Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report Summarizes Editorials, Opinion Pieces in Response to XV International AIDS Conference
Several newspapers have published editorials in response to the XV International AIDS Conference taking place this week in Bangkok, Thailand. Summaries of some of the editorials and opinion pieces appear below:
Editorials
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Bangkok Post: It is "unfortunate" that the United States did not send more scientific and political representatives to the conference because a "strong presence" would have made the meeting more productive and meaningful, a Post editorial says. As the "global superpower," the United States has both the capability and "moral responsibility" to lead the fight against the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and to rally support from other wealthy nations, the editorial says (Bangkok Post, 7/15).
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Billings Gazette: While the development and access to antiretroviral drugs have decreased the rate of AIDS-related deaths in the United States, many U.S. residents are "ignorant" of the epidemic's "continuing toll" on "individuals, families and communities," a Billings Gazette editorial says. Public health funding and public education initiatives must continue or U.S. residents living with HIV/AIDS will "suffer the same fate as AIDS victims in Third World nations," the editorial concludes (Billings Gazette, 7/15).
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Florida Times-Union: When U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said this week that the United States should show the same commitment to fighting the global AIDS epidemic as it does to fighting terrorism by contributing $1 billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, his proposal was "rejected" by U.S. officials, and "rightly so," a Times-Union editorial says. President Bush's financial commitment to the combating HIV/AIDS is "more than any other world leader has done," and the Bush administration will make "certain help goes to the right people," the editorial concludes (Florida Times-Union, 7/16).
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Investor's Business Daily: This week's conference has turned into an "orgy of mindless U.S.-bashing," with members of the international community "paint[ing]" the United States as "stingy and hard-hearted, doing little to help in the AIDS fight," an Investor's Business Daily editorial says. The United States is the "most generous nation on earth in funding the anti-AIDS effort," whereas the United Nations' "hypocrisy on AIDS is galling" (Investor's Business Daily, 7/15).
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Long Island Newsday: The United States is not the only country to make a "mistake" in the fight against global HIV/AIDS, a Newsday editorial says. Both China -- for refusing to "deal honestly with its AIDS crisis" -- and South Africa -- for announcing this week that it will no longer recommend the antiretroviral drug nevirapine to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission -- should also be "denounce[d]" by advocates at this week's conference, the editorial concludes (Long Island Newsday, 7/15).
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Los Angeles Times: Combating the global HIV/AIDS epidemic is not a "multiple-choice test," as Randall Tobias, director of the State Department's Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator said this week, and "it is time his bosses hear that message and broaden the U.S. efforts," a Times editorial says. "Overemphasizing" any one method or "oversimplifying" the problem "guarantees" that the world will be "facing a pandemic marked not by five million new cases a year but tens of millions," the editorial concludes (Los Angeles Times, 7/16).
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Portland Press Herald: Although it is true that abstinence is the only way to guarantee a person will not contract HIV through sexual intercourse, making abstinence the primary focus of prevention and education measures is as effective as "fixing a dam with duct tape," a Press Herald editorial says. Condom promotion initiatives work and are a "more realistic solution" for the "millions at risk of contracting the disease," the editorial concludes (Portland Press Herald, 7/14).
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Salt Lake Tribune: The Bush administration's approach to combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic "has many things in common with its war in Iraq," a Salt Lake Tribune editorial says, adding, "[m]ost of them bad." The Bush administration's "imperious" approach that displays "ignorance" and appears to "put profit for American corporations ahead of worthier concerns," while its focus on abstinence "flourishes as a counterproductive prudishness that endangers far more lives than it saves," the editorial concludes (Salt Lake Tribune, 7/15).
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Syracuse Post-Standard: Conservatives both "inside and outside the Bush administration seem determined to put sex back in the drawer under the socks," relying on abstinence-only education, a Post-Standard editorial says. When "ideology" interferes with science, it "invites mischievous and harmful policymaking," the editorial concludes (Syracuse Post-Standard, 7/15).
Opinion Pieces
- Laurie Garrett, New York Times: In the "grab for glory and dollars" in the fight against HIV/AIDS, "everybody seems to be losing sight of the real targets," including vaccines, wider access to treatment and drug development, Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, says in a Times opinion piece (Garrett, New York Times, 7/16).
- Marshall Kilduff, San Francisco Chronicle: HIV/AIDS is "running like a breakaway train" across Africa and Asia despite a worldwide budget of almost $12 billion and the reduced cost of drugs, columnist Kilduff writes in a Chronicle opinion piece. "Hardly a word," however, has been said about the disease's "first prominent AIDS stage: the gay ghettos of America" at this week's conference and "it's the same back home," Kilduff says (Kilduff, San Francisco Chronicle, 7/16).
- Dr. Howard Markel, APM's "Marketplace": If in the developed world every individual donated $10 annually and every business donated one cent for every $10 earned to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, it would raise $50 billion; save 21,000 lives per day; save $360 billion per year in lost productivity and health care expenses; reduce the number of annual HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria cases by 50%; "slash" the infant maternal mortality rate by 50%; and provide "vast" numbers of people with clean water and food, according to Markel, author of a book titled, "When Germs Travel." However, the effort requires an understanding that infectious diseases "cost us a ton of money and completely disrupt the world economy" - a "good enough business reason to respond before, rather than after the fact," Markel concludes (Markel, "Marketplace," APM, 7/15). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
- James Pinkerton, Long Island Newsday: Political activism has "overwhelmed" science at this week's conference, and HIV/AIDS advocates' "passion" lies not within finding a cure for AIDS, but in condom use and the "liberated lifestyle that it symbolizes," Pinkerton says in a Newsday opinion piece (Pinkerton, Long Island Newsday, 7/15).