President George W. Bush raised some eyebrows last week during his State of the Union Address when he asked Congress "to commit $15 billion over the next five years, including nearly $10 billion in new money, to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean."
Though most applauded the president for his seemingly noble gesture, some complained that the money would be more justly spent combating AIDS in America.
These individuals were likely pleased, then, three days later when the president announced that he would ask for $16 billion to fight AIDS in America, stating that "a major initiative in Africa doesn't mean we're going to forget the 900,000 people living in America today who carry the HIV virus."
Though I'm certainly not contending that we "forget" about these people, I do question whether they require a $16 billion federal commitment. Especially when I find myself unable to shake the impression that the commitment is an agreement to the views of the AIDS lobby - a group of individuals who have, for over 15 years, garnered massive financial support by unethically scaring Americans with unsubstantiated characterizations about AIDS that time has shown to be inaccurate.
What have AIDS activists been so wrong about? Well, let's put it this way: If you had told me 10 years ago, when practically all AIDS victims were men who had sex with other men or were intravenous drug users who shared needles, that as a sophomore in college I would have never known an AIDS victim, I would have been quite confused. Secretary of Health and Human Services Otis Bowen had said in 1985 that AIDS could make the Black Death "seem pale by comparison." U.S. News & World Report declared that "the disease of them is suddenly the disease of us." And Oprah Winfrey made the ridiculous statement in 1987 that 1 out of 5 heterosexuals would likely be dead from AIDS by 1990.
It is now 2003, however, and AIDS has still failed to become a major health problem in America. Now, by making this statement, I in no way mean to undermine the severity of AIDS, which is a terrible disease that absolutely no one should have to suffer through. If the government had an unlimited amount of money, I would support much more than $16 billion in funding to combat it. But unfortunately, the government must prioritize. And it is prioritizing incorrectly.
In the last 20 years, about 30 times more Americans have died from heart disease than AIDS. About 20 times more have died from cancer. Yet when it comes time to write the budget, the government treats AIDS as a catastrophic problem and spends about $18,000 per victim fighting it.
What makes this even less appropriate is the fact that AIDS is much easier to prevent than more deadly diseases like cancer. Statistics show that a vast majority of those infected with AIDS are men who have sex with other men, individuals who use intravenous drugs and people who have sex with bisexuals or intravenous drug users. Such statistics are admittedly misleading since AIDS takes years to develop, meaning that those most recently affected have only HIV, which does not have to be reported in most states. But even to this day, it can be said that individuals who do not have homosexual sex and do not inject drugs or have sex with individuals who do have a far greater chance of dying from prescription drugs that are properly prescribed and correctly taken than AIDS.
Such truths are met with chagrin by AIDS lobbyists, who realize that, for better or worse, accurately describing AIDS as a disease that has killed a relatively small and very specific group of people in the last 20 years will not inspire a public outcry. So they, along with the media - who wish to increase ratings by running stories about people who their audiences will identify and sympathize with - continually scare Americans into believing that AIDS is a serious threat to everyone. And judging by the federal budget the president submitted this week, their strategy has worked.
If the president wants to commit himself to a foreign struggle, then combating AIDS in Africa is a good one. AIDS poses a tremendous threat to Africans and will for decades to come. But America is not Africa. America is a country where condom use is prevalent, people do not walk around with open genital sores and hospitals don't use the same needles on multiple patients. Unfortunately, it is also a country with politicians and citizens who give in to hysteria and scare tactics.
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