AIDS Panel Says Education Push Could Cut Spread
WASHINGTON — The government could cut the spread of the AIDS virus in half with a serious prevention campaign, the National AIDS Commission said Tuesday.
The commission, which goes out of business in about three weeks, took its last shots at the George Bush Administration and Congress, complaining that politics and ideology had interfered with an effective AIDS education effort.
“The many decisions that have limited the contributions of the behavioral and social sciences to fighting AIDS have resulted in more HIV infections than should have occurred,” the report said. “Continuation of this situation is morally indefensible.”
The Bush Administration did have a public education campaign on AIDS, but it was often criticized for trying so hard to be inoffensive that its message was lost.
Congress also was blamed for substituting its own judgment for that of scientists in deciding how the government should spend its research money. As a result, marginal research sometimes gets money and worthy research gets cut off, the report said.
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