[speaker001:] have you any thoughts
[speaker002:] well you called here so
[speaker001:] okay well um I'll tell you I am uh uh impressed with the uh uh amount of spending that's occurred so far as as far as AIDS research and I think that uh proportionately maybe uh so far it's been enough it seems like it seems like uh but there's not uh been any money taken away from uh other necessary medical research uh uh subjects uh you know and and allocated towards the AIDS research I think that AIDS research has been a a a lot of the funding has not been done by the government a lot of it has been done by private endowment uh but I think the government is doing a good job so far of keeping the uh their portion of the funding up
[speaker002:] well I um I agree to an extent um I think the problem is is that we're spending money and one of the things that the government likes to do when they're under public pressure is to throw money at the problem
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] in an attempt to try and solve it as quickly as possible and they did that with the Pentagon in the eighties and when you have a lot of money in your budget and you don't wanna have it cut back you spend it even if it means throwing it away
[speaker001:] um-hum right
[speaker002:] and I think that while we need to spend more effort and money on things like education and maybe even alternative treatments and alternative experiments things to keep those afflicted alive at this point
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] I think that any money that is given must be given carefully just to something that is a proven point not just thrown at it
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] um I I don't see that the money is being removed from any other causes um AIDS has been a problem though especially in the eighties when there wasn't a lot of private dollars around because of the stigma of the disease
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and that people really didn't groups didn't wanna be associated with it because it was a morals issue
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] I think we're finally getting over that I thought that was ridiculous reading and hearing about that kind of moral dilemma stuff but I think that it we need to spend a lot more on education and try and get over this thing that we have about not confronting this head on with some factual advertising for items of condoms and things like that that
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] will help prevent the uh disease as well as instilling the notion that the best way not to get it is not to involve yourselves in unsafe practices in the first place
[speaker001:] exactly um it although I was uh I I was shocked at the public um uh outrage uh that occurred after after I uh think it was Dan Quayle who said um you know who suggested that maybe maybe we you know maybe that is a a possible and and uh uh likely most effective solution is you know abstinence and and yet the a large portion of the community said well that's stupid you know that just shows that you have no interest in in in spending any money on the on the problem and I thought that that that that that's not that's not the point at all
[speaker002:] well the the problem is that with this administration at least when they say abstinence they often couch that in other things that turn into one of these morals issues which uh makes it turn into a political issue now you see the problem is you have people in the National Institutes of Health in Atlanta and the like the Centers for Disease Control which
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] have fundamentalists in charge of the thing who won't even let you say condom in a meeting
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and these things have been spread around and immediately immediately people think well abstinence okay here we have these religious zealots telling us where they're trying to ignore the problem blah blah blah and of course they overreact when you say that the fact that it's just good medical safe practice you know don't expose yourself in the first place
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] but the it's because the the the you know this administration was around when Reagan when the disease first was discovered here and all the social you know implications of the Reagan administration ignoring it when it first became an issue and
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] see that's all carrying over now
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and that's why you're seeing that
[speaker001:] okay that that makes a little bit of sense uh I I hadn't I was not aware that that was uh such a a within the NIH that uh that was that much uh
[speaker002:] yeah there is because what happened is a lot of these people and staff members are political appointees
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] from the south especially who come along with a variety of different religious beliefs some of which held very fervent beliefs and will take their beliefs into the workplace in and in this case a lot of people consider that to be standing in the way of science and medicine to try and solve this thing
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] but I I don't like throwing money at the problem uh because