
“the distribution of condoms...aggravates the
problems” of AIDS.
Vaginal microbicides are designed for high-risk
women who can apply the virus-killing cream before
having sex. Sounds good in theory. But two years
ago a high-profile study had to be stopped when it
was learned the women using the gel turned out to
be more prone to contract the HIV virus: www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0040235
 .
Why? The women were having more sex because the
vaginal lubricant enhanced their sexual pleasure,
increasing their exposure to the virus.
So all that remains in the Leftie’s bag of
tricks is vaccines. The problem is, the AIDS virus
is a cunning microbe that mutates almost at will,
leaving yesterday’s vaccine unsuited for
tomorrow’s virus.
Case in the point is the recent Step Study.
Everyone hoped the massive research effort would be
the long-awaited breakthrough. But in September
2007 the trial was brought to a halt because
persons who received the vaccine were more likely
to get the HIV virus than persons who didn’t.
The flop led Anthony Fauci, head of the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to
admit bleakly, “we’re swimming in the
dark.”
Note that the Step vaccine wasn’t just
shown to be ineffective – it actually placed
persons at greater risk. And this wasn’t the
first time.
One study followed 1,000 men in Malawi.
Initially all the men were free of the deadly HIV
virus. But six months later a shocking 15% had
become HIV-positive. Why? Most likely because
researchers had inadvertently used HIV-infected
needles to draw the men’s blood.
In 2003 my column lamented that “feminist
ideology has taken hold in the global struggle
against AIDS,” turning HIV reduction efforts
into an ideological parody of female empowerment.
Two years later I revealed that “AIDS
programs at the World Health Organization are being
held hostage by Leftist ideologues who care more
about promoting no-fault sexual experimentation
than actually stopping this deadly epidemic.”
And in 2007 I noted the global AIDS effort was
being directed by “the gay rights lobby
demanding that public health programs not
stigmatize homosexuals; the radical feminists with
their gender liberation crusade; [and] the
Zero Population Growth zealots.”
Since my 2003 op-ed, over 11 million persons
around the world have died of AIDS. Given that the
ABC approach was known to be effective a decade
ago, the great majority of those deaths were
needless.
But liberals will never admit to that
inconvenient truth.
* * *
Carey
Roberts probes and lampoons political correctness.
His work has been published frequently in the
Washington Times, Townhall.com, LewRockwell.com,
ifeminists.net, Intellectual Conservative, and
elsewhere. He is a staff reporter for the New Media
Network. You can contact him at E-Mail
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