joanna
Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Wimpy half-measures! They should be shot, of course.
>
> Charles, sometimes your authoritarianism is scary.
>
> Doug
Wait. I don't get it. When AIDS first emerged and nothing was known about the mode of transmission...when all was known was that it mean instant death...what would have been wrong with quarantine?
Is there no such thing as a public health measure any more?
I mean if Cholera broke out on the next block, would you want those folks running around?
Joanna
^^^^^ CB: Not only that. I haven't done my full "Yoshie homework" on AIDS/HIV rates in Cuba compared to the U.S. ( one study I found is old from 1997, but it says the U.S. rate is 35 times that of Cuba).
So, isn't it likely that many, many gay men were saved from sickness and death by Cuba's quarantine ?!
What do Brian and Doug have to say about that ?
America's "freedom" = death and sickness for many gay men. Cuba's quarantine = life and health for many gay Cuban men.
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
less than 0.1% (2003 est.) HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
3,300 (2003 est.) HIV/AIDS - deaths:less than 200 (2003 est.)
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/cu.html
THE results of Cuba's program speak for themselves. In 1997, 45,000 people out of the 260-million American population will become infected with the AIDS virus, and so far over 362,000 Americans have died; Cuba, with an 11-million population, has since the start of the epidemic seen 1,681 infected. So far, 442 have died. Control for the population difference, and here is what you get: There have been 35 times more AIDS deaths per capita in the United States than in Cuba. (Of all Americans alive since the start of the epidemic, AIDS has killed 0.14 per cent of them; in Cuba, it has killed 0.004 per cent.) Compare Cuba to New York City, with its population of around 7.5 million: An estimated 128,700 New Yorkers live with AIDS or HIV, and 63,789 have died. Is very urban New York an unfair comparison? Take Ohio, a Midwestern, predominantly rural state with a population almost exactly the same size as Cuba's: an estimated 10,000 to 18,000 people are HIV positive (this is only an estimate because Ohio doesn't permit HIV reporting), and there have been 9,238 cases of AIDS. Illinois, also Cuba's size, estimates that 30,000 of its citizens are currently HIV-infected (Cuba: 1,239). It has had 19,507 AIDS cases (Cuba: 1,681) and counting. Look at it another way: In 1993 (the last year for which there are figures) the World Health Organization reported that the U.S. had 276 annual new cases of AIDS per million people. Puerto Rico, another Caribbean island but with one-third Cuba's population, had 654. Brazil was at 75.4, Mexico at 46, and Argentina at 48 per million. Cuba was at 7.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n18_v49/ai_19863133