AIDS Cash Goes to US Bio-Defence

[Pert_UK]

"United States Government funds for research on diseases such as Aids are being diverted into procuring anthrax vaccine.

This year the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) will divert $145m to buying the experimental vaccine and testing it.

Half will come from the NIAID's own bio-defence budget, a quarter from its HIV projects, and the remaining quarter from research on other diseases. A further $131m will come from NIAID's budget for the fiscal year 2004.

...campaigners say this could be the start of a trend whereby funds for medical research are diverted to bio-defence.

In his budget for 2003, President George W Bush asked Congress to provide funds for purchasing and evaluating a new anthrax vaccine.

Congress declined, but the White House has now instructed NIAID to find the funds by cutting back on other projects...

Dr Luis Montaner from the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia has just started an HIV research project which has had its funding cut...

Dr Montaner's team is evaluating a potentially cheaper way of using anti-retroviral drugs in southern Africa, one of the regions Mr Bush has been visiting on his current African trip."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3057397.stm

I wish that I could say that this is unbelievable, but of course it's perfectly believable that Bush would go against the wishes of Congress and effectively cut AIDS drug research for Africa whilst simultaneously visiting Africa and proclaiming his commitment to help.

[izzie]

1. This is what I read.

The aids money was money that was for something else, Yellow fever or some southern thing and he took it from that so he could say he was giving aid money.May be it was in Nation but I can not find it now.

[Zan_of_Texas]

2. There is no way to overstate

the tragedy that is happening globally with regard to AIDS. The media reports mad cows and SARS because it's new, but AIDS is way more dangerous, and a proven mass murderer.

Here in the U.S., we reeled after the horrific deaths of <3000 people on September 11th. The death of even one person changes the lives of many.

Imagine, if you will, losing the entire population -- every person -- in Chicago, last year. Then, imagine losing everyone in Houston and Austin, Texas this year. Imagine losing everyone in Philadelphia and Dallas next year. That is how many people die of AIDS each year around the world. An estimated 8000 people a day, total of 2.9 million a year.

Imagine every single person in Canada, stricken with AIDS. That is almost how many people now have AIDS in Africa. (Source: Michele Landsberg, Toronto Star, and Census figures - Canada has 31 million people, Africa has 29 million AIDS cases.)

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked the world for $7 - $10 billion to fight AIDS, TB and malaria. A year ago, Bush offered $200 million for the fund in his 2003 budget, with a total of $900 million in international AIDS spending. (Source: New York Times, reprinted in Houston Chronicle, 02/14/02, Annan asks U.S. for more AIDS funding)

In the buildup to the Iraq war, the US offered Turkey $13 billion if the US could use Turkish land for airfields etc. to attack Iraq's northern front. In today's newspaper, Rumsfeld said we are spending $3.9 billion a month to stay in Iraq.

So, last year, Bush asked for an amount for the world AIDS fund ($200 million) roughly the same as the ANNUAL INTEREST on ONE MONTH of military costs to stay in Iraq. To fight non-existent weapons of mass destruction. While the proven killer, AIDS, walks the globe. Killing the equivalent of twenty Sept. 11s each week.

If he is spending $15 billion this year on AIDS, great. Long overdue. If he is just funneling it to his buddies in creepy-drugs-to-kill-us-all-land, I won't keel over in shock. Just more dismay. The pile grows ever larger.

Zan

[AbbPoacher]

3. according to the NIAID factsheet

In the US only 236 anthrax cases were reported between 1955 and 1999.<http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/anthrax.htm> Hmmmmm.