How Reagan and Bush Helped Spread AIDS, a perspective

[PatrioticLeftie]

Now, don't think I'm accusing Reagan and Bush of infecting themselves with AIDS and personally spreading it and then (Somehow) cured themselves, or anything of that sort.

No, Reagan and Bush were and are guilty of the next possible mean: inaction. It was years before Reagan even mentioned the HIV virus and then it was only in answer to a question, by which time tens of thousands had died with little to no knowledge of their disease. Reagan also said, "abstinence was better than a cure". While it is a good idea to halt the spread of a virus, it does send a negative message to those already infected.

Bush offers the same stance, that abstinence will work, and that that's enough. No, unfortunately, it is not enough, because not everyone who is infected knows they are. Besides, there is more than one way to become infected (Syringe, blood, etc).

It's the concept of "The less we know, the safer we are". Following such a rule only forces one to delve further and further into denial, until any realization of reality is a much larger and dangerous force. Some people continue to believe that AIDS only applies to homosexuals. The fact that there are people who still believe this is frightening in of itself, since they are bound to know even less.

The more we know about AIDS, and all other ailments and afflictions, the better we can be prepared to prevent or deal with them.

Luckily, today's HIV positive person is much better off then their 1980's counterpart. Vaccines have developed to much smaller and more effective doses. People who are positive may even live relatively normal lives, with a few major exceptions.

I recently listened to a speaker who had been infected with HIV/AIDS; he had been irresponsible and as a result became infected. His life was turned upside down, before he had quite a bit of money, but the drugs he takes to stifle the virus (There are multiple) were expensive already (Around $1200 a month) and were only rising in cost (A big hat tip to the Bush Administration, gotta keep those tax cuts safe, I see!). Despite all these advances, it is still the life-changing occurrence it was before.

A film I saw earlier today, "Common Threads" is a very informative piece, and recommend its viewing (Warning: It is sure to tug at heartstrings!). By 1989, over 100,000 people, that's one hundred THOUSAND people, had died from the HIV/AIDS virus, with little being done and the government hadn't even officially recognized it as a threat.

Since 1981, over 25 million people worldwide have died from the disease. And more than two decades later, still no cure.

[niyad]

1. I have always held reagan and his cohorts responsbile for many, many

needless deaths, and only belief in kharmic payback kept me from total depression.

[crizzo5137]

2. Go out and rent

And the Band Played On... Shows how the CDC had no budget for a gay disease until it started hitting the hetero world...


and yeah, Ronnie 'just' might have been able to stop this...or at least showed some interest... But hey, I suffer with it now hoping he is buring in hell...

[Zinfandel]

3. Spread it through the "undesirables" minorities, gays & intravenous

drug users...and it worked!

And why not, in 1980 they got (by deceit, of arms gifts to Iran) their man (Reagan) in power, no real questions were ever asked...

Better to stop it all ASAP, promiscuous sex...Oh dear, sex, was "bringing down control of the country" (get real)... The "60s" freaked them out but good!

It changed everything.

[hunter]

4. It wasn't the inaction so much...

...as the unchallenged and implicit assumption that AIDS victims deserved it.

Oh well, you should've just said "no." Sorry, it's your fault you are going to die.

I don't think anyone who was working in the healthcare professions during those horrible times will ever forget.

I was working in medical labs and blood banks and AIDS devestated our hemophilia patients. What made it worse was that there was this attitude in some places that it was the gay people who were killing them.

I think most of the gay men and people with drug problems among my peers died. Our friends would die of AIDS, we knew it, more people suspected it, but nothing at all would be said of it.

There is much I can't forgive.

[mogster]

5. Here's a snippet from a press conference in 1982

When AIDS are about to break out, with Reagan's press spokesman Larry Speakes:

Q: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?
MR. SPEAKES: What's AIDS?
Q: Over a third of them have died. It's known as "gay plague." (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean it's a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?
MR. SPEAKES: I don't have it. Do you? (Laughter.)
Q: No, I don't.
MR. SPEAKES: You didn't answer my question.
Q: Well, I just wondered, does the President ...
MR. SPEAKES: How do you know? (Laughter.)
Q: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?
MR. SPEAKES: No, I don't know anything about it, Lester.
Q: Does the President, does anyone in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?
MR. SPEAKES: I don't think so. I don't think there's been any ...
Q: Nobody knows?
MR. SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.
Q: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping ...
MR. SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and he's had no - (laughter) - no patients suffering from AIDS or whatever it is.
Q: The President doesn't have gay plague, is that what you're saying or what?
MR. SPEAKES: No, I didn't say that.
Q: Didn't say that?
MR. SPEAKES: I thought I heard you on the State Department over there. Why didn't you stay there? (Laughter.)
Q: Because I love you Larry, that's why (Laughter.)
MR. SPEAKES: Oh I see. Just don't put it in those terms, Lester. (Laughter.)
Q: Oh, I retract that.
MR. SPEAKES: I hope so.
Q: It's too late.

Reagan, as gay activists still angrily point out, never mentioned the word in public until 1987, by which time about 60,000 cases had been diagnosed, of whom half had died.

The lack of significant federal funding to combat AIDS is cited by many as a major factor in the dramatic spread of the disease.

In the critical years of 1984-1985, according to his White House physician, Reagan thought of AIDS as though "it was measles and would go away".

Found on tompaine.com in 2004.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Don't disagree with anything you've said...

...but you left out a lot. IMHO, the way the Left handled the AIDs crisis is at the germ of why they lost complete power. In a nutshell, they were too politically correct about those bathhouses and about saying anything derogatory about the gay lifestyle. How can people trust a party that would opt for politics over a public safety & health issue? Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats showed leadership during this terrible crisis.

But there were heroes. And Randy Shilts documented them in, "And the Band Played On."

If you want to see evidence of Liberal Media, you'll find it when you see the made for t.v. version of "And the Band Played On" and compare it to the book version.

[Festivito]

7. ..another RepubliCON, another costly mistake...

Costly in terms of dollars and, of course, lives.

[FSogol]

8. "They just didn't care." n/t

[JackBeck]

9. I will never forget this.

One of my strongest memories from my childhood was sitting at the dinner table and hearing the Bush solution for the AIDS crisis:

"Put them (the gays) all on a secluded island."