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From: flar@Eng.Sun.COM (Jim Graham)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Re: AIDS protest last night
Message-ID: <1991Jan25.030554.27825@cs.ucla.edu>
Date: 25 Jan 91 01:05:18 GMT
References: <1991Jan24.225506.18241@cs.ucla.edu>
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In article <1991Jan24.225506.18241@cs.ucla.edu>, GERRI@IBM.COM (Gerri
Oppedisano) writes:

|> I would consider myself in support of the effort to fight AIDS, get more
|> public awareness, gain governmental support for AIDS research and for the
|> decent and fair treatment of AIDS or HIV+ patients. But I must say that
|> last night's protests dissappointed me. AIDS is not the only killer in this
|> world and NOT the only important issue for our country to focus on. I think
|> AIDS lobbyists or any lobbyist begin to lose credibility when they
|> demonstrate
|> such a completely narrow, self centered view based on their cause.
|> Where is

While there are many other concerns in our world these days, there are
also many aspects of AIDS which make it "special" and therefore an
urgent crisis.

It is an infectious disease(?) with an incredible long asymptomatic
incubancy period and no known cure, vaccine, or reliable long-term
treatment that is currently very widespread (more among certain groups
than others).

While many other diseases share one or more of these aspects, how
many share all of them?

There is a very serious potential for this disease to wipe out a
major portion of our population in the not so distant future on a
scale wider than any currently known disease or war.

That is why ACT-UP does what they do.

|> Where is
|> ACT UP's concern for the importance of innocent people dying in this
|> war with
|> Iraq???

Where is everyone elses concern for the *innocent* people dying of AIDS?
Also, I believe that they were calling for an end to the war, so they did
show some concern for those dying.  And, while broadcasting news of the
war to the standard citizen serves little purpose beyond giving us a front
seat in the war so that we can gawk, broadcasting news of AIDS gives the
standard citizen useful information that he needs to fight a war that is
going on in his own backyard in which he may be one of the soldiers.  AIDS
awareness is directly important to the population.  War gawking is only
indirectly important (it raises his awareness of foreign policy and world
events and maybe provides information that is important if he has family
overseas or is planning to travel to certain areas in the near future).

|>  .. I realize cancer is an old desease, but there are still MANY dying
|> from it today. Where is the day to day concern and focus on cancer research
|> in the news?

But as far as I'm aware, cancer is not infectious and many forms of cancer
are treatable with varying degrees of success.

Also, I've always seen cancer as an undesireable natural enemy.  There are
certain aspects of our environment which can accelerate the formation of
cancerous cells, but the older you get, the more likely that the cumulative
chance of a cell in your body going cancerous will eventually catch up to
you.  It is like a "design flaw" in our biology that we are still trying
to correct rather than an external enemy which we need to protect against.

Does anybody care to comment on that viewpoint?

|> When I see a protest like the one organized last night I want to
|> tell these people to just get a grip on reality. Their cause is one of many,
|> and it's hypocritical to behave as if their's is the one of most
|> importance..

But, it could very well mean a complete and utter change in the human
race in very short order if we don't fight it now.  It should not be
taken lightly.  People keep getting complacent about the state of the
AIDS threat (something that our own "Wounded Bird" was recently lamenting).
Also, it is everyone's cause, not just the group that demonstrated.

|> I suspect if the war going on now continues on for years there will be less
|> of a complete focus on it as time passes; just like any other important
|> crisis.

But, as the threat from AIDS continues to grow (people are still being
infected in very large numbers even now that we are aware of it), the
threat of war will peak, die down and eventually fade (when it ends which
is hopefully very soon).  AIDS is just growing and has the potential to
grow exponentially which means that right now is the time to focus on
it, not later.

Here is a question:  How have the infection rates changed since AIDS was
first discovered?  Is there an exponential curve?  I realize that failure
to report infections skews the statistics drastically, but is there any
recognizeable trend?

|> What exactly was the AIDS supporters' protest about? What in particular was
|> the gripe? Perhaps I missed something.

Basically, something close to what I've said above (although someone from
ACT-UP may know more).  It was actually a simultaneous peace protest and
AIDS awareness demonstration (I believe they chanted "Fight AIDS, not Arabs").

Whether or not the media is dwelling on the war at this time is probably
personal opinion, but actually I agree that it did seem a bit premature
to be complaining about the recent war monopoly in the media which was
already dying down within a few days after it started.

					...jim