Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site bbncca.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!bbncca!rrizzo From: rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo) Newsgroups: net.motss,net.misc,net.politics Subject: Ronald Reagan's Homophobic Career: VIII Message-ID: <1108@bbncca.ARPA> Date: Mon, 5-Nov-84 20:30:32 EST Article-I.D.: bbncca.1108 Posted: Mon Nov 5 20:30:32 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 6-Nov-84 08:03:54 EST Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma. Lines: 213 The following is a blatant attempt to influence how you vote on November 6th. It's addressed to all voters who think they may vote for Reagan, but especially to closet Republicans, [Ll]ibertarians, and gay people. (The views expressed herein are my own, & not those of my employer.) PART SEVEN [NYNative, 12/19/83-1/1/84, Randy Shilts, "Memos Show Administration Falsi- fied AIDS Funding Needs, pp. 18-19,64] At the end of 1983, the real story behind the Reagan administration's AIDS effort (or, rather, lack of one) finally came out after literally years of criticisms & fears. "Most of the darkest suspicions that scientists & gay activists had long voiced about the lack of commitment to AIDS research by the Reagan administration were confirmed....A stark portrait of government duplicity which was quietly accepted by AIDS researchers in the CDC emerges ...." This information had to be obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request by Congress & from a 33-page report issued by Weiss' HSGOH. "CDC fiercely opposed" the FIA request, & was FORCED to surrender the desired memoranda when the CDC refusal was appealed & publication of some of the memos by Weiss' HSGOH in their report seemed imminent. The released information revealed: 1. "Some of the same officials who assured Congress that the federal gov't had all the AIDS money it needed were privately pleading for more funds from budget officials." CDC AIDS Task Force coord. Dr. James Curran notably indulged in this form of prevarication, almost constantly claiming he had or would soon receive funds that he knew didn't even exist! 2. "Within 5 months of its formation, the CDC's AIDS Task Force (ATF) was vainly begging the agency management for more funds & shortages have seri- ously retarded the CDC's efforts throughout the AIDS epidemic." 3. "Much of the money that the CDC did spend on AIDS was diverted from other important health needs." 4. "The failure to expediate funds for AIDS research meant that no significant outlay of funds reached researchers until March 1983-- almost two years after AIDS was first detected." 5. "Serious misunderstandings about which federal agencies would handle various aspects of the AIDS epidemic also seriously delayed research." CDC has received a "good press" from the media (excluding the gay press which knew better, & was virtually alone in being critical & following events closely), yet all during this period (1981-3) it was in fact starved for funds. Here's a closer history of events as revealed in internal HHS memos: As early as June 1981 the CDC knew that AIDS was a serious epidemic: they'd assigned staffers to it from its VD project. By December "when the number of cases had soared", they were aware of the magnitude of the task. But they severely lacked funds. Curran sub- mitted a 6-months budget for a piddling $833,300. But HHS did not respond. AT ALL. Finally, Congress allocated $500,000 in August, 8 months late. REAGAN VETOED THE APPROPRIATION. Congress overturned the veto, & Curran finally received the money in September. By that time, the number of cases had quintupled. Funding for 1983 "fared little better". Administration budget cutters forced CDC to recalculate its budget THREE TIMES, the final AIDS figure being 60% below the original one. CDC Aids Task Force director Dr. William Rushing included the following with his budget proposal: "As you know, the attached budget is insufficient to adequately fund AIDS surveillance & epidemiologic studies. However, we will continue with\the highest priority activities until additional funds become available." Finally Congress alllocated $2 million more for the CDC in December 1982; "like other money that Congress would later appropriate, however, the AIDS funding came in spite of the statements of federal health officials, not because of them." In August 1982 the CDC wanted to set up a national AIDS surveillance system, but had no money for it. For the next 18 months, CDC "depended on doctors & health officials to call them up & tell them about AIDS cases...", an absurd situation for a federal health agency to be in during a national epidemic. "We lost all that data -- two years of cases are now irretrievable. All that time I was saying we should do the work & Curran was telling us he didn't have the money," said Dr. David Ostrow, an AIDS researcher at Northwestern. Researchers weho do get funds got inadequate ones: SF's Dr. Andrew Moss received $30,000 to monitor AIDS epidemiology for the CDC. "They give you $30,000 -- it;s such an interesting sum. It's too much to turn down, but not enough to do anything meaningful. It's similar to everything about AIDS." The CDC AIDS Tsk Force's major piece of work, a case control study, was published 18 months after it was finished; epidemiologists criticized its findings as "sorely out of date". The Reagan administration's AIDS effort continued to be "malnourished, slipsod, disorganized, & bogged down by cumbersome bureaucracy" in 