There has been great progress in treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS — and President Bush deserves praise for his strong support of this cause. But on this 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, it’s important to realize that more work is needed, particularly on preventing mother-to-child transmission of this disease in other countries. An estimated 33.2 million people worldwide — 1 in every 200 — are living with HIV, and daily 6,800 people are infected with HIV and 5,700 people die of AIDS-related illnesses, according to the World AIDS Campaign. “This is not the time for complacency nor apathy,†South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said. “It is the time for compassionate leadership.â€
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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38 Comments
The same week Karl Rove tries to claim it was the Democrats who forced George WMD Bush to invade Iraq, we get this tidbit of b.s. from the coal barons: “Pollution is *good* for you!”
Oops. Wrong thread.
I’ll see ya over at “Carbon Dioxide.”
The numbers are down to 33 million now…
Of course you guys missed this news a week ago:
U.N. to Cut Estimate Of AIDS EpidemicPopulation With Virus Overstated by Millions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/19/AR2007111900978.html
Now where have I heard this type of overestimate before and alarmism?
Oh yeah, Global Warming!
But we are just “warming deniers” huh Randy?
You Editors could at least try to give us some balance here.
I dont see what AIDS estimate errors have to do with Global Warming… Two separate matters entirely.. get some fresh coffee, Nathan…
Balance Nathan? Like in the earth is 6000 years old? When it comes to science, Nathan, I’m afraid your opinion is severely tainted.
So you think the U N lied about numbers? Some great conspiracy, or maybe just a mistake. 33 million people doesn’t mean anything to you? Or in your mind, aids is Gods retribution to man for man’s sinning ways. Fairly callous thinking, don’t you think?
A noble cause and hopefully it will work.
I’ve tried to research where all these billions of dollars go in AIDS research, but the International Community appears to be very type on the financial releases of their projects.
Bill Gates was publicized of donating 500 million over a five year period. However, 100 million of the first year donation was used for distribution of existing treatment regimens. So how was that distribution costs broken down? No one appears to know or is not saying.
Dwarfing the Gates donation is the commitment of the U.S. by President Bush of $15 billion a year just for domestic AIDS and another 2.3 billion in AIDS vaccine research. Where that money goes is anyone’s guess.
There appear to be a lot of nice headquarters buildings for these AIDS foundations all over the world and an office in the UN. Mostly staffed by paid individuals. However the actual workers in the field are either volunteers or paid by their local health organizations.
Where is the money going and who is spending it for what benefit?
If 100 million of the Gates money was snatched up for distribution services (whatever that is), who made that decision, where did the distribution go and how much of it was actually spent on developing AIDS vaccine and treatment?
UNICEF Executive Board, Vaccine Security: Ensuring a Sustained, Uninterrupted Supply of Affordable Vaccines, Pub. no. E/ICEF/2002/6 ( New York: UNICEF, December 2001). as quoted in Amie Batson
There is a oral AIDS vaccine dose that is being tested in Uganda at $1/dose. with about 1.5 million cases of AIDS in UGANDA currently.
If the World Wide figures are accurate that cost would be $35 million dollars.
So, where is the rest of the money going?
Pharmaceutical companies perhaps for research? Or is some of it leaking into the hands of investors and banking distribution centers whose directors finger the funds with great stealth and curious financial direction?
I can’t find a definite answer. The funds for AIDS appears to be spinning in all sorts of directions and how it gets distributed down to the patient level, no one is saying and there or no reports outlining it – at least what I could find.
1. UNICEF Executive Board, Vaccine Security: Ensuring a Sustained, Uninterrupted Supply of Affordable Vaccines, Pub. no. E/ICEF/2002/6 ( New York: UNICEF, December 2001). as quoted in Amie Batson
2. Bill Gates Foundation
3. Advanced Market Commitmenthttp://www.iavireport.org/Issues/Issue9-3/apc.asp
4. White House Press Releases on AIDS
Well Bishop Tutu needs to find some Geo Bush Republicans to help him out with this AIDS thing. They are the compassionate ones. Right?
