SOTU: Bush’s AIDS Policy Is ‘Basically Unworkable’
SOTU: Bush’s AIDS Policy Is ‘Basically Unworkable’
Bush said: “We must continue to fight HIV/AIDS, especially on the continent of Africa — and because you funded our Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the number of people receiving life-saving drugs has grown from 50,000 to more than 800,000 in 3 short years. I ask you to continue funding our efforts to fight HIV/AIDS.”
FACT — BUSH POLICY HAS LED TO SHORTAGE OF CONDOMS: The U.N. and a number of advocacy groups for AIDS patients have charged that the Bush administration policy had led to a shortage of condoms in Uganda, increasing the risk of infection for many people, particularly married women and adolescents.” Jodi Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Health and Gender Equity in Washington, D.C., said that “there has been a dangerous and profound shift in U.S. donor policy from comprehensive prevention, education and provision of condoms to focus on abstinence only.” [New York Times, 8/30/05]
FACT — GAO REPORT CRITICIZED IMPLEMENTATION OF BUSH AIDS PLAN: An 87-page GAO report criticized the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) because a large part of the funding is going “to promote abstinence and fidelity is causing confusion in many countries and in a few is eroding other prevention efforts, including ones to reduce mother-to-child transmission of the virus.” The abstinence policy “is basically unworkable,” said Paul Zeitz, director of the Global AIDS Alliance. “This shows the problem very clearly and starkly.” [Washington Post, 4/4/06]
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
Andy way we can bring back Thomas Jefferson?
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:54 pmScrew the AIDS patients, gotta keep my buddies in Big Pharma swimming in cash.
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:55 pmWell if Bush had AIDS, then he might do something to cure it!
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:56 pmI wonder what dikembe mutombo (sitting next to laura up there) thinks of his aids plan. the democratic republic of congo, his home, has over a million infected with hiv http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/od/gap/countries/drcongo.htm
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:57 pmRight Zooey,
Cures aren’t what the pharma companies want.
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:00 pmNo money in cures, Truth.
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:01 pmAndy way we can bring back Thomas Jefferson?
Comment by ForTruth — January 23, 2007 @ 9:54 pm
Exhume, extract DNA, clone? :D
But I have to wonder if he would, in the current culture of X-Boxes, ipods and myspace, still grow up to be the same man of incredible character?
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:07 pm“Bob Geldof praised the Bush administration as one of Africa’s best friends in its fight against hunger and Aids.
The musician-turned activist said Washington was providing major assistance, in contrast to the European Union’s “pathetic and appalling” response to the continent’s humanitarian crises.
“You’ll think I’m off my trolley when I say this, but the Bush administration is the most radical – in a positive sense – in its approach to Africa since Kennedy,” Geldof told the Guardian.”
THE GUARDIAN
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:28 pmBut I have to wonder if he would, in the current culture of X-Boxes, ipods and myspace, still grow up to be the same man of incredible character?
Comment by unbelievable
The current environment would detract from his integrity? I hope not. Maybe the electromagnetic radiation would f*ck him up.
His MySpace page would be bad-ass.
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:50 pmHis MySpace page would be bad-ass.
Comment by ForTruth — January 23, 2007 @ 10:50 pm
ROTFL!
MTV actually did a political segment the other day. I caught it in the middle of the segment, and actually thought I’d scrolled to one of the news channels…. I hope they keep it up!
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:54 pm“there has been a dangerous and profound shift in U.S. donor policy from comprehensive prevention, education and provision of condoms to focus on abstinence only.â€
This is so sad it’s funny. Talk about infantilizing.
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:58 pmBush’s AIDS Policy Is ‘Basically Unworkable’
The religous right along with Bush has all but abandoned AIDS sufferers and the researh dollars to find a cure. I feel the religous right has alot to do with this slow death of the whole program. And we all know how Falwell and Dobson and Robertson feel about AIDS because according to them, it is caused predominantly from homosexuals and IV drug users.
Yes this slow strangulation of the AIDS Policy has religous rights fingerprints and MO written all over it. And remember according to the religous right, AIDS is a plague brought down from God Himself for homosexuals and sorcerers (drug users).
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:03 pmBush’s whole SOTU was a joke. This was the punchline.
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:03 pmExley,
I like Bob Geldof -I think he is a well-meaning person, and I still hum some of the old Boomtown Rats tunes (I don’t like Mondays either), but I wouldn’t take his opinion on international AIDS help to Africa over the opinion of the organisations that actually work in these programs. Why would you? Or what was the point of your post?
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:52 pmAn abstinence only program has to be the most mean-spirited program ever devised by a U.S. administration. An abstinence only program says in effect, either you follow our “so-called” morality or who gives a sh*t whether you live or die. Screw you, evil Republicans.
January 24th, 2007 at 12:49 am…I thought I gave you all the intelligence to make good decisions… musta been thinking about something else that day…
January 24th, 2007 at 1:28 amHooray for God!! I am hearin ya dude!
January 24th, 2007 at 1:48 amIt’s really too bad that Bush 41 didn’t practice abstinence a bit more… religiously?
January 24th, 2007 at 1:52 amThere’s an old adage which seems remarkably apropos here –
January 24th, 2007 at 9:31 am