From: ez000281@hamlet.ucdavis.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: Re: Human rights in the USA.
Date: 8 Jan 93 06:15:59 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, UC Davis

Jeremy Barth writes:


>Yes, there are shortages of basic medicines in Cuba.  

If there are shortages of basic medicine, what about the ultra-expensive yet 
ineffective "treatments" for that incurable, yes INCURABLE, disease called AIDS?

>There is
>an economic depression there after all, due in part to economic
>mismanagement on the part of the Cuban state, but also due in no
>small part to the US embargo and to the control of commodity
>prices by the G-10 countries.

In other words, the collapse of communism terminated Cuba's subsidies.

[...]

>Precisely!  You can get treatment if you're covered by insurance.
>But 37 million Americans are NOT covered by any form of insurance,
>and another 50 million are UNDERinsured.  (These numbers are from
>the Government Accounting Office.)  Tens of thousands of AIDS
>sufferers in the US are not getting treatment:  read the medical
>journals and the government reports.

Well OK, tens of thousands are also not being treated for the common cold 
because there is not treatment for such and insurance companies or medicare 
won't fund wonderdrugs that don't work as "treatment".  Let's face it, the best 
treatment for AIDS known to science is to scare the hell out of people so that 
they use rubbers, sterilize their needles before shooting up, and don't sleep 
with strangers.  It's very simple, scare the living daylights of the population 
and don't promote the fuck-all-you-want-with-whomever-you-want attitude and 
you'll get the best treatment available without even having to pay additional 
premiums to the insurance companies.  Of course, we  don't have to create AID 
prisons, a la Castro to achieve this, a little more education for restraint 
will do the job, we can even pay Mike for a couple of more videos, and this 
time ask Bill to play the sax in the process.  In the mean time will continue 
to pump billions of dollars in AIDS research while our women die, in spite of 
getting their tits chopped off, simply 'cause they couldn't afford an early 
mamography, and especially cause AIDS has siphoned off the money from breast 
cancer research, since the AIDS lobby is much more powerful (in spite of your 
Oliver Twist view of the gay "community") than the feminist's.

> U.S. immigrations does not allow HIV infected people into the
> country, just as we don't allow people with tuberculosis...

>Tuberculosis is an infectious disease, AIDS is not -- it's a
>communicable disease.  

Well why the hell do you accuse us of being primary "exporters" or AIDS to 
other countries?  What you seem to mean is that tuberculosis trasmitted more 
easier than a disease that involves the exhcange of body fluids.  I'm very sure 
that someone who is HIV+ and sticks his wiener in your rear end will end up 
"infecting" you, even if contact is much more difficult than with TV.  What's 
ridiculous about this alleged sharp contrast between HIV and TV is that a 
person with TV must be reported by a pathologist to the authorities to ensure 
that he won't spread the stuff like wildfire, but a hooker's name with HIV 
should never be disclosed to the public, for it violates her privacy and will 
discourage other hookers from taking the test.  Now that TV is growing in the 
U.S., well soon hear the same argument: "Well its better to protect anonymity 
cause we want all TV+ folks to come and test.  If PACs and special interests 
get a hold ouf our National Institute of Health, we will certainly neede 
socialized medicine sooner than expected.

>There's a huge difference, which is why
>the Immigration and Naturalization Services's (INS) AIDS policy
>has been universally condemned in health care circles.  

Sure, its been condemned because HIV is the disease of Rock Hudson, Arthur 
Ashe, and Magic Johnson, while TV... who cares if some Mexican has rotten lungs!

>It makes
>no sense medically, though it served political purposes in the
>Reagan/Bush years.  The world community so disagrees with the INS
>policy that the World AIDS Conferences haven't been held in the US
>for years.

Tough luck, why do we want Elizabeth Taylor giving the main talk in these 
"medical" conferences?  The only interesting thing we heard in the last one 
were these reports on patients deveolping AIDS symptoms without testing 
postitive for HIV.  We can go to Brussels each year to hear this stuff without 
risking more importers of the disease here in the U.S.  I would only allow 
those seeking political assylum who are HIV postive to come in.  Otherwise ask 
your own country to subsidize your treatment.


>> ... We simply cannot be provide a death bed for the entire world

>A very interesting observation...

Of course it is, in Uganda 50% of the population is HIV positive.  You would 
have no problem allowing them in since for you it isn't "infectious", but 
somehow 50% of Ugandans got infected and thousands are dying like flies on the 
streets, without even a death bed or a coffin.

>I'm sure you're aware, however, that the US is widely viewed by the
>rest of the world as a net *exporter* of AIDS.  

Jeremy, how can we "export" a disease which is non-infectuous?  There seems to 
be a contradiction here.  On the one hand, "Give us your HIVs cause they can't 
infect us" on the other "Don't take your HIV's cause they can infect you"

>In a sick twist on
>our colonialist heritage, our military troops are thought to have
>introduced AIDS into the Philippines (especially at the Olongapo base)
>and probably Honduras as well.  Again, read the medical journals if
>you're really interested.

No need, my uncle is a pathologist, by chance, one of the first to detect the 
disease in our country, and he has also told me first hand how others have 
*imported* it here.   This simply reassures the need for other countries to 
have stricter requirements on granting entry Visas, one of which should be 
testing for HIV.   Needless to say, I don't know what the hell you're talking 
about when you talk about our "colonialist heritage" since we have no colonies, 
and the one or two we once had never were around when HIV popped up. 

Edelmiro

PD. I thought you were going to talk about how the CIA fabricated the virus to 
get rid of all the gays and addicts in this country.  I'm left dissapointed.