JM Walker,
I expected a post like that from the other trolls not you.
“Balance Nathan? Like in the earth is 6000 years old? When it comes to science, Nathan, I’m afraid your opinion is severely tainted.”
So you can’t argue with me on the issue, instead you drag up an unrelated topic to try to discredit me?
I expected more from you.
“So you think the U N lied about numbers?”
I didn’t say that.
“33 million people doesn’t mean anything to you?”
I never said that either.
“Or in your mind, aids is Gods retribution to man for man’s sinning ways. Fairly callous thinking, don’t you think?”
I never said that either.
Nathan, JM simply points out that you have very little understanding of science since you believe in something that’s obviously not true (the planet being 6,000 years old). Why should we assume that that you suddenly got educated on other scientific matters?
BTW, how is global warming and the number of people with AIDS linked? Should I get my tin foil hat ready for whatever nutter conspiracy you’ll come up with?
Doug,
The theory of Evolution makes up about 1% of science.
I can fully understand and grasp a whole multitude of things and never have to believe in Evolution.
Yet again, the only thing you can do is try to attack me personally.
The theory of Evolution makes up about 1% of science.Posted by: Nathan | December 01, 2007 at 03:22 PM
Huh? Science is now quantifiable by discipline, theory, or field of study?
1% by whose measure? Do you have a source for this?
Tom,
The number was just thrown out there. The point I was trying to make is what counts.
That I can fully grasp and understand a multitude of things in science without ever having to believe in Evolution.
Nathan,
Rational discussion about a scientific theory does not involve inventing numbers just to “make a point.” What “counts” in science is the evidence, not the predetermined outcome you are trying to push.
Tom,
And your point?
Nathan,
My point is that you admittedly made up a number to dismiss a line of thought that didn’t fit your particular world-view.
That’s not science, Nathan. That’s mythology at best, intellectual dishonesty at worst.
Tom,
I did throw that number out there.
I didn’t do it to dismiss a line of though that didn’t fit my particular world-view.
It was never meant to be science. It was a statement about my being able to understand a multitude of things without ever having to believe in Evolution. Nothing scientific about it, it was merely a statement of fact.
Your attempts to set up a straw man argument to beat down are hardly any better than my throwing that number out there to make a point.
Nathan,
You invented a number you thought was insignificant, just so you could dismiss evolution as a valid field of scientific inquiry.
Sorry, but it IS about science. Science is the study of facts, and when I was in college, inventing numbers to describe phenomena was called “cheating.”
It’s not a “straw man,” Nathan. If you’re going to talk about scientific theories, questioning your inventing of numbers to describe those theories is absolutely germane and open to challenge.
Tom,
My purpose was not to dismiss evolution as a valid field of scientific study.
Actually, nothing I said was even close to that.
My only point was that I can have an understanding of a multitude of other things in science without believe in Evolution.
I have typed that 3 times now and yet you still can’t get it.
Either you are simply playing stupid, are actually stupid, or you are purposefully trying to place words into my mouth which I have not said here.
All of which are far worse than my throwing a number out there to make a point.
So which is it Tom:
Are you stupid, playing stupid, or purposefully trying to distort what I am saying?
The theory of Evolution makes up about 1% of science.I can fully understand and grasp a whole multitude of things and never have to believe in Evolution.Posted by: Nathan | December 01, 2007 at 03:22 PM
My purpose was not to dismiss evolution as a valid field of scientific study.Posted by: Nathan | December 01, 2007 at 03:55 PM
Okay, if you insist, Nathan.
And now back to the thread topic.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113002535.html?nav=rss_health
Estimate of AIDS Cases In U.S. RisesNew Test Places the Rate Of Infection 50 Percent Higher
By David BrownWashington Post Staff WriterSaturday, December 1, 2007; Page A01
New government estimates of the number of Americans who become infected with the AIDS virus each year are 50 percent higher than previous calculations suggested, sources said yesterday.
For more than a decade, epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have pegged the number of new HIV infections each year at 40,000. They now believe it is between 55,000 and 60,000.