1983. By May, Brandt was alarmed & wrote to the HHS asst. sec. for mamangement & budget: "It has now reached the point where important AIDS work cannot be undertaken because of the lack of available re- sources." Then CDC director Dr. William Foege added a long list of projects "postponed, delayed, or seriously curtailed" because "money was diverted to AIDS. These included studies on hepatitis, influ- enza among the elderly, & rabies." "Just two weeks later, however, Thomas Donelly, who is in charge of budgets at HHS, wrote a senate staffer that `we are not in favor of additional appropriations' for AIDS research." "Brandt, Foege, & other health officials were also testifying before Congress that they had enough funds for AIDS even while they were privately begging for more money." In late May the House was about to pass an appropriation of an extra $12 million for AIDS; at this time Brandt wrote "that while the HHS was not requesting more funds, they would `not oppose' having the authority to transfer $12 million from other parts of the budget into AIDS"!! In September, HSGOH decided to add $22 million to the administration's $17 million request ("only a 20 % increase over the previous year's budget levels"). HSGOH "staffers think Republican committee members leaked word to the administration because days later, Margaret Heckler. secretary of HHS, made a highly-publicized announcement that the adminis- tration would commit $40 million to AIDS research next year. Heckler's announcement did not mention thatthis allocation was a FAIT ACCOMPLI because of the secret House vote--and it did not mention that even the $40 million was $10 million BELOW whatthe CDC requested for AIDS research." "`Normally when you have an epidemic, the health people are begging you for money', fumed Congresswoman Barbara Boxer of San Francisco, who co- sponsored legislation for more AIDS funding. `Here we were begging them for information on what they needed & they kept telling us that they didn't need any money. It was unbelievable.'" "In Washington, Dr. Edward Brandt, the administration's top health official, brushed aside suggestions that he had been dishonest about the federal AIDS effort. He didn't need to ask for money, he insisted, because Congress gave it to him anyway. `By the time I put in a request & it goes through all the processes, Congress passes the money [indeed!],' Brandt told the Native. `It's difficult to ever say you have enough money. In one sense, as long as you have the disease, you could say we don't have enough money. All I can say is that the money is there now.'" "Though most scientists agree that the long-delayed money is now coming from the federal government, some think that the government has irretriev- ably lost its credibility with the scientific community." "Weiss' report requests that the gov't institute policies to expedite funding of research grants &, most significantly, establish an independent [of CDC, HHS] commission to map an overall strategy to fight AIDS.... The budget would THEN BE SUBMITTED DIRECTLY TO CONGRESS, CIRCUMVENTING THE REAGAN BUDGET SLASHERS [my italics]. The panel itself implicitly reflects the most serious charge within just about every paragraph of [HSGOH's] report: the Reagan administration has been lying through its teeth about the adequacy of AIDS funding for 2 years." There is much more information & events described in Shilts' article. But the hour grows late, & my fingers are getting tired. As some kind of a bench mark to make sense of the dollar amounts mentioned above, a while ago HHS asked for funds merely to develop a few tests for animal experiments preparatory to the real bulk of research; they asked for at least $197 million. Also remember that Congressional appropriations amounts are limited by a factor the administration isn't: the constant obstacle of a Reagan veto. [Gay Community News, 10/27/84, Jim Ryan, "Health Director Resigns", p. 1] Ass't Sec. of HHS Dr. Edward Brandt, the nation's top physician, resigns at the end of this year. For all his shortcomings in performance & his prevaricating, Brandt is a competent professional who showed a willingness to work with gay organizations and was free of political ideology, if not influence. "The direction & extent of the gov't's research [on AIDS] depends in no small measure on who is appointed to replace Brandt.... Any decision on a successor will emanate from the Oval Office." That is, on tomorrow's election result. "Many fear" Reagan will nominate C. Everett Koop, currently Surgeon Gene- ral. He's been "widely criticized for his opposition to abortion, for making numerous homophobic remarks, & for close ties to fundamentalist Christian organizations. Brandt was given credit for obtaining more AIDS funds at one point: he leaked a letter he wrote to his boss, Margaret Heckler, forcing Heckler's hand. Apparently Brandt thought there was good reason to believe Heckler would deny or (more probably) ignore his request for more funds. Heckler had previously sat on an urgent AIDS funds request for six months doing nothing; in that period of time, 500 more people had died of AIDS. ________________________________________________________________________ SO, BE SURE TO VOTE ON TUESDAY, & VOTE YOUR HEALTH, YOUR RIGHTS, & YOUR CONSCIENCE AS WELL AS YOUR POCKETBOOK! Cheers, Ron Rizzo "Why, dahling! The Left is what's left over, the Right is what's wrong, & the Middle-Of-The-Road is no place for a lady." -- Electra Collage, Miss Ballot-box of 1947 Washington, AC/DC