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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 $3,084 on each
AIDS patient in research versus only $5 (COPD), $25 (hepatitis C),
$32 (hepatitis B), $40 (cardiovascular disease), $80 (diabetes),
$149 (prostate cancer), $155 (Alzheimer’s), $162 (Parkinson’s) and
only pennies on orphan diseases (diseases
that are rare and have not been "adopted" by the pharmaceutical
industry) (e).
When
one is made aware that there are sixteen diseases that kill a
million more Americans than AIDS every year one can only shout,
“That’s not FAIR!”
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 two more years one will be
able to say, “The total amount spent on all AIDS programs is
1/5th of a Trillion dollars (f).
“But
AIDS is a pandemic and it deserves more funding!” AIDS activists
argue. 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 (g) – “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 our
government’s 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, like orphan diseases, will also
receive increased (h) 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 (i) 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: Send this message to President Bush using the
“GO” button above and then JOIN The FAIR Foundation today (FREE)
at
http://www.fairfoundation.org/join.htm.
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.kff.org/hivaids/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=33622
g.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/
h.
http://fairfoundation.org/factors.htm
i.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/thesixteen.htm
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