Say Anything Blog

A group of experts are beginning to criticize the AIDS movement for saying that their cause is pulling funding and support away from more pressing causes.

LONDON – As World AIDS Day is marked on Monday, some experts are growing more outspoken in complaining that AIDS is eating up funding at the expense of more pressing health needs.

They argue that the world has entered a post-AIDS era in which the disease’s spread has largely been curbed in much of the world, Africa excepted.

“AIDS is a terrible humanitarian tragedy, but it’s just one of many terrible humanitarian tragedies,” said Jeremy Shiffman, who studies health spending at Syracuse University.

I agree with this, and would go on to say that in modern times AIDS has largely become a behavioral disease that can easily be avoided by simply exercising a bit of judgment and caution.

If you avoid risky behavior such as promiscuous sex and intravenous drug use your chances of getting HIV/AIDS drop to next to nothing.  Meaning that we don’t necessarily need to cure AIDS to stop it.  We just need to avoid the sort of risky behaviors that spread it.

So instead of spending billions upon billions of dollars in private and tax dollars on AIDS every year we could direct that funding to curing illnesses that can’t necessarily be avoided.  Like breast cancer, for instance, or ALS.

But we aren’t.  Because AIDS activists have found themselves a political niche and know how to exploit it.