The FAIR Foundation is dedicated to fair and equitable distributions of Nation Institutes of Health (NIH) research funds for all diseases, including the sixteen that kill more Americans than AIDS.

Debate Invitation for Ms. Sharon Stone Submitted to Ms. Stone's
Commercial Agent, Sharon Sellars, of ICM Talent

From: The FAIR Foundation [mailto:fair@dc.rr.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 11:34 AM
To: Karen Sellars (ksellars@icmtalent.com), Commercial Agent for Sharon Stone
Subject: Debate Invitation for Ms. Sharon Stone

Dear Ms. Sellars,

I am the President and CEO of a national organization, the FAIR Foundation, that includes thousands of members in all fifty States calling on our government to recognize the great success of the HIV/AIDS community, including those such as amfAR and Ms. Sharon Stone that has resulted in AIDS deaths plummeting in the USA as evidenced by a 97 percent decrease in California’s newly infected HIV/AIDS patient deaths. Correspondingly, we are calling for a cessation in the research funding favoritism for HIV/AIDS versus all non-AIDS illnesses.

Our twenty-eight member Board of Directors, including eminent physicians, dentists, pharmacist, and disease advocates point out that ten percent of all federal research funding still goes to one illness—HIV/AIDS—to the detriment of non-AIDS illnesses. For example, $3,040 is spent on each HIV/AIDS patient versus $37 on each patient with cardiovascular disease and $50 on each diabetic even though diabetes kills more Americans than AIDS and breast cancer combined.

Our April Newsletter profiled Ms. Stone and includes various discussions critical of amfAR and Ms. Stone’s statements and continuing favoritism for HIV/AIDS. Indeed, with cardiovascular disease killing almost a million Americans versus 15,798 for HIV/AIDS, we continue to be perplexed and dismayed by her favoritism in soliciting for HIV research funding as Chairman of amfAR’s Campaign for AIDS Research.

I am writing to invite Ms. Stone to debate me on the need for such disproportionate funding for HIV/AIDS over all non-AIDS illnesses. If you and Ms. Stone investigate my public responses to critics, you will find me to be very professional and respectful of those with differing opinions and I am hopeful Ms. Stone will debate me, be it on a national television news show or in a more localized setting—for example, in a college auditorium, at the San Francisco’s Bohemian Club, or any other location she prefers that is open to the public for such educational discussion.

Thank you for passing this invitation on to Ms. Stone and I look forward to her response.

With great respect for Ms. Stone’s efforts for HIV/AIDS patients, I am,

Richard Darling, DDS

Dr. Richard Darling, DDS: National Public Citizen of the Year (NASW-03)
President and CEO: The FAIR Foundation, a national movement to reverse inequities in research funding distributions by the National Institutes of Health
Founder: The Coachella Valley Hepatitis C, Liver Disease & Transplant Support Group
Board of Directors: United Organ Transplant Association
Author: Coma Life, an autobiographical memoir of life "within" coma and survival over hepatitis C induced liver cancer, three liver transplants, heart attack, diabetes
Address: 78629 Bougainvillea Drive, Palm Desert, CA 92211

Disease	2007 NIH Research $$	Deaths Per Disease 2004	$$ Per Patient Death	$$ Per Patient
AIDS	2.9 Billion	15,798 (a)	$ 182,807	$ 3,040
Parkinson’s Dis.	232 Million	17,898 (f)	$ 12,403	$ 148
Alzheimer’s Dis.	645 Million	63,343 (d)	$ 10,182	$ 143
Prostate Cancer	373 Million	29,578 (e)	$ 12,474	$ 133
Diabetes	1.05 Billion	73,965 (c)	$ 14,236	$ 50
Cardiovascular Dis.	2.35 Billion	930,000 (b)	$ 2,523	$ 37
Hepatitis B	33 Million	5,000 (h)	$ 6,600	$ 32
Hepatitis C	122 Million	12,000 (g)	$ 10,166	$ 25
COPD *	63 Million	126,128 (i)	$ 499	$ 5
West Nile Virus	42 Million	116 (j)	$362,068	$ 14,242

** COPD = Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Statistics based on information from the CDC & NIH See: http://www.fairfoundation.org/update.htm
NIH Orphan Drug Allocation of $1.2 Billion for 6000 diseases equals only $200,000, on average, for research on each disease.
Fourteen million Americans have impaired vision. The NIH is spending 702 million on "eye disease and disorders of vision" research, which is only $50 per patient.
FAIR Foundation membership is at http://www.fairfoundation.org/join.htm (free)