From: gross@eric10.rtp.dg.com (Gene Gross)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.marrou,talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.elections,talk.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Anti-religious fanatics (Was Re: School Choice )
Date: 2 Sep 92 13:00:51 GMT
Organization: Data General Corporation, RTP, NC.

In article <1992Aug28.205043.28773@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> lfoard@Turing.ORG (Lawrence C. Foard) writes:
>In article <1992Aug27.124245.14530@dg-rtp.dg.com> gross@eric10.rtp.dg.com (Gene Gross) writes:
>>>The deaths by neglect are atleast 10's of millions (maybe someone could
>>>explain the role of the church in the medival plagues). This may climb
>>>to 100 million in the next 10 years since Christianity has fought all
>>>attempts to cure or control HIV transmission.
>>
>>What proof have you to offer that "Christianity has fought all attempts
>>to cure or control HIV transmission"?  As nearly as I can tell from
>>research that I've done for the past two years, the CDC and the Gay and
>>AIDS Lobbies have done more harm than any other group or organization
>>put together.
>
>People like to say this, however they ignore the fact that Gay groups
>with no government assistance (Helms Admendment) have managed to slow
>the spread of AIDS among homosexuals, while it continues to rise in
>virtually all other segments of the population.

The drop in HIV cases among homosexual males has more to do with the
fact that the population is dying off than a change in behavior
patterns.  Several homosexual authors (whose names escape me at the
moment but I will look them up) also have taken the Gay and AIDS Lobbies
to task over this same issue.  Further, they point out that when the
public bathhouses were finally closed, the homosexual community turned
right around and opened private bathhouses continuing a major source of
transmission.

The Gay Lobby has incredible funding from within its own community and
from those who are sympathetic to their cause.  I know for a fact that
the former mayor of Durham, NC, provided funding as did the State
legislature to the Gay cause.

Much of the rise in other parts of the population at large has to do
with other variables.  Chief among them is Blood transfusions.  We still
do not have a safe blood supply.  Saying that a person only has a risk
of 1 in 250 chances of contracting HIV from a blood transfusion is
ludicrous at best.  There should be no chance of contracting HIV through
a blood transfusion.

>>Clearly the only answer to HIV transmission is to use standard medical
>>practices that have been used with all communicable diseases, and have
>>been proven effective in controlling the spread of communicable
>>diseases.  HIV is the only communicable disease which has civil rights
>>status and political status.  Why!?  Syphilis doesn't; gonorreha
>>doesn't; TB doesn't; hepatitis doesn't; etc., for roughly several
>>hundred.  
>
>For example? What "special rights" do AIDS patients have that these
>others don't? 

The right to refuse to be tested.  The right to have medical insurance
when they know that they are infected -- the insurance companies are not
allowed to know the HIV status of those seeking insurance coverage.
However, insurance companies are permitted to know if you have, or have
had, any of the other communicable diseases.

You do not have the right to know if your medical or dental provider has
HIV, or if any of the staff that will be working with you has HIV.  Nor
do they have the right to know if you have HIV.  However, routine
testing is done to determine your status for any number of other
communicable diseases -- VDRL, check it out the next time your committed
to the hospital.

HIV will transmit through blood splashes on skin, and this has happened
more than once.  I can transmit through needle sticks, again, this has
happened more than once.  There is now evidence that the HIV virus can
be aerosolized through certain surgical procedures and the coughing
done by AIDS patients.  The research was done by qualified medical
researchers in California using their own funds because the CDC refused
to fund it (their comment was, "It simply can't be transmitted that way
or we are all in serious trouble.")

We now know that the HIV retrovirus is not nearly as fragile as once
stated.  It can survive in dry conditions outside the body for at least
seven days and still be highly infectious.  It can survive longer under
wet conditions.  And buried among some of the CDC's original work is the
little tidbit that the HIV retrovirus can survive and be infectious up
to 48 hours later inside a mosquitoe!!

This is not scare tactics, and I'm not saying that we will get it from
mosquitoes (something for which there is not research -- CDC cut off
funding shortly after discovering that the virus could remain alive
inside the bug).  The fact remains that this is a disease with political
and legal clout.

Routine testing and contact tracing works, and we know this because it
has been used time and again to stem the outbreaks of other infectious
and communicable diseases.  The evidence is in the Public Health
records, if you would care to take a look.  If not, then merely doubting
it only buries your head deeper in the sand.

HIV is, as far as we know now, 100 percent lethal.  As the T4 helper
cells are taken over, and the immune system compromised, more and more
opportunistic diseases overwhelm the infected person's immune system.
Eventually, all major organs come under attack, this includes the brain.
Some evidence now exists that the brain may be one of the earliest
organs affected by the HIV virus.  I'm still working on gathering that
information.

The point is this, since I am a Christian, and I am working my buns off
trying to help find a means to control this bugger, what proof positive
is there that Christians are responsible for the lack of effort and the
spread of this fatal disease.  Sounds like Nero's charges that we set
Rome ablaze!

Fact is that I'm not the only Christian thus involved.  There are those
on the front lines working with and helping AIDS patients, working in
labs around the world to try to find a cure (or at least some means of
prolonging life).  And then there are others like me, a writer, who are
researching this disease and the available information so that we can
present it to the public.  At ever turn I have bumped into those who do
not want some of the information released.  Invariably they are part of
the Gay Lobby, the AIDS Lobby, the ACLU, or the CDC.  The party line is
we need education and condoms with virucides.  Sorry, but this tact has
not proven effective in the least.  Next!!

Regards,

Gene