May 04, 2006

THE HIV WATCHERS

is the title of an interesting, issue-raising article in last week's Village Voice by Aina Hunter, which can still be found on the Voice's site at VILLAGEVOICE

To summarize with a few quotes from the article, AIDS activists aren't pleased with the Department of Health's draft of a bill which would change the way New York "handles the medical records of people with HIV/AIDS." The new bill would also "simplify the process health care providers must follow before testing for HIV." Chanting "Our bodies, our lives, train the doctors, nix the spies!", 40 representatives of advocacy groups including GMHC and the New York Civil Liberties Union marched out of the community forum to indicate their disgust with the provisions in Dpt of Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden's new bill.

""Nix the spies" was a reference to one of the most contentious proposed changes to the state's public-health law. As it stands, health care providers are required to report the names of people with an HIV/AIDS diagnosis to the health department, along with medical data such as patients' current viral load. Frieden would like to take that section of the law a step further with an amendment that would require health care workers to provide additional information to the health department on request, including patient contact information.

The other controversial change would eliminate mandatory pre-test counseling, which, in New York, includes a signed consent form that also enumerates the benefits of getting tested and the legal protections available to fight possible discrimination. Every blood sample sent to a lab must be accompanied by this form, and medical professionals call the paperwork burdensome. If Frieden's bill becomes law, informed oral consent would be enough to permit testing."

Health officials who support the bill claim that it would enable clinics to perform more tests in less time (because of the reduced counselling involved in the new bill) and hopefully destigmatize the test so that people would be less afraid to take it. I just went to a new doctor who strongly encouraged me to take the test and when I told him I would flip out waiting for the results, he even offered me a few Xanax to calm me while waiting on the results. He did NOT offer the information that my test results would be forwarded to health officials if my results were positive. Inclusion of my status and contact information woud STIGMATIZE the test for me. Thanks, to this article, I now know to take only anonymous AIDS tests. Does anyone know where the anonymous tests are offered? I'm just DYING to know!

"Everyone may not need to get counseled every time he or she is tested, and some advocates agree that it makes sense to let hospitals and clinics set their own policies. Still, there's something unsettling about the thought of health department officials dropping by your house to find out why you haven't been taking your meds."

Well, there's also something unsettling about dying from AIDS, because you may be--as this article claims are two common causes of failure to maintain the complicated regimen of meds--mentally ill or in unstable-housing. Or, the article failed to mention, a party boy or girl whose "party meds" dictate their schedules more than AIDS meds do. Shouldn't these people be helped? Is knocking at their door a way of helping them stay alive? I'm so scattered right now due to allergy season that I sometimes can't remember to even take my Claritin. Can you imagine how hard it would be to follow a complicated regimen of protease inhibitors if I were homeless or mentally ill? (OK, OK so you don't have to imagine the mentally ill part in my case.)

The $20,000 question is Do you trust the government with knowing your HIV status? Once your info is on file, what would happen if NY government took as crazy a turn as the government in White House has? I certainly don't want to see concentration camps for the HIV positive, but might the government be trying to take steps to halt an epidemic of an often fatal illness? Am I being naive in thinking that a health department might actually have sincere motives in slowing the disease's progress? But Frieden's motives are already under fire in light of his recent funding cuts to outer-borough outreach programs. Then again, I don't know what budgetary constraints he's under from his superiors. There are major AIDS-funding cuts nationwide.

Frieden should not have, as Kacie Winsor from the New York AIDS Coalition put it, "drawn this up with lawyers in a room somewhere and then staged these community forums as window dressing." Kacie goes on: "There needs to be an honest partnership. Let us all sit down and figure out the best ways to reach these goals." Absolutely agreed. But Kacie also feels that Frieden no longer cares about HIV testees' confidentiality because it's no longer a gay white male's disease. This seems outlandish to me. Since AIDS is the # 1 killer of young adult black women, It hasn't been only a gay white male's disease for well over a decade, so why would this begin to start influencing policy now? The government may view gay white males and blacks and AIDS victims all as second-class citizens, but if (ha!)) that's the case, why would it shift it's policy to favor one second-class group's confidentiality over another?

