AIDS research must put people before profits!

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Gay activist arrested in San Francisco during protest of federal Jobs Corps policy requiring mandatory AIDS testing 16 SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1987 "We must begin to see AIDS as the greatest natural tragedy in human history," says Harvard biologist Stephen Jay Gould.

By the time science finds a cure for AIDS, Gould warns, it may already have run its course through the world's population, killing a quarter of us. Over one billion people could lose their lives.

Some health officials estimate that there are now 1.5 million to 4 million people nationwide infected with the AIDS virus. Of these, at least two-thirds will actually develop AIDS and, in all likelihood, die. Meanwhile the testing of new drugs for AIDS proceeds at a snail's pace.

The one drug which researchers say holds the most hope for asymptomatic people-that is, people who carry the AIDS virus but are still healthy-is AZT, also known by the brand name Retrovir.

Extremely toxic in high doses, AZT in lower doses in healthy AIDS carriers may be able to hold the virus dormant without causing side effects. But AZT today is still reserved for those who are considered terminally ill with AIDS or AIDS-related complex (ARC). Researchers say widespread use of AZT is at least three years away.

Drug companies reap profits In the last six months, at least half a dozen drug companies have held press conferences to announce they were "seeking PDA permission to do clinical studies" on the effectiveness of certain drugs against AIDS. Besides raising false hopes among AIDS victims, these press conferences accomplish nothing except to raise the price of the company's stock.

Last fall at the first national conference on AIDS and profits, it was stated, "An effective vaccine would bring $1.6 billion back to the maker—and we aren't even talking about the heterosexual population."

The real race among the drug corporations then is not so much to simply find a quick, one-time cure for AIDS. If all AIDS victims could be cured so quickly and easily, there would no longer be a market for future AIDS products.

Where the real money will be made, the big profit, is when researchers discover a drug that must be taken not once but continually-once a day or once a week-for the patient's lifetime. It would be a life-prolonging therapy rather than a curative therapy.

Only then will there be a guaranteed steady market for such products. AZT, for instance, is expected to cost $10,000 per year per patient—making it the most expensive prescription drug in history. As it stands now, it's "very likely," scientists say, that an infected person will have to stay on the drug for life.

Withhold insurance coverage In the United States, caring for an AIDS patient typically costs about $35,000 a year or $70,000 from first diagnosis to death. Thus, most patients become paupers. According to federal authorities, about 40 percent of all AIDS patients will have neither the means nor insurance to pay for their treatment.

Benjamin Schatz, an attorney and founder of National Gay Rights Advocates, says he has received hundreds of calls from insurance policy holders who charge that they are unable to get their AIDS claims paid. Insurance companies will look for any loophole to avoid payment, often focusing on any signs of an illness that could be labeled a "preexisting condition" of AIDS.

Insurance companies that refuse to pay on claims are "betting that people will die before they have a chance to litigate," Schatz says. "The lifespan of an AIDS patient is shorter than the life of a lawsuit."

According to a recent survey cited by The Wall Street Journal, a majority of the 26 largest health- and life-insurance companies make use of questionable or even illegal methods to deny coverage to "potential" AIDS victims.

The insurance industry often refuses to write policies for single men and for men designating male friends as beneficiaries. Whole neighborhoods with large gay populations are "redlined."

About half of all insurance companies try to require AIDS antibody tests for individual health and life policies-at times defying the law, which prohibits the practice in most states. Confirmation of a positive test usually means they will deny coverage.

In a recent survey by the American Council of Life Insurers and the Health Insurance Association of America, 91 percent of companies said they consider an AIDS-infected applicant "uninsurable" at any price.

Benjamin Schatz points out that AIDS antibody tests risk a breach of confidentiality that can cost insurance applicants their jobs and homes.

According to the Village Voice, the Justice Department has sought to allow employers to fire workers with AIDS or the AIDS virus. Presumably, the government and employers could attempt to subpoena the results of AIDS antibody tests in order to victimize gays and militant workers.

Mandatory testing urged

Surgeon General C. Everett Koop has stated that mandatory testing for AIDS would only hinder the task of educating the public. People who might test positive would be driven underground.

But despite Koop's opinion, several government agencies-backed by President Reagan—-are already moving toward mandatory testing. Immigration officials have said they are considering adoption of AIDS testing for about 3.9 million "illegal aliens" applying for amnesty as well as for all future immigrants to the United States.

The Department of Labor, which Boston Socialist Action P.O. Box 1046 GMF Boston, MA 02205 (617) 391-7087 Chicago Socialist Action P.O. Box 267848 Chicago, IL 60626 Cincinnati Socialist P.O. Box 37029 Cincinnati, OH 45222 (513) 272-2596 loveland Socialist Actior P.O. Box 6151 Cleveland, OH 44101 (216) 429-2167 The Sentinel/Thomas Alleman Detroit Socialist P.O. Box 19613 Detroit, MI 48219 Grand Rapids Socialist Action P.O. Box 3505 Grand Rapids, MI 49501 Los Angolos Socialist P.O. Box 60605 Terminal Annex Los Angeles, CA 90060 (213) 250-4608 Minneapolis Socialist P.O. Box 14087 Dinkeytown Station Minneapolis, MN 55414 oversees the Job Corps program, has implemented a mandatory testing policy for its minority youth residents. Thirty states are considering mandatory testing in order to get a marriage license. Utah has already passed a law prohibiting anyone with AIDS from getting married.

More and more businesses are beginning to make an AIDS blood test part of the requirements for employment. But these policies ignore the findings of medical researchers which have revealed that existing methods are not accurate enough to justify widespread screening programs.

Writing in the journal "Law, Medicine, and Health Care," researchers at Harvard University reported last month that the most widely used AIDS test produces about two false negatives and 220 false positives for every 100,000 low-risk people tested. Such inaccuracy could falsely reassure highrisk people, the researchers pointed out, and actually increase the spread of the virus.

The zeal for mandatory AIDS testing far exceeds the campaign for sex education in our schools. Education Secretary William Bennett, for example, argues that only abstinence from sexual activity should be taught in schools. Bennett's policy will serve to keep young people-and the public in general-uninformed and therefore highly vulnerable to AIDS infection.

"Biggest moneymaker ever"

Wall Street, as usual, has put the whole AIDS issue into proper perspective: "If proposals to give AIDS tests to all pregnant women and everyone being admitted to a hospital or applying for a marriage license are enacted, the market for tests...could more than double," analysts said.

Genetic Systems Corporation of Seattle has said "the market for AIDS testing alone is worth $100 million a year." The AIDS test could be its biggest moneymaker ever, company executives announced.

Such is the tragedy of the AIDS epidemic. AIDS victims are unable to afford over-priced medical treatments. At the same time they are unable to get any health or life insurance. They have been left at the mercy of a system that places corporate profits before human needs.

The drive for mandatory AIDS testing must be halted while information on safe sex and AIDS is dispersed in our schools and throughout the general community.

The billions of tax dollars this government squanders on a military arsenal that is capable of destroying our world hundreds of times over must be re-routed and put into AIDS research, education, and free medical care. These basic human needs are our right.

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