"Dr. No" Condemns U.S. Gov't Participation in AIDS Conference

by Julie Davids
Tue, 08/05/2008 - 4:13pm

United States Senator Tom Coburn (R, OK) has just put out his latest report condemning spending on HIV/AIDS in the United States.

Announced via a press release alledging that "Americans with HIV/AIDS suffer on waiting lists while bureaucrats party," the conservative Senator who is almost single-handedly responsible for blocking the participation of most U.S. government scientists in the International AIDS Conference is inflamed that any U.S. officials were allowed to go.

By Coburn's count, there are 116 U.S. government employees who are at the IAC, thereby making up one half of one percent of the total number of attendees at the IAC.

MedNewsToday has a good story on the "intellectual travel ban" spurred by Coburn. Reporter Michael Smith notes:

The CDC... which has significant partnerships with HIV researchers round the world, has sent fewer than 30 people to this meeting. The agency's HIV/AIDS division has about 600 people, including contractors, visiting scientists, fellows, and its own employees. Other federal agencies involved in the battle against HIV/AIDS, including the NIH, are similarly constrained...
The effect of the ban, according to American scientists and others who are present, is to reduce the impact of U.S. research and limit the international effectiveness of the scientists themselves.

Coburn says it's a matter of live vs. junket:

This is a simple question of priorities when it comes to addressing HIV/AIDS—talk or treatment? Conference or care? While the waiting list for federal employees to attend the AIDS conference may now exceed the waiting list for patients seeking AIDS drugs, most taxpayers would probably agree that providing life saving treatment to 35 of their fellow Americans is a better expenditure of funds than paying to send 114 government employees on a trip to Mexico.

It's all quite simple to Dr. No... except for the fact that this conference is an important place for those at the heart of the battle against the epidemic around the world to come together to collaborate.

What he's really steamed about is that conference sessions are not limited to the straight and abstinence slice of life he favors. He loves to pepper his reports with the titles and descriptions of sessions that will most put a chill in the hearts of social conservatives -- never mind if it's what we need to do to save the lives of people at risk of, or living with, HIV/AIDS who may not live in convents.

He writes:

In addition to some scientific and scholarly workshops, the event will feature a “Sex Workers Mini Film Festival,” and a session led by a pro-prostitution group that brags of being “proud” of its work and proud to bring in “lots of tourist dollars” for Thailand. There will also be a workshop on the “Sexy Life” after HIV infection and one entitled “Good Catholics Use Condoms: How to Answer the Tough Questions Surrounding HIV/AIDS Prevention and Religion,” which will be moderated by a woman whose D.C.-based group favors legalized abortion, gay marriage, and contraception — all positions opposed by the Catholic Church.

Kudos to Rep. Barbara Lee (D, CA), who speaks out in MedNewsToday against the travel restrictions:

Rep Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) called the conference "a wonderful place to exchange ideas" and added, "our country is being denied that opportunity."

"It's a terrible policy," she said. "It's not good for our country in terms of its image and role in the world to deny this brainpower to be presented at an international conference."

And I'll end this post with the words of CHAMP's own Walt Senterfitt, who served as a visiting scientist at CDC:

Scientists and officials from other countries "are skeptical and somewhat insulted" by the absence of their U.S. counterparts, said Walt Senterfitt, co-chairman of the board of CHAMP, a New York-based advocacy group.

But aside from the image issue, Senterfitt said, there are other issues.

"It impedes the flow of information," he said. "The U.S. is one of the places where epidemiology and behavioral science -- albeit incomplete -- is most advanced and that knowledge is not being diffused."

And, he said, people who attend the AIDS conference come away with a broader outlook.

"We are always profoundly impacted by this meeting," he said, "and it's a shame to deprive the best and the brightest people who work for the federal government of that opportunity."

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conservatives

intellectual travel ban

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This a totally bizarre, and

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 08/05/2008 - 6:30pm.

This a totally bizarre, and I am Outraged! What? Scientist are being restricted from collaborating with other scientist? And even more bizarre because this issue is supported by a government official of the United States. And as a person who lives with AIDS it arouses my suspicions as to whether Sen Coburn or the US government has any REAL concerns for my well being, and the well being of the more than a million and half people in this country diagnosed with HIV. Shame on you Senator Coburn for creating and upholding such dangerous decisions and attitudes that create gaps in HIV prevention and care in the midst of the worst epidemic this world has known. No wonder the community advisory board (CAB) denied me funding when I requested support to the IAC this year, siting this was an NIH decision. After all the core of my CAB's AIDS research institution is funded by the NIH, just like those 600 or so employees who are paid by the NIH and who fall under this "intellectual travel ban" Only difference is that as a CAB member I am not employed by the US Government. Our role as CAB members are voluntary and works to satisfy an NIH policy that says all research studies must have community input and/ consultation. So I guess Senator Coburn doesn't want actual people living with AIDS to attend this conference either. As a United States Citizen living with AIDS and in voluntary service to an NIH funded research site; not only was I confused about being denied funding to attend the IAC but in fact I felt that in someway my constitutional rights had been violated. But wait, when one of our investigators at our NIH funded site put his own money up so I, as a person with AIDS could be present at the AIC and not have to go hungry, although I was extremely grateful....there was the lingering question in my mind, " How did I a person with AIDS fall under a travel ban to an International AIDS Conference ..and by my own government? How will we ever conquer this virus if meet in voids created by the politicians of the US. The country with the most acquired knowledge concerning the nature of HIV. As a person living with HIV, this is all too suspicious to me and as an Activist it is not in my nature to let it rest. And though there's a travel ban to the IAC...there is no travel ban to Washington D.C.

"Dr. No" Condemns U.S. Gov't Participation in AIDS Conference

This a totally bizarre, and

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