The FAIR Foundation is dedicated to fair and equitable distributions of Nation Institutes of Health (NIH) research funds for all diseases, including the sixteen that kill more Americans than AIDS.

TO: Ms. Gwen Ifill, Journalist, Vice Presidential Debate Moderator and Panelist: "Washington Week in Review"

RE: Vice Presidential Debate and Media Balance

Dear Ms. Ifill,

The FAIR Foundation is a national organization that is calling on our government to allocate disease research funds fairly and equitably. The media is instrumental in affecting the public’s perception of what is a health crisis and what is not. Your interview of the Vice Presidential candidates left millions of viewers with a false impression and on behalf of our 27-member Board of Directors of esteemed physicians and disease advocates and our thousands of supporters in 47 states and DC, we hope you will take a moment to revisit this issue. Here is the passage I am referring to from the transcript of the debate:

IFILL: "I will talk to you about health care, Mr. Vice President. You have two minutes. But in particular, I want to talk to you about AIDS, and not about AIDS in China or Africa, but AIDS right here in this country, where black women between the ages of 25 and 44 are 13 times more likely to die of the disease than their counterparts. What should the government's role be in helping to end the growth of this epidemic?"

Ms. Ifill, please note the following facts: (blue links are active to corroborating facts)

Ø The AIDS death rate in California’s newly infected patients has plummeted 97% to 303 and the overall death rate from AIDS throughout the USA has fallen well over 80% yet AIDS still receives 10% of the entire federal research budget.

Ø Female AIDS cases reported by the CDC through December 2002 = 11,279 (note that only 29 states report to the CDC) versus 8 million with heart disease as reported by the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease.

Ø You stated that black women between the ages of 25 and 44 are 13 times more likely to die of the disease than their counterparts. In the latest reporting period, estimated AIDS deaths in black women total 8,566 versus 7,611 for white women (includes Hispanic). In addition, compare to 500,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease for women

Ø The age-adjusted rate of heart disease for African American women is 72% higher than for white women, while African American women ages 55-64 are twice as likely as white women to have a heart attack and 35% more likely to suffer from coronary artery disease.

Ø Diabetes kills more Americans than AIDS and breast cancer combined yet our government is spending $80 on each diabetic in research versus $3,084 on each AIDS patient

Ø Approximately 9.3 million or 8.7% of all women over the age of 20 in the United States have diabetes. The prevalence of diabetes is at least 2-4 times higher among African American women, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, and Asian/Pacific Islander women than among white women.

Ø Astoundingly, at the present rate of 20 billion/yr., the total governmental expenditures on AIDS will approach 1/5^th of a Trillion dollars in just two years.

The disproportionate emphasis on AIDS is unfair to all other diseases in the USA, including the sixteen diseases that by themselves kill a million more Americans annually than AIDS.

On behalf of all non-AIDS diseases, we are respectfully requesting that you stop your favoritism for AIDS and when you do report on AIDS, report the actual number of estimated cases and deaths so that direct comparison can be made with other more deadly diseases and those with greater morbidity. When the media uses percentages or “13 times more likely to die of the disease than their counterparts” to sway public opinion to AIDS, it is not disclosing the true picture for its listeners or viewers.

Thank you for addressing this issue of AIDS bias in the future and correcting the mistaken impression that AIDS is a crisis in the USA. Indeed, if one wishes to still call AIDS a crisis when it is killing 16,371, then what is cardiovascular disease which is killing almost a million annually?

Gratefully,

Richard Darling, DDS

Richard Darling, DDS: 2003 National Public Citizen of the Year
President and CEO: The FAIR Foundation, a national movement to reverse inequities in research funding distributions by the National Institutes of Health
Founder: The Coachella Valley Hepatitis C, Liver Disease & Transplant Support Group
Board of Directors: United Organ Transplant Association
Ambassador: OneLegacy, a transplant donor network
Author: Coma Life, an autobiographical memoir of life "within" coma and survival over hepatitis C induced liver cancer, three liver transplants, heart attack, diabetes

Disease	2005 NIH Research $	Deaths Per Disease	$ Per Patient Death	$ Per Patient
AIDS	2.93 Billion	16,371	$ 178,975	$ 3,084
Cardiovascular Dis.	2.4 Billion	950,000	$ 2,526	$ 40
Diabetes	1.02 Billion	73,119	$ 14,004	$ 80
Alzheimer’s Dis.	699 Million	58,785	$ 11,890	$ 155
Prostate Cancer	417 Million	30,719	$ 13,574	$ 149
Parkinson’s Dis.	243 Million	16,961	$ 14,326	$ 162
Hepatitis C	130 Million	12,000	$ 10,833	$ 25
Hepatitis B	40 Million	5,000	$ 8,000	$ 32
COPD**	57 Million	119,000	$ 479	$ 5
West Nile Virus	43 Million	264	$ 162,878	$ 4,361

** COPD = Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Statistics derived from the CDC & NIH. See the graphics or the facts
Join the FAIR Foundation today: http://www.fairfoundation.org/join.htm (free, confidential)

Vice Presidential Debate Transcript of Ms. Ifill's question
and responses from Vice-President Cheney and Senator Edwards:

IFILL: I will talk to you about health care, Mr. Vice President. You have two minutes. But in particular, I want to talk to you about AIDS, and not about AIDS in China or Africa, but AIDS right here in this country, where black women between the ages of 25 and 44 are 13 times more likely to die of the disease than their counterparts.

What should the government's role be in helping to end the growth of this epidemic?

CHENEY: Well, this is a great tragedy, Gwen, when you think about the enormous cost here in the United States and around the world of the AIDS epidemic -- pandemic, really. Millions of lives lost, millions more infected and facing a very bleak future.

In some parts of the world, we've got the entire, sort of, productive generation has been eliminated as a result of AIDS, all except for old folks and kids -- nobody to do the basic work that runs an economy.

The president has been deeply concerned about it. He has moved and proposed and gotten through the Congress authorization for $15 billion to help in the international effort, to be targeted in those places where we need to do everything we can, through a combination of education as well as providing the kinds of medicines that will help people control the infection.

Here in the United States, we've made significant progress. I have not heard those numbers with respect to African- American women. I was not aware that it was -- that they're in epidemic there, because we have made progress in terms of the overall rate of AIDS infection, and I think primarily through a combination of education and public awareness as well as the development, as a result of research, of drugs that allow people to live longer lives even though they are infected -- obviously we need to do more of that.

IFILL: Senator Edwards, you have 90 seconds.

EDWARDS: Well, first, with respect to what's happening in Africa and Russia and in other places around the world, the vice president spoke about the $15 billion for AIDS. John Kerry and I believe that needs to be doubled. [Editorial note: emphasis added. Present budget in the USA for all diseases = 29 Billion)

And I might add, on the first year of their commitment, they came up significantly short of what they had promised.

And we probably won't get a chance to talk about Africa. Let me just say a couple of things.

The AIDS epidemic in Africa, which is killing millions and millions of people and is a frightening thing not just for the people of Africa but also for the rest of the world, that, combined with the genocide that we're now seeing in Sudan, are two huge moral issues for the United States of America, which John Kerry spoke about eloquently last Thursday night.

Here at home we need to do much more. And the vice president spoke about doing research, making sure we have the drugs available, making sure that we do everything possible to have prevention. But it's a bigger question than that.

You know, we have 5 million Americans who've lost their health care coverage in the last four years; 45 million Americans without health care coverage. We have children who don't have health care coverage.

If kids and adults don't have access to preventative care, if they're not getting the health care that they need day after day after day, the possibility of not only developing AIDS and having a problem -- having a problem -- a life-threatening problem, but the problem of developing other life-threatening diseases is there every day of their lives.