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Are
you aware that the death rate from AIDS in California’s and New
York’s newly infected patients has plummeted
97% (b) and
95% (c) yet AIDS still receives
10% (d) of the entire federal research budget? The bias
towards AIDS has resulted in gross differences in funding for
your diseases. For example, our government is spending $3,084 on
each AIDS patient in research versus only $5 (COPD), $25
(hepatitis C), $32 (hepatitis B), $40 (cardiovascular disease),
$56 (diabetes), $136 (prostate cancer), $144 (Alzheimer’s), $154
(Parkinson’s) and only pennies on orphan diseases (diseases
that are rare and have not been "adopted" by the pharmaceutical
industry).(e)
When one is made aware that there are sixteen diseases that kill
a million more Americans than AIDS every year one can only
shout, “That’s not FAIR!”
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The increase in funding
for AIDS since 1999 – just the increase – is greater than the
2005 budget for EVERY disease except cancer and CVD. Although
the above statistics involve disease research, one cannot help
but notice that at present AIDS funding levels, in two more
years one will be able to say, “The total amount spent on all
AIDS programs is
1/5th of a Trillion dollars (f).
“But AIDS is a pandemic and it deserves more funding!” AIDS
activists argue. What do they need: more research dollars? No,
they need the exact same thing that has resulted in the 97% and
95% decrease in California’s and New York’s AIDS deaths: namely,
the effective drugs that have been developed, prevention
education and harm reduction policies.
I
am a proud member of
The FAIR Foundation (g) – “FAIR” stands for "Fair
Allocations in Research." Along with myself, there are thousands
of others from Maine to Hawaii who are coming together through
the FAIR Foundation to alert America on the need for change in
our government’s research funding policies.
“FAIR” believes a disease’s mortality rate should be given
emphasis in determining allocations, and other secondary factors
should be utilized to insure diseases that cause great suffering
but have low mortality rates, like orphan diseases, will also
receive increased (h) dollars. Research funds should not be
allocated based on Hollywood popularity or political
correctness.
It
is now time to redirect funding to diseases that are more
deserving and currently receiving billions less than AIDS,
including the
sixteen (i) that kill over a million more Americans than
AIDS annually. Please endorse The FAIR Foundation’s efforts to
put an end to AIDS favoritism and recommend that all citizens
join them in demanding research funding that is fair and
equitable for all.
Do it now: Send this message to President Bush using the
“GO” button above and then JOIN The FAIR Foundation today (FREE)
at
http://www.fairfoundation.org/join.htm.
a.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/update.htm
b.
http://fairfoundation.org/quiz/quizanswer.htm
c.
http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/hivaids/aidsny_01/section17.pdf
d.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/nih.htm
e.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/factslinks.htm
f.
http://www.kff.org/hivaids/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=33622
g.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/
h.
http://fairfoundation.org/factors.htm
i.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/thesixteen.htm
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