Much as I hate to admit it, G. Gordon Liddy was right. It was November 1985; Mr. Liddy was in the midst of his endless speaking tour. I was a young reporter. Gordon had dire predictions about everything; most turned out to be paranoid fantasies. When he spoke about the recently-discovered AIDS virus, he said, “This will be the scourge of our time. It will be like the Black Plague.” I rolled my eyes and kept taking notes.
But he was right. Thirty-three million people around the world are infected with HIV or AIDS, 90 percent of them are in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Several weeks ago, I spoke of how drug companies and the federal government, in an effort headed by Al Gore, are trying to keep AIDS drugs out of the hands of South African officials. People are starting to talk about this. AIDS activists are following Al Gore on the campaign trail, trying to hold him accountable.
Last week on ABC News, a representative of a pharmaceutical trade group argued that we cannot let Africa have AIDS drugs. If the drugs are not properly administered for the full course of treatment, the AIDS virus may mutate and become stronger. Some African health officials agree. In Zambia, the government is raiding unlicensed pharmacies to ensure AIDS medicine does not fall into the hands of people who need it.
That’s what reminded me of Gordon Liddy’s line about the Black Plague. To survive that scourge, some towns in Europe built walls and locked the gates. No one in, no one out. The townspeople turned their backs on the agony beyond the walls and when the plague had passed, they emerged and began to rebuild.
Of course, the drug companies and the Zambians are right. If a patient fails to properly complete the course of treatment, we run the risk of developing a super-strain of AIDS virus, one for which we may not find a cure.
So we build a wall, we draw a line and those outside are left to die. But where do we draw the line? Sub-Saharan Africa, it seems, is outside the line, because the drug companies think Africans cannot be counted on to properly administer medicine. Seems a bit paternalistic, colonial, racist. I’d rather die of AIDS than live with racism, but that’s me.
Who else is in or out? Asia? Out, at least southern Asia. Latin America? Out. Maybe we’ll save the Southern Cone. After all, Argentina wants to adopt the dollar as its official currency. That’s got to be worth saving.
What about America? How can we be sure someone right in our own backyard won’t foul up their pharmaceutical regimen and start spreading a new strain of AIDS? For starters, anyone without health care should be allowed to die. I know it seems harsh, but these people have a track record of reckless behavior. We can’t allow them to gamble with the fate of the world. The stakes are too high.
See, that’s the problem with drawing lines. There’s no line that will guarantee our safety. This is not medieval Europe. And even if we could draw a line with some degree of certainty, are we so foolish as to think we would remain unaffected by events on the other side of that line? Do we really believe we can allow the Southern Hemisphere to descend into chaos and that chaos will not reach us?
We have to rise to this challenge, not shrink from it. We have got to mass-produce AIDS medication and we have to train medical personnel to ensure the people who need it take it, and take it all. The drug companies are right; the stakes are incredibly high. But there’s only one way to beat them.
Building Walls, Drawing Lines
Much as I hate to admit it, G. Gordon Liddy was right. It was November 1985; Mr. Liddy was in the midst of his endless speaking tour. I was a young reporter. Gordon had dire predictions about everything; most turned out to be paranoid fantasies. When he spoke about the recently-discovered AIDS virus, he said, “This will be the scourge of our time. It will be like the Black Plague.” I rolled my eyes and kept taking notes.
But he was right. Thirty-three million people around the world are infected with HIV or AIDS, 90 percent of them are in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Several weeks ago, I spoke of how drug companies and the federal government, in an effort headed by Al Gore, are trying to keep AIDS drugs out of the hands of South African officials. People are starting to talk about this. AIDS activists are following Al Gore on the campaign trail, trying to hold him accountable.
Last week on ABC News, a representative of a pharmaceutical trade group argued that we cannot let Africa have AIDS drugs. If the drugs are not properly administered for the full course of treatment, the AIDS virus may mutate and become stronger. Some African health officials agree. In Zambia, the government is raiding unlicensed pharmacies to ensure AIDS medicine does not fall into the hands of people who need it.
That’s what reminded me of Gordon Liddy’s line about the Black Plague. To survive that scourge, some towns in Europe built walls and locked the gates. No one in, no one out. The townspeople turned their backs on the agony beyond the walls and when the plague had passed, they emerged and began to rebuild.
Of course, the drug companies and the Zambians are right. If a patient fails to properly complete the course of treatment, we run the risk of developing a super-strain of AIDS virus, one for which we may not find a cure.
So we build a wall, we draw a line and those outside are left to die. But where do we draw the line? Sub-Saharan Africa, it seems, is outside the line, because the drug companies think Africans cannot be counted on to properly administer medicine. Seems a bit paternalistic, colonial, racist. I’d rather die of AIDS than live with racism, but that’s me.
Who else is in or out? Asia? Out, at least southern Asia. Latin America? Out. Maybe we’ll save the Southern Cone. After all, Argentina wants to adopt the dollar as its official currency. That’s got to be worth saving.
What about America? How can we be sure someone right in our own backyard won’t foul up their pharmaceutical regimen and start spreading a new strain of AIDS? For starters, anyone without health care should be allowed to die. I know it seems harsh, but these people have a track record of reckless behavior. We can’t allow them to gamble with the fate of the world. The stakes are too high.
See, that’s the problem with drawing lines. There’s no line that will guarantee our safety. This is not medieval Europe. And even if we could draw a line with some degree of certainty, are we so foolish as to think we would remain unaffected by events on the other side of that line? Do we really believe we can allow the Southern Hemisphere to descend into chaos and that chaos will not reach us?
We have to rise to this challenge, not shrink from it. We have got to mass-produce AIDS medication and we have to train medical personnel to ensure the people who need it take it, and take it all. The drug companies are right; the stakes are incredibly high. But there’s only one way to beat them.