The problem is that we are treating AIDS like a some wierd problem and not like a life destroying disease.
If this was any other outbreak we would quarantine those with the disease and prevent them from spreading it any farther.
Instead, we allow people who are infected to continue to go about doing whatever and without giving anyone any warning because of privacy.
Well, as long as we are going to keep treating the disease this way and act politically correct about the causes of the disease and allow privacy rights to trump stopping it, what do we think is going to happen?
AIDS is one of the most preventable diseases known to man and yet we purposefully allow it to continue to spread because of our unwillingness to stop it.
Instead we sit around hoping to find a cure and tell people to wear condoms while AIDS continues to kill.
Ahhh yes, lets build concentration camps for AIDS victims… so they wont come in contact with others… sort of like Leper colonies… wow, what a solution that would be!!
Chas,
Wouldn’t we do that with almost any other communicable deadly disease?
We would quarantine the person until they were no longer a threat to others.
Ah yes, Nathan solves problems with the same solution offered back around the time he was born: “Lock up the AIDS fags!!!”
Locking up millions of Americans is not what this nation is about, Nathan, and I work daily to make sure people who believe it don’t _ever_ have the power to _do_ it.
Have a nice evening.
If you don’t want to quarantine them then do you agree to allow others the public knowledge that the person has AIDS?
Just give me the old NAZI pink triangle, Nathan. I’ll be sure to sew it into the front and back of every shirt and jacket I own. Then you and the NAZIs who think like you will always know who I am.
Does that work for you?
Tom,
Do you have AIDS?
I am hardly a NAZI either.
So how do we stop a deadly communacable disease from spreading if we refuse to quarantine those who have it or alert the public to those who have it?
We do exactly what we are doing. We sit around for several decades and hope that if we tell enough people to wear a condom and get an AIDS test it will stop.
Meanwhile, 50 years from now, when AIDS is still a problem, what then?
“A blue-ribbon panel appointed by the Institute of Medicine broke it down this way: For every $10 spent per cancer death on cancer research, $110 is spent per AIDS death on AIDS research and $3 is spent per heart disease death on heart disease research.”
Oh, and before you misinterpret what I posted, I’m not HIV+, but I certainly am gay. The “quarantine” that was being proposed in the early 80s was targeted at gay men, HIV+ or not.
Too late, I didn’t post fast enough, and Nathan already went there.
Predictable.
And Nathan, if you brush up on your reading comprehension, you’ll see that I didn’t call you a NAZI. I said NAZI’s thought exactly as you did – that the way to protect society from evil, disease-carrying homosexuals was to pin pink triangles to them and throw them in concentration camps. Tell me how that’s different from what you’re proposing?
Tom,
And nothing I said was directed towards Gay people. It was about AIDS.
Tom,
I didn’t realize that AIDS was that big of a problem during the reign of NAZI’s where they had a policy on how to deal with it.
Are you just making that up?
Didn’t we just have a discussion on making things up?
“that the way to protect society from evil, disease-carrying homosexuals was to pin pink triangles to them and throw them in concentration camps.”
Nothing there about NAZIs and AIDS.
And yes, we did have a discussion about making things up. I seem to recall you admitted making “scientific facts” up.
And now I’m outta here, to go have dinner with my evil homosexual husband, and maybe later we’ll give each other AIDS.
Tom,
Sounds very sick and disturbing Tom.
When have you seen a quarrentine for a deadly disease(communicable), Nathan?? Nobody even suggested that for Polio when I was a kid!! geez
We would quarantine the person until they were no longer a threat to others.
Posted by: Nathan | December 01, 2007 at 04:26 PM
========================
Yea, right — for AIDS victims, that’s a LIFE sentence…
Whack off their pee-pee
The biggest problem with this whole AIDS deal is that it is so gay agenda driven. The money spent could be better used to help so many more if it weren’t allocated to solving what is overwhelmingly caused by a repulsive deviant behavioral activity. That money could go towards research on cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Huntington’s, and on and on. The number of those affected with AIDS would drop significantly if ‘those people’ would just not put their willies where they weren’t supposed to go.