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May 16, 2008
DENIED
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Farber and Duesberg |
High-profile AIDS denialists Prof. Peter Duesberg and writer Celia Farber were disinvited at the last minute from testifying at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on laws to protect whistleblowers Wednesday that was part of the NO FEAR Institute's annual Whistleblowers Week. Despite the big diss and urgent calls from AIDS activists, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), chair of Whisteblowers Week, failed to distance herself from a whistleblowing award given to the denialist duo. She declined to comment for this article.
According to The No Fear Institute, Whisteblowers Week honors and seeks protection for "truth tellers who report hazardous, illegal and unsafe conditions, and waste, fraud and abuses of authority in government and government funded entities." Duesberg and Farber received the Clean Hands Award from Whisteblowers Week cosponsors the Alliance for Patient Safety and the Semmelweis Society International. They were also disinvited from the awards ceremony, despite the fact that they had flown to Washington, D.C. from California to attend both the Congressional testimony and awards ceremony...
PUERTO RICO POLITICS UPDATE
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But will Chelsea and Michelle talk to Puerto Ricans about the AIDS crisis? |
On May 7, in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, Puerto Rico's Rep. Luis Fortuño (R-PR) expressed his "deep concern" about the "chronic mismanagement of federal [AIDS] funds on the part of the government of Puerto Rico." He also asked HHS to endorse his bill H.R.5292, introduced in February, that would allow HHS to directly administer Ryan White grants to Puerto Rico.
Fortuño 's bill is short on specifics—and Rep. José Serrano (D-NY) is the only cosponsor—leading advocates to believe that Fortuño's letter is basically a ploy to gain goodwill in his runs for Puerto Rico governor. Still, the letter is better than the total lack of action Puerto Ricans have come to expect from their politicians regarding the mismanagement of AIDS funds on the island.
"Everything he can do for us is more than welcome," said Puerto Rican AIDS activist José Colon. An HHS spokesperson told the Update that HHS has yet to receive the letter...
Read the rest: "PUERTO RICO POLITICS UPDATE"
ACTION ALERT: ASK CONGRESS TO SUPPORT HEP C FUNDING!
for treatment and prevention
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There's a new wave of advocacy around hep C (Hamed Saber, flickr.com/photos/hamed/393774336/) |
Since its founding last August, Hepatitis C Advocates UNITED! has grown to 350 active members and greatly strengthened advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill for the more than five million Americans who have the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Monday, May 19 is World Hepatitis Day, and UNITED! is asking for your help with calling Congress to demand $50 million for viral hepatitis programs in the Fiscal Year 2009 appropriations bill. UNITED! also wants Congress to cosponsor the Hepatitis C Epidemic Control and Prevention Act (S.1445/H.R.2552). The Act requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt to develop and implement a plan for the prevention, control, and management of HCV in the United States.
Although hepatitis C is the most common, chronic blood-borne viral infection in the U.S., the federal government only provides a paltry $17 million a year for all viral hepatitis programs, and President Bush has proposed a decrease in funding. The Hepatitis C Epidemic Control and Prevention Act has been stalled for years, but thanks in part to UNITED!'s sign-on campaign, it has picked up 21 cosponsors in the House and 13 in the Senate—the most since the bill was first introduced in 2003...
Read the rest: "ACTION ALERT: ASK CONGRESS TO SUPPORT HEP C FUNDING!"
KEEPING THE "CARE" IN CAROLINA
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Williams (at 2006 Cylar Awards) would be proud of South Carolina |
While state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP) are never totally secure, AIDS advocates in South Carolina are praising legislators for providing another year of ADAP safety. The state legislature committed last week to $2.4 million for the joint state-federal program that pays for HIV medications for the poor and underinsured. Last year, the legislature boosted ADAP funds to a hefty $4 million to address the woefully neglected program.
"People living with AIDS appreciate that our state legislature has stepped up to the plate," said South Carolina Campaign to End AIDS chair Karen Bates.
State Rep. Joe Neal told the State, "We have finally, as a state, come to grips with HIV/AIDS and are willing to put resources to stem the spread of this disease."...
Read the rest: "KEEPING THE "CARE" IN CAROLINA"
PREVENTION IN PERIL
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Cash alone won't prevent HIV, but the epidemic won't end without it (flickr.com/photos/tracy_olson/61056391/) |
With George Bush on the way out and revised (for the worse) national estimates of yearly HIV infections on the way in, calls are coming from all quarters to up funding for HIV prevention and find new ways to stem the AIDS epidemic.
At a Congressional briefing on Monday (aired on C-SPAN), AIDS advocates pushed for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to double its annual prevention budget to $1.3 billion. Organizations that participated in the briefing, including the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors, Gay Men's Health Crisis and the AIDS Institute, tried to connect the dots for Congressional staffers: While the CDC is planning to announce a much-anticipated increase in yearly HIV infections in the U.S., the Bush administration wants to reduce the agency's prevention budget by $1 million....
Read the rest: "PREVENTION IN PERIL"