It wouldn't be the first time I'd disgreed with the advocacy groups, but it certainly is scary to envision one the forum's
audience members who claimed, "One day you'll have the HIV people on the Internet, just like you have the criminals now." And you'll recall the recent news about the Candian guy who went on a killing spree of ex sex-offenders whom he'd located on the net.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think you should start running for public office or start a movement (insert bowel joke here) so you can get your dukes up and start really fighting some of these battles you are so empassioned by.

And also do a song parody medley changing popular song titles to address these issues.

For example with this particular posting you could possibly use that goldy oldy "I'm A Girl Watcher" but change the lyrics to, that's right, "I'm A AIDS Watcher" only it doesn't rhyme so very good but a sassy savvy thing like you could savage it up real quick with a divvy of this and a little dab-ndash o' that

1:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your description is perfectly accurate.

There are forces out there which have grown in the last 8 years, of AIDS´s practicaly forced invisibility, and are now improving their methods of genocidal elimination:

-Eliminate second-class discriminated "anomalies", wait as much as possible until they´re forced to stop the pandemic, (because the damage is so great by then - but we haven´t reach that point yet, not even close...). (Infected individuals, non-arian races, poor, glbt, etc).

-Resolve overpopulation issues in third world. Wait to be called for "help and reconstruction" and REcolonize, and suck their natural resources. Allow extermination to occur to as much a extent as possible.

-Expand the empire with the excuse of "globalization" clean up everything and everyone that does not feet the "cleanliness/religious factor"

Yes I know,.. there goes another over-reacting freak... just look at the facts. 45million infected + about 25 million dead = 70 MILLION infected (they never use this number, they only show the current infected, because it appears as if the pandemic wasn´t growing)... number games...

You have seen how governments react in front of terrorism, mad cow disease, or that fraud- the chiken flu........ billions, responses, infraestructures, farmaceuticals, deployments...yet the largest pandemic in history only is spoken about on December 1 - AIDS day, and here and there....

I wonder what would the response be if the 1.5-3 million HIV infected+dead people, had been casualties of the avian flu or a terrorist attack....

And in theory all of the expense and effort of the Iraqui and Afganistan wars started because of aprox 3000 americans dead.......

How come there´s not, at least, a similar response in resources, funds, genetic research, etc? 1-2-3 MILLION AMERICANS vs. 3000......

When there is will there are results. There is no will. You figure it out.

They tried the concentrations camps argument over a decade a go, but it wasn´t possible then, now they´re preparing the way, a step at a time, while society sleeps.

Thank you for trumpeting the news LadyBunny, people must movilize the world is not what it used to be in the 80´s & 90´s, a new game is on and people just want to ignore it and think of fun, fun, fun while it ain´t even fucking fun anymore and your friends, family, lover, children are diying. Just dedicate one day to be aware and active. Fun everysingle day becomes montonous and boring.

Where is the true Human Rights USA today? That is where the USA stood, where its magnificence came from the will of rights, its people, its laws were a breath of fresh air to the world. And who made that happen where the Americans themselves, NOT their corporations or governments, THE KEY LIES IN THE PEOPLE : IF THE PEOPLE SLEEP or are UNINVOLVED : The institutions/Corporations are infiltrated and dominated by other interestes, other than THE PEOPLE.

Maybe a little grey...I know, but deep in the bottom, once you peel away all the layers of confusion and bullshit, this is the mindset of mighty powerful groups out there.

So again, Thanks for the blog - IT IS MIGHTY IMPORTANT.

1:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your description is perfectly accurate.

There are forces out there which have grown in the last 8 years, of AIDS´s practicaly forced invisibility, and are now improving their methods of genocidal elimination:

-Eliminate second-class discriminated "anomalies", wait as much as possible until they´re forced to stop the pandemic, (because the damage is so great by then - but we haven´t reach that point yet, not even close...). (Infected individuals, non-arian races, poor, glbt, etc).

-Resolve overpopulation issues in third world. Wait to be called for "help and reconstruction" and REcolonize, and suck their natural resources. Allow extermination to occur to as much a extent as possible.

-Expand the empire with the excuse of "globalization" clean up everything and everyone that does not feet the "cleanliness/religious factor"

Yes I know,.. there goes another over-reacting freak... just look at the facts. 45million infected + about 25 million dead = 70 MILLION infected (they never use this number, they only show the current infected, because it appears as if the pandemic wasn´t growing)... number games...

You have seen how governments react in front of terrorism, mad cow disease, or that fraud- the chiken flu........ billions, responses, infraestructures, farmaceuticals, deployments...yet the largest pandemic in history only is spoken about on December 1 - AIDS day, and here and there....

I wonder what would the response be if the 1.5-3 million HIV infected+dead people, had been casualties of the avian flu or a terrorist attack....

And in theory all of the expense and effort of the Iraqui and Afganistan wars started because of aprox 3000 americans dead.......

How come there´s not, at least, a similar response in resources, funds, genetic research, etc? 1-2-3 MILLION AMERICANS vs. 3000......

When there is will there are results. There is no will. You figure it out.

They tried the concentrations camps argument over a decade a go, but it wasn´t possible then, now they´re preparing the way, a step at a time, while society sleeps.

Thank you for trumpeting the news LadyBunny, people must movilize the world is not what it used to be in the 80´s & 90´s, a new game is on and people just want to ignore it and think of fun, fun, fun while it ain´t even fucking fun anymore and your friends, family, lover, children are diying. Just dedicate one day to be aware and active. Fun everysingle day becomes montonous and boring.

Where is the true Human Rights USA today? That is where the USA stood, where its magnificence came from the will of rights, its people, its laws were a breath of fresh air to the world. And who made that happen where the Americans themselves, NOT their corporations or governments, THE KEY LIES IN THE PEOPLE : IF THE PEOPLE SLEEP or are UNINVOLVED : The institutions/Corporations are infiltrated and dominated by other interestes, other than THE PEOPLE.

Maybe a little grey...I know, but deep in the bottom, once you peel away all the layers of confusion and bullshit, this is the mindset of mighty powerful groups out there.

So again, Thanks for the blog - IT IS MIGHTY IMPORTANT.

1:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

wow. i'm scared shitless! THANK YOU, BUNNY.
i didn't hear a word about this until now.

3:37 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

wow. i'm scared shitless! THANK YOU, BUNNY.
i didn't hear a word about this until now.

3:38 AM  
Blogger Lady Bunny said...

I used to never read the Voice (except for Musto's column) because it's so alarmist and conspiracy theory-oriented that it made me wanna slash my wrists. But nowadays I'm a lot more inlined to believe conspiracies. --Lady Bunny (aka Karl Rove)

6:20 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

FYI--in NYC, anonymous testing is ONLY available at city-run health clinics. Most other testing sites (community-based organizations, doctors offices, etc.) are only able to provide confidential testing. The main difference is that a person going in for an anonymous test is given a number whereas for a confidential test s/he has to give a name. Any name will usually do. For example, you can go in and say "I'm Catherine Deneuve" and you won't be asked to prove it (though it helps if you say it like in Tobell's song).

HIV-positive results get reported to the state Department of Health going back a few years. AIDS diagnoses have been reported to the state for a long time. They have a pretty outstanding record of protecting the confidentiality of people living with AIDS, at least in NY. They're actually OPPOSED to the changes in the law that Frieden is suggesting. A lot of folks don't want to start tinkering with the confidentiality laws out of fear that a lot of the protections we've taken for granted will begin to be eroded.

2:39 PM  
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7:54 PM  

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