Tag Archives: HIV

The CDC: Dereliction of Duty, Pt 2

June 11, 2014

Sitting on the plane, waiting for takeoff, I opened the newspaper in my lap. I couldn’t believe my Condom Pkgseyes!

Finally! Finally, the truth about condoms was coming out. In the newspaper. Everyone would finally hear the truth about condoms.

This meant I could get my life back. I could quit researching and writing about condoms and sex education. I could return to my garden and plant flowers instead.

For the past five years, I had spent hours in the library and at the keyboard. On the telephone, I interviewed sex educators from all parts of the country. Interviews were transcribed, and information was organized into file folders. And I was on the plane, now, headed for a Miami conference on sex education.

Condoms were the culprit. At the time, with HIV/AIDS taking hold in our culture, we had very little knowledge about the disease. People were dying, and we still didn’t have the whole story about how they contracted HIV or when we might have a cure.

Condoms were our only ally. Condoms protect. Use a condom. Use a condom consistently and correctly…every time…everywhere…put a basket of condoms in the bathroom, in the school office…everywhere! Now! Use a condom!

Condoms made us feel safe. We could still have all the sex we wanted…with whomever we wanted…as long as we used a condom…consistently and correctly. Our sex was safe. Protected. We were protected…and safe!

CDC Logo StethAfter all…the Centers for Disease Control, CDC, was looking after us.

Linking arms with Planned Parenthood, SIECUS and state health departments, the CDC gave its nod to wrapping the United States up in one giant condom campaign for “SAFE SEX”:

  • 2000, Planned Parenthood Ohio held a condom giveaway – a bright yellow coupon redeemable for free condoms and a MacDonald’s gift certificate.Condom MacD
  • 2000, Planned Parenthood Southern Arizona spent $100,000 on “Use Condom Sense” campaign that featured billboards on buses showing a 13-year-old girl holding up a condom. Included in the campaign, 19 condom machines were placed in teen hang-outs, including the Tucson Parks and Recreation Department.
  • 2002, Planned Parenthood celebrated the introduction of The Planned Parenthood Condom with a coupon for a free condom – or – four free condoms if you paid for STD and/or HIV testing.
  • 2006, Planned Parenthood sponsored a condom art contest.Condom Lollipop
  • 2006, Planned Parenthood offered condoms packaged like lollipops and promoted condom key chains.
  • 2006, Planned Parenthood Michigan’s teen program held condom art workshops. “Make a beautiful creation out of condoms, find out all the facts on using condoms correctly, and get a free gift.”

Where was the CDC?  CDC Logo  Nodding, winking…and sleeping.     Sleeping Boy

Promoting condoms came at a price…paid by the US taxpayers…a staggering sum of dollars handed out through government grants. One report documented over $2,000,000 divided Dollar Signbetween Planned Parenthood ($991,109) and four other organizations. Grabbing every dollar possible, the ACLU, SIECUS and 32 groups held a press conference designed to stop funding of abstinence programs.

Promoting condoms, finally a national pastime, left little money or incentive for the government to deliver another message to teens…abstain from sex. In fact, messages that encouraged sexual abstinence for teens were mocked. In extreme outbursts of hostility, legislators even accused abstinence programs of “killing teens.”

The CDC?  CDC Logo  Nodding, winking…and sleeping.        Sleeping Boy

Ironically, as king of the SAFE SEX condom campaign, Planned Parenthood failed the condom tests performed by Consumer Reports Magazine. Of the 23 condoms tested, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Honeydew and Assorted Colors condoms scored the worst. Not taking this lying down, Planned Parenthood submitted their condoms to “independent testing.” Anyone surprised that Planned Parenthood then proclaimed their condoms “excellent”?

Condoms made us feel safe. Our sex was safe. Protected. We were protected…and safe!Heart Flying

At a college presentation on Valentine’s Day, a young man stood at the front of the crowded auditorium, raised his right hand and spoke for all Americans, “I pledge allegiance to the condom.”

Now, finally, twenty years after HIV struck America…

Finally, sitting on the plane bound for Miami, I read the national story on condoms again and closed my eyes in gratitude. “Finally,” I told myself, “someone is paying attention to the truth Alarm Clockabout condoms. The press is finally reporting on the medical truths about condoms.”

The CDC?  CDC Logo  It blinked, shook its head…and woke up. Finally.

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NEXT WEEK:  The CDC: Dereliction of Duty, Part 3, The Truth about Condoms…Finally!

LAST WEEK:  The CDC: Dereliction of Duty, Part 1

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Copyright 2004-2014. All Rights Reserved

The CDC: Dereliction of Duty, Pt 1

June 5, 2014

CDC LogoWe have much to thank the CDC for!  It is on the forefront of many health battles.  CDC medical teams even risk their own lives, rushing to the aid of victims around the world, most recently fighting the Ebola virus.

But…there is one health threat that suffers from the failure of the CDC to be truthful with the American people.  We are suffering.  And the CDC is worse than silent…the CDC ignores and silences expert voices and research that could protect us.

It is hard to imagine the CDC Ostrich Runactually putting the health of people at risk.    For years, we watched the CDC run from one threat to the next:  drugs, tobacco, polio, small pox.  We learned to trust the CDC.  That was before the sexual revolution and…

…the discovery of AIDS.  The AIDS epidemic officially began on June 5, 1981, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report newsletter reported unusual clusters of Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) in five homosexual men in Los Angeles.  Over the next 18 months, more PCP clusters were discovered among otherwise healthy men in cities throughout the country.

Ostrich HaltThe CDC was stopped dead in its tracks.  It scrambled to identify the HIV/AIDS connection and its methods of transmission and treatment, as people worried about “catching” the HIV virus.  Every human activity was originally suspect:  drinking cups, sharing straws, kissing, open cuts, mosquito bites, injections…and of course…sexual activity.  Without the Internet, information followed slowly on the trail blazed by gossip and greased by fear.

Ryan WhitePerhaps no one more clearly tells the story of AIDS in the early days than Ryan White, an engaging, fun-loving young teen who eventually died of AIDS.  In December, 1984, over four years after the first American incidence of AIDS came to light, Ryan White was diagnosed with AIDS.  Up to this point, the disease had largely been associated with the male gay community.  White suffered from hemophilia, and was infected with HIV from a contaminated blood transfusion.

White became an instant poster child for AIDS.  Clearly, he was an innocent victim.  Nevertheless, he was expelled from his middle school, triggering a lengthy court battle and thrusting him into the international spotlight.  Through the courage of White and his family, America and the world began to sift through all of the fears about AIDS and separate fact from fiction.

CDC Logo StethBy now, the CDC had lost its grip on the messaging for AIDS.  Ostrich RunRunning from one public relations crisis to the next, the CDC forgot its ultimate foundational role as the defender of public health.  Instead of demanding that public bath houses, a known haven for promiscuous gay sex, the CDC decided to make certain they focused on reassuring the American people that they were not in danger of infection.  The key to health, according to the CDC, was protection.  Protect Yourself!  Wrestling coaches were told to stop the match if a student got cut.  They were given medical latex gloves to wipe blood off the wrestling mat.  Meanwhile, parents were reassured…yes…the family could safely share eating utensils.

Everything was spelled out by the CDC:  clean needles for drug users, latex gloves for classroom teachers, face masks for dentists.  Quit worrying about the mosquitoes.  Every area of life was managed for protecting the public from HIV…every area but one.   What is missing from this discussion?  Sex Logo Chalkboard

One can almost feel sorry for the CDC.  CDC  The sexual revolution had been in full swing for more than twenty years, reinforced with birth control, drugs and alcohol.  Sex was everywhere…because it was FREE.  Sex Gender Logos

Americans had grown used to their FREE SEX.  The CDC was caught in a social trap.  AIDS was clearly driven by sexual activity.  They could tell Americans to give up their free “right” to have sex with whomever and whenever.  Or they could…

Well, … options were slim.  One thing was certain.  We had an AIDS epidemic on our hands.AIDS Stop Hand  The CDC squinted its eyes and surveyed the American scene.  People expected them to do one thing…above all…Stop Aids.  How could the CDC stop AIDS without having to stop sex?

NEXT WEEK…CDC: DERELICTION of DUTY, Pt. 2

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Copyright 2004-2014. All Rights Reserved