Quote:
Originally Posted by dalem
AIDS is hard to get and hard to transmit. I'm tired of hearing about it.
-dale
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Then shut the f**k up & leave the topic to those who ARE interested. I'm sure there are plenty of threads hereabouts where you can whine about things you know little & care less about. Go pollute them.
On the important topic at hand, Huckabee's position circa 1992 is a fair representation of a particular segment of American society. It was pressure from this segment that ensured that America's response to AIDS was crippled from the outset & has never developed properly.
For years the problem was denied, labelled a 'gay' issue & ignored. Hundreds of thousands of Americans were dead or dying before Reagan could even bring himself to say AIDS. Money that could & should have been spent on prevention & cure was not. Why? because evangalicals & conservatives like Huckabee made anything to do with homosexuality, sex or drug use out of bounds. Anything beyond 'just say no' was not going to happen.
The result? 500,000 dead & another million infected. Among Western countries only Spain has a worse record.
List of countries by HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The alternative? AIDS was first diagnosed in Australia in 1983. Fortunately Australia had just elected a social/Democrat government (thoug, to be fair, our Conservatives weren't nearly so captured by religious nutjobs then, so they might have done OK). Our policy was prevention by information, especially to those groups most at risk. 'Safe Sex' campaigns were rapidly launched. Condoms were presented as the frontline against infection. the gay community - still illegal in some states - was brought on board as an essential partner in the campaign. For IV drug users needle exchanges were set up. Most important, the campaign was launched early.
The campaign was not perfect. There were missteps & hiccups. It has, however, become the template for AIDS prevention in the Western world & beyond.
The result? Australia has an infection rate 1/6 that of America.
Personally I'd have people like Huckabee isolated. They kill a lot more people than any AIDS patient ever could.