From: rsmith@strobe.ATC.Olivetti.Com (Russ Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.pro
Subject: Re: Stuff
Date: 9 Oct 92 15:35:13 GMT
Distribution: na

In article <Bvtpxq.279@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, jdt29225@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Jazzy J ) writes:
> u_nique@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Jerray Wei) writes:
> >Just to further clarify...1-2 ml of blood transfused.  If you get cut, air
> >kills HIV+.  For all of you people who keep saying that it will be easy to
> >catch the virus from Magic, think again.  What are the main ways of catching
> >HIV+?  IV drug use, totally away from air.  Sex, again a type of contact
> >that is totally away from air.  Ok, maybe there are incidents that do happen
> >that aren't among these major causes, but whatever they are, they haven't
> >been really found.  There are a lot of people who are HIV+ out there, and
> >plenty of them don't even know it.  You aren't going to get the AIDS virus
> >without doing one of the above with an infected individual...or get into
> >some kind of accident with them where you bathe in each other's blood...
> 
> 	The above is a good arguement.  I think that what everyone has to
> 	realize is that if Magic was really considered a danger, he wouldn't
> 	have been let back into the league.  When he decided to come back,

A good argument? Despite the fact that its based on completely incorrect
information? As I mentioned in another post, if sex is "a type of contact
totally away from air", then the vast majority of us are doing it wrong
because in order to be doing it right we would need to be in a vacuum,
or outer space. There is always air around. There's even air involved
in IV drug use. If HIV+ blood is left in a syringe, the virus will
eventually die. In fact AIDS researchers have often said that one of
the difficulties in studying the disease is that its hard to keep it
alive for sufficient studying time, when its outside the human body.

As for Jazzy's point you're correct. In fact when Magic first retired, 
many AIDS experts were mad at him because they felt it sent a bad message,
get HIV, and you can no longer be active. Upon his return, they applauded
him and said that since the NBA is very well educated on HIV and AIDS,
as long as the players in the league are aware of the risk, no matter
how slight, there is no medical reason Magic shouldn't play. To date there
is no evidence that playing in the NBA will put extra strain on magic's
immune system(which was his reason for his retirement), most AIDS experts
say exercise helps keep your T-cell count UP and delays the progression
of HIV.

However none of this means that Magic is doing the right thing and not
being selfish.

Put it this way, when the Australian Olympic team voiced concern they
were ridiculed. Could any player in the league not named Michael Jordan
honestly state he didn't want to play against or with Magic and not
get the same treatment or much worse treatment than the Australian team
got? According to AIDS experts, Magic is not taking any risks by returning
to the NBA, only the people he will be playing with/against are at any
risk, no matter how ridiculously small that risk is. The same CDC report
that quoted AIDS experts as supporting Magic's decision, indicated the 
same experts advised David Stern to look into having NBA players sign
some form of waiver releasing teams and the league from liability in the
event another player contracts HIV from playing against Magic. So 
anybody who says the NBA is not at all worried about this is completely
incorrect.




Russ Smith
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"Some people got a chip on their shoulder,
and some would claim it was me."
                                Outta Get Me-- Guns N Roses
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