European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 31, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Wednesday july 31, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 13commentary James j. Kilpatrick or. Hysteria Over aids needs a dose of reason Asye sow says the Good Book so shall be reap. Aids activists Learned the truth of that Maxim last week when the Senate voted 81-18 to create a new Federal crime. Senators have been scared silly. So have we All. Under an amendment to an appropriations Bill doctors and dentists who carry the his virus that causes the deadly disease must advise their patients of their condition before performing any a invasive failure to do so would subject the health professionals to 10 years in prison and a Fine of $10,000. The doctors understandably Are furious but the Senate a vote is also understandable. I would have voted for the amendment myself. Who wants an aids infected surgeon who kicks himself Over an incision not i. Not anyone. We Are told by statisticians that since 1981, Only five aids deaths Are believed to have resulted from transmission of the virus from doctor to patient. Lightning strikes More often. But aids activists have generated fears beyond their wildest dreams. The publicity has panicked Congress into Vot my More than $2 billion this year for aids prevention treatment and research. Last week a Panicky Senate voted for this draconian Bill. Looking Back Over a Long life of covering Public affairs i cannot recall anything quite like the mushrooming concern Oyer acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Fears of poliomyelitis in the 1930s cannot Well be compared. Perhaps precedent could be cited from the Days of sen. Joe Mccarthy when a fear of communists swept the nation into Ai frenzy of fear and detestation. It is not a bad analogy. In those Days communists were viewed As ideological typhoid marys carrying a virus that could jeopardize National Security and infect our Public institutions. Fri director j. Edgar Hoover stirred passions to critical mass. Congress passed Laws. It was a wildly irrational time. The aids establishment if so it May be termed has succeeded too Well in arousing fears that Are at once grimly real and largely imaginary. Activists have marched lobbied and conducted dramatic demonstrations on the mall. In san Francisco zealots shouted Down health Secretary Louis Sullivan when he attempted to defend the governments program of aids assistance. Nothing has satisfied the activists who have demanded More and More and More from Congress. You would think that aids was the leading killer of All time. The uproar is deafening it drowns out the facts. Between 1981 and june 1991, when roughly 116,000 people were dying of aids roughly 7 million were dying of heart disease and 4 million were dying of cancer. The National centers for disease control in Atlanta estimate that 42,000 people May die of aids this year. About the same number will die in accidents on the highways. By definition aids is an a epidemic a that is a sudden and widely prevalent eruption of a contagious disease. Al though the number of new cases appears to be leveling off an estimated 1 million people carry the his virus. Of these about 5 percent or 6 percent will be recorded annually As new cases of aids. Eventually it is assumed All of the 1 million will die of aids. But eventually All of us will die of something anyhow. In the juror raised by activists death by aids has taken on an Aura of its own. It is As if death by aids were something special deserving a larger level of compassion than we feel for death by cystic fibrosis or leukaemia. Why so to be sure when an innocent child Dies of aids we Are deeply moved. The Case of Kimberly Bergalis who contracted aids from her dentist touched the nation. As for the rest i done to know. The centers for disease control estimate that 59 percent of aids cases result from male homosexual relations which is to say from sodomy. Drug addicts count for 22 