Major Politicians Are Reluctant to Forcefully Address the AIDS Crisis (1988)

involved in the AIDS crisis have also spoken out. Two years ago, the National Academy of Sciences called the government's response to the epidemic dangerously inadequate and called for more presidential leadership. Although the president's critics claim his response was too late and too little, President Reagan did become more outspoken. (Reagan) Our battle against AIDS has been like an emergency room operation. We've thrown everything we have into it. We've declared AIDS public health enemy number one. (Mulligan) But the battle against AIDS has become more than raising funds and doing research. As the president hinted, it is loaded with social issues. (Reagan) But let's be honest with ourselves. AIDS information cannot be what some call value neutral. After all, when it comes to preventing AIDS, don't medicine and morality teach the same lessons. (Mulligan) The president appointed a commission to search for answers to how to deal with AIDS. But members soon found themselves mired in several social and moral controversies, including how to warn or educate the public.

Who should be tested for the AIDS virus? And who should find out the results of those tests? The commission recommended federal laws to prevent discrimination against those infected, proposals the administration ignored, but which were endorsed by the medical establishment. George Bush found out when he spoke to scientists at a World Health Organization conference last year that some AIDS issues, particularly testing, could mean political trouble. (George Bush) Ultimately, we must protect those who do not have the disease. And thus we made the decision that there must be more testing. And as the President said last night, the federal government will soon require testing for prisoners, immigrants, and aliens seeking permanent residence. Free speech. That's what it's all about. (new speaker, PSA) Unsafe behavior is unsafe behavior. The issue of education has its political pitfalls as well. Public service announcements reflect a policy to encourage the use of condoms.

(PSA) Condoms can be most effective when they use correctly, and there is a right way and a wrong way to using one. (Mulligan) Conservatives, however, object, saying messages like that encourage premarital sex. Despite the political risks, some members of the medical establishment, like Dr. Lawrence White, President of the California Medical Association, say politicians and sex educators must speak out bluntly to prevent spread of the disease. (Dr. Lawrence White) Reagan says abstain. I think we've never succeeded in convincing anyone to abstain from sex. We're not going to now. We can't make sex safe, you can just make it less dangerous. And condoms are one way of doing it. But the best way of doing it is to make sure who you're having sex with. We ought to tell kids when they're eight, nine, and ten years old to stay out of rectums. We talk sort of gingerly about sexual intercourse. We ought to talk using words that kids understand. (Mulligan) But politically, the candidates have shied away from such talk. And instead, speak in generalities about education.

(Governor Dukakis) And of all the things we can do at the present time, broad public education done cooperatively, done sensibly, done thoughtfully, done with an understanding of where our resources will do the most good, is the most important thing we can do. (Mulligan) Dukakis did initiate a major education program in Massachusetts, and his wife visited an AIDS treatment center in San Francisco. Actions that activists, like San Francisco's Cleve Jones, say they hope are clues to how he will act if elected president. (Cleve Jones) Governor Dukakis, I think in Massachusetts, has at least made an effort to make the resources available. The trouble now is that we're not hearing anything current from either of these candidates.