Every tax penny returned to meet poor and middle class needs is a penny Republicans can’t give to a millionaire, so it should come as no surprise that the Republican solution is to ignore and/or stigmatize the disease. As if this were not sufficiently shameful, the lack of preventive services in the states where Republicans have control amounts to a virtual death panel, condemning high risk populations.
An international rights organization is accusing state governments in the southern United States of a “public health failure” that has seen the number of HIV/AIDS cases in the region rise the most in the nation because of policies that are ineffective and discriminate against people with the virus.
Human Rights Watch, in a report issued Friday, said “progress in the fight against AIDS in the southern United States is undermined by state laws and policies that impose ineffective approaches and fuel stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV.”
The report says HIV is increasing in 17 southern states at the fastest rate in the nation. It documents practices in the region that HRW says have undercut progress on combating HIV, including:
- Refusal of southern states to provide comprehensive sex education in the schools
- State laws that impede access to sterile syringes
- Criminal penalties for exposing others to HIV.
The report termed as “alarming” the rise of HIV/AIDS in the South, saying that “roughly half” of Americans who die of AIDS live in the South. Those states also have the highest rates of new HIV infections in the country, HRW said. Hardest hit are minorities, particularly African-Americans, whom the report said “bear a disproportionate burden of infection.”
The report found that in 2008 in Mississippi, for example, African-Americans were 37 percent of the population but 76 percent of new cases of HIV. In South Carolina, African-Americans were 28 percent of the population but 72 percent of people living with AIDS.
"The South is the epicenter of HIV infection in the United States, but southern states resist proven methods of HIV prevention and refuse to provide adequate funding for HIV care and services," said Megan McLemore, senior health researcher at Human Rights Watch. "This is a public health failure, but also a violation of fundamental human rights for those at risk and infected with HIV."
The 23-page report, "Southern Exposure: HIV and Human Rights in the Southern United States," was released in advance of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1… [emphasis added]
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I feel appalled. I never realized that the Republican Party’s southern strategy involved more than just Racism.
16 Responses to “The Republican Solution for AIDS”
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This is another reason we needed an Nationally run health care system. Same rules for all the states.
Mark, I fully agree. Medicare for all!
But will a nationally-run health care system solve the problem of a distinctive backward mindset?
HB, not completely, but my medicare supplies me with information about self destructive practices like smoking. I trust such a plan would provide information to counter the ignorance.
Why would you be surprised?
Bee, I said, “it should come as no surprise”. By that, I meant that there is no reason for anyone to be surprised.
Irrationality and bigotry have consequences — in this case, tragic consequences for people living with HIV.
Tragic indeed!
The Rushpubliscum strategy targets ANYONE not wealthy. Their “base” is way too stupid to figure that one out, of course.
I also looked at this issue, from a more localized angle 🙂
I look forward to checking that out, JR.
The Old Confederacy really worries me. I have concerns that should the nation break up into Balkanized sovereign regional sections, the Old Confederacy would be our Serbia. As such, they would seek to expand their hegemony at the expense of their neighbors, and I doubt that any claimed Christianity will ablate their already vile behaviors. I really hope that saner heads prevail, but the evidence thereof is lacking.
You make a good point. It’s a border we would have guard carefully.
Very afraid of what is going to happen next year.
I have to agree, Ted.
“Refusal of southern states to provide comprehensive sex education in the schools” — Very medieval mindset. And I thought this happened only in some very backward countries in Africa where it’s not so much the refusal to educate people but the lack of means to do it. 🙄
Good point HB. It takes an even more antiquated mindset to have the resources, but refuse to use them.