There is an urgency in finding a cure for AIDS for one simple reason — it is only a matter of time before the HIV virus becomes resistant to the drugs currently treating it. Then, it could turn into a pandemic similar to the influenza epidemic after World War I.

Now, a complete rundown of all the news from the front would take hours. Risk of death from AIDS: way down. Risk of death from other things: going up. Risk of drug reaction: depends. Risk of fatal drug reaction: low but not zero. Risk of drug resistance: gets higher every year. The statistics change almost hourly as new treatments appear. It is all too cold, too mathematical, too scary to dump on the head of a sick, frightened person. So we simplify. “We have good treatments now,” we say. “You should do fine.”

Modern medicine has gotten to the point where in the Western world, AIDS has become treatable. However, judging by the growing risk of a resistant strain of HIV, it is clear that we have only bought time for ourselves to research and find a cure and a vaccine for it.

This is why the Bush administration’s abstinence-based policy is so insane — it blinds people to the information they need to protect themselves against AIDS infection — especially when they are a married couple.

And the Bush speech today supporting the Defense of Marriage Act was equally insane — it reinforces the stigmatization that people experience when they get AIDS. People assume they are gay even when they are not.

Right now, people’s lives are on a threshold — doctors must determine through trial and error what kind of treatments really work for an AIDS patient. And here in this country, the growing cost of medical care and the price-gouging by the HMO’s and the insurance companies means that it is getting increasingly harder and harder for people to pay the bills.

The Bush administration is placing profits before human lives and mortaging our future by refusing to let US aid go to the purchase of generic drugs that would save many AIDS patients in Africa or allow other countries to do so. Instead, they are breaking the Constitution by indoctrinating the people of Africa into religious teachings and padding the profits of corporate drug contributors in the process.

Currently, the War in Iraq is draining badly-needed funds from AIDS research in addition to being a complete and total failure. And should the talks break down and Bush go to war with Iran, that would suck even more money from AIDS research and badly-needed money at home for other such projects.

And not only that, the breakdown of electricity service, water, and law and order means that the risk of AIDS and the risk of dying from AIDS will only get greater in Iraq.

For these reasons, research for a cure for AIDS or a vaccine is highly urgent. We should ignore those who claim that AIDS cures will give people a license to sin. That would be pandering to fundamentalism and making public policy decisions based on the propagation and establishment of religion in violation of the Constitution. Instead, we need to decide what is best for the country as a whole.

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AIDS policy, Part 1: The need for a comprehensive worldwide AIDS policy.

  1. Comprehensive sex-ed.
  2. More vaccine funding.
  3. Lift ban on funding comprehensive sex-ed programs abroad.
  4. Defeat anti-gay initiatives and fight stigmas.
  5. Identify and prosecute AIDS discrimination.
  6. Universal Health Care.
  7. Protect reproductive rights.
  8. Fund the UN Global Fund.
  9. Eliminate requirements for faith-based funding.
  10. Fight all future appointments of people not qualified to handle AIDS.