Bryan Fischer
No more taxpayer funding for AIDS research
By Bryan Fischer
We know what causes AIDS: homosexual sex and injection drug use. The Centers for Disease Control tell us that of all the males who have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS since the epidemic started in 1977, 91% contracted it either through having sex with other males or through intravenous drug abuse.
Since we know the cause, we know the cure: stop engaging in homosexual sex and stop shooting up with drugs.
Uganda has dramatically reduced its HIV/AIDS infection rate by telling its folks to practice abstinence before marriage and fidelity afterwards. Abstinence and fidelity work every time they are tried, and the beauty is they don't cost taxpayers a dime.
According to Michael Fumento, the U.S. is going to spend $26 billion this year on the AIDS problem, the vast majority of which "can't possibly lead to a cure or vaccine or prevent a single new case" since only 11% of it goes for research and just three percent for prevention.
Non-research AIDS funding exceeds by far the combined research grant budget for all diseases combined, again according to Fumento. "AIDS is like Pacman gobbling up the federal disease research budget."
AIDS funding dwarfs funding for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, prostate cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hepatitis B and hepatitis C combined. Yet we know what causes AIDS, and how to prevent it, but we don't know how to prevent the other diseases.
Says Fumento, "[I]t's not homophobic to point out that AIDS is essentially 100% preventable while none of these other diseases is preventable at all."
Even looking at the three billion dollar figure for research, this means that HIV/AIDS gets "about $200,000 per patient death," which is "21 times more per AIDS death than cancer death."
Concludes Fumento, "[D]isinformation can cause indefinite devastation. Nobody knows how many people have already died because disproportionate AIDS spending has robbed other diseases of badly-needed funds, much less those who will in decades to come. But they are the ones who have truly been forgotten."
So if we're looking to start trimming federal spending, here's a way we can save the taxpayers a quick $26 billion. Since we know the cause of AIDS and the way to slow down the epidemic, if we spend any taxpayer funds at all it ought to be on education: don't start engaging in homosexual behavior, and if you have started, stop.
In other words, the same approach we take to kids and smoking.
This does not, of course, mean that AIDS research has to come to a dead stop. But since we know the cause and the cure, it is a waste of scarce taxpayer funds to spend any more of those dollars in research. The research should instead be funded by private donors and foundations, who are willing to put their money — instead of ours — into the effort.
Meanwhile, private and mostly Christian charities will continue to provide comfort care to AIDS patients whose lives are being drained away by this deadly disease. And they will do so willingly, motivated by the compassion of Christ.
Tim Gill is a billionaire who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on political campaigns. Perhaps homosexuals could persuade him to part with some of his fortune to fund AIDS research instead of giving it to politicians.
Another possible source of funding: homosexual activist groups. Let's not forget that American tobacco manufacturers were forced to cough up over $200 billion because they peddle a product that kills people.
Well, homosexual activist groups likewise are pushing a lifestyle that kills. If anybody should be obligated to pony up funds to mitigate a health crisis, it ought to be the organizations that are responsible for advocating the very behavior that created and perpetuates the epidemic.
Surely we will be accused of lacking compassion. But this is hardly the case. If you care about an individual, and you see that he is involved in a self-destructive pattern of behavior, the most loving thing you can to is appeal to him to start making better lifestyle choices. It is hardly compassionate to urge him to continue to engage in conduct that everybody in the world knows has a good chance of killing him in the end. That, in fact, is a form of cruelty.
You want to know who the true hate groups in America are, the ones who are sending the most hateful message to gays, there they are. Pro-family groups are trying to save the same people that the gay lobby is consigning to an early death.
The organizations that are showing the most obnoxious form of cold-heartedness are the homosexual activist groups that celebrate lethal behavior. That's the worst possible message someone can send to his friends: I don't love you enough to tell you the truth in order to save your life. Where is an ounce of compassion in that?
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
December 2, 2010
We know what causes AIDS: homosexual sex and injection drug use. The Centers for Disease Control tell us that of all the males who have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS since the epidemic started in 1977, 91% contracted it either through having sex with other males or through intravenous drug abuse.
Since we know the cause, we know the cure: stop engaging in homosexual sex and stop shooting up with drugs.
Uganda has dramatically reduced its HIV/AIDS infection rate by telling its folks to practice abstinence before marriage and fidelity afterwards. Abstinence and fidelity work every time they are tried, and the beauty is they don't cost taxpayers a dime.
According to Michael Fumento, the U.S. is going to spend $26 billion this year on the AIDS problem, the vast majority of which "can't possibly lead to a cure or vaccine or prevent a single new case" since only 11% of it goes for research and just three percent for prevention.
Non-research AIDS funding exceeds by far the combined research grant budget for all diseases combined, again according to Fumento. "AIDS is like Pacman gobbling up the federal disease research budget."
AIDS funding dwarfs funding for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, prostate cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hepatitis B and hepatitis C combined. Yet we know what causes AIDS, and how to prevent it, but we don't know how to prevent the other diseases.
Says Fumento, "[I]t's not homophobic to point out that AIDS is essentially 100% preventable while none of these other diseases is preventable at all."
Even looking at the three billion dollar figure for research, this means that HIV/AIDS gets "about $200,000 per patient death," which is "21 times more per AIDS death than cancer death."
Concludes Fumento, "[D]isinformation can cause indefinite devastation. Nobody knows how many people have already died because disproportionate AIDS spending has robbed other diseases of badly-needed funds, much less those who will in decades to come. But they are the ones who have truly been forgotten."
So if we're looking to start trimming federal spending, here's a way we can save the taxpayers a quick $26 billion. Since we know the cause of AIDS and the way to slow down the epidemic, if we spend any taxpayer funds at all it ought to be on education: don't start engaging in homosexual behavior, and if you have started, stop.
In other words, the same approach we take to kids and smoking.
This does not, of course, mean that AIDS research has to come to a dead stop. But since we know the cause and the cure, it is a waste of scarce taxpayer funds to spend any more of those dollars in research. The research should instead be funded by private donors and foundations, who are willing to put their money — instead of ours — into the effort.
Meanwhile, private and mostly Christian charities will continue to provide comfort care to AIDS patients whose lives are being drained away by this deadly disease. And they will do so willingly, motivated by the compassion of Christ.
Tim Gill is a billionaire who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on political campaigns. Perhaps homosexuals could persuade him to part with some of his fortune to fund AIDS research instead of giving it to politicians.
Another possible source of funding: homosexual activist groups. Let's not forget that American tobacco manufacturers were forced to cough up over $200 billion because they peddle a product that kills people.
Well, homosexual activist groups likewise are pushing a lifestyle that kills. If anybody should be obligated to pony up funds to mitigate a health crisis, it ought to be the organizations that are responsible for advocating the very behavior that created and perpetuates the epidemic.
Surely we will be accused of lacking compassion. But this is hardly the case. If you care about an individual, and you see that he is involved in a self-destructive pattern of behavior, the most loving thing you can to is appeal to him to start making better lifestyle choices. It is hardly compassionate to urge him to continue to engage in conduct that everybody in the world knows has a good chance of killing him in the end. That, in fact, is a form of cruelty.
You want to know who the true hate groups in America are, the ones who are sending the most hateful message to gays, there they are. Pro-family groups are trying to save the same people that the gay lobby is consigning to an early death.
The organizations that are showing the most obnoxious form of cold-heartedness are the homosexual activist groups that celebrate lethal behavior. That's the worst possible message someone can send to his friends: I don't love you enough to tell you the truth in order to save your life. Where is an ounce of compassion in that?
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
