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AIDS Favoritism(a)
Unfair for You and Your Disease!
Are you aware that the death rate from AIDS in California’s and
New York’s newly infected patients has plummeted 98% (b) and 95%
(c) yet AIDS still receives 10% (d) of the entire federal research
budget? The bias towards AIDS has resulted in gross differences in
funding for your diseases.
For example, our government is spending
only $25 and $32 on each patient with hepatitis B & hepatitis C
respectively versus $3,084 on each AIDS patient (e). When one is
aware that 2 billion people have been infected (1 out of 3) with
HBV globally and more AIDS patients are now dying of liver failure
with hepatitis C as one cause than from the opportunistic
infections that used to kill them, one can only shout, “That’s
not FAIR!”
In addition, hepatitis C deaths are now
approaching AIDS deaths in number and it is estimated that there
are 4 - 5.2 million Americans with hepatitis C compared to
750,000-950,000 with AIDS. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The increase in funding for AIDS since 1999 – just the increase –
is greater than the 2005 budget for EVERY disease except cancer
and CVD. Although the above statistics involve disease research,
one cannot help but notice that at present AIDS funding levels, in
one more year you will be able to say, “The total amount spent on
all AIDS programs is 1/5th of a Trillion dollars (h).
“But AIDS is a pandemic and it deserves more funding!” AIDS
activists argue. The World Health Organization and UNAIDS report
that the AIDS infection rate is less than 1% (i) in every country
except in Sub-Saharan African and the Caribbean. What do they
need: more research dollars? No, they need the exact same thing
that has resulted in the 98% and 95% decrease in California’s and
New York’s AIDS deaths: namely, the effective drugs that have been
developed, prevention education and harm reduction policies.
I am a proud member of The FAIR
Foundation (j) – “FAIR” stands for "Fair Allocations in Research."
Along with myself, there are thousands of others from Maine to
Hawaii who are coming together through the FAIR Foundation to
alert America on the need for change in research funding policies.
“FAIR” believes a disease’s mortality rate should be given
emphasis in determining allocations, and other secondary factors
should be utilized to insure diseases that cause great suffering
but have low mortality rates will also receive increased (k)
dollars. Research funds should not be allocated based on Hollywood
popularity or political correctness.
It is now time to redirect funding to diseases that are more
deserving and currently receiving billions less than AIDS,
including the sixteen (L) that kill over a million more Americans
than AIDS annually. Please endorse The FAIR Foundation’s efforts
to put an end to AIDS favoritism and recommend that all citizens
join them in demanding research funding that is fair and equitable
for all. Do it now: JOIN The FAIR Foundation today (free) by
clicking here: http://www.fairfoundation.org/join.htm and send
this to your politician of choice by hitting the “GO” button.
a. http://www.fairfoundation.org/update.htm
b. http://fairfoundation.org/quiz/quizanswer.htm
c. http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/hivaids/aidsny_01/section17.pdf
d. http://www.fairfoundation.org/nih.htm
e. http://www.fairfoundation.org/factslinks.htm
f. http://www.healingwithnutrition.com/cdisease/cardiovascular/cardiovascular.html#A1
g. http://www.fairfoundation.org/estimated_aids_deaths.htm
h. http://www.kff.org/hivaids/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=33622
i. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0800505.html
j. http://www.fairfoundation.org/
k. http://fairfoundation.org/factors.htm
L. http://www.fairfoundation.org/thesixteen.htm
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