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Are
you aware that the death rate from AIDS in California and
Illinois has plummeted
98.5% (b) and
93% (c) respectively 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 only $136
on each prostate disease sufferer, $144 on each patient with
Alzheimer’s disease and $48 on each diabetic versus
$3,084 on each AIDS patient (e). When one is aware that
prostate disease and Alzheimer’s kill 2 and 3 times,
respectively, more Americans than AIDS and diabetes kills more
than AIDS and breast cancer combined,(f) 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 almost every other disease except cancer and
cardiovascular disease. Although the above statistics involve
disease research, one cannot help but notice that at present
AIDS funding levels, in one more year one will be able to say,
“The total amount spent on all AIDS programs is
1/5th of a Trillion dollars (g).
“But AIDS is a pandemic and it deserves more funding!” AIDS
activists argue. The World Health Organization and UNAIDS report
that the AIDS infection rate is
less than 1% (h) in every country except in Sub-Saharan
African and the Caribbean. What do they need: more research
dollars? No, they need the exact same thing that has resulted in
the 98.5% and 93% decrease in California’s and Illinois’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 (i) – “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
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 will also
receive increased (j) 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 (k) 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://fairfoundation.org/states/illinois_AIDS_deaths.htm
d.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/nih.htm
e.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/factslinks.htm
f.
Op. cit. # e
g.
http://www.kff.org/hivaids/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=33622
h.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0800505.html
i.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/
j.
http://fairfoundation.org/factors.htm
k.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/thesixteen.htm
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