Recently it’s been revealed that the federal government has been under-estimating the number of American citizens infected with the AIDS virus. To me the cryptic part about that was several months ago major media pundits led a rush to laugh and discredit the Reverend Dr. Jeremiah Wright because of his accusations of government responsibility in the very creation of the virus (among other government plots he invoked) for the purpose of wiping out Black people, during a press conference back on 4/28. Back then Senator Barack Obama (IL) dismissed the remarks as “ridiculous propositions.”
Since the story broke about the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under-counting (I say under-count because underestimate makes it sound accidental) new HIV cases by 40 percent, there has been no similar reply from Obama. Can the same organization (US government) that essentially made public false information on the amount of people that have the virus, be the same organization that manufactured the virus? Hmmm? According to the Associated Press: “The country had roughly 56,300 new HIV infections in 2006 – about a 40 percent increase from the 40,000 annual estimate used for the past dozen years. The new figure is due to a better blood test and new statistical methods, and not a worsening of the epidemic, officials said But it likely will refocus US attention from the effect of AIDS overseas to what the disease is doing to this country, said public health researchers and officials.” Though it seems odd that the US has failed to give remotely accurate numbers on it’s own citizens as opposed to citizens of foreign countries, others see optimism in the report mainly because of the anticipated funding.
"This is the biggest news for public health and HIV/AIDS that we've had in a while," said Julie Scofield, executive director of the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors. Experts in the field, advocates and a former surgeon general called for more aggressive testing and other prevention efforts, noting that spending on preventing HIV has been flat for seven years.” What is not being discussed is what direction the disease has taken during the uncharted period. And how does any powerful agency accomplish a miscount? Didn’t these people attend school? It seems nothing under George W. Bush works right, the CDC is a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services. Their job is to (don’t laugh) prevent disease and “control” diseases, environmental health and education.
The underestimate is also mystifying when you consider that the average age of their 15,000 employees is 46 and almost 40 percent, are said to have Masters Degrees, 25 percent have a Ph.D, 10 percent have medical degrees, and an ethnically diverse workforce. The CDC Web site claims that a new technology is responsible for the higher estimate and this has to do with blood tests in 22 states that can now distinguish cases that developed more recently. Though the numbers have dropped with heterosexuals and intervenious drug users, the estimate oddly-enough has risen with gays and Blacks; the two original HIV targets.
--Chris Stevenson is a columnist for the Buffalo Challenger, contact him at
pointblankdta@yahoo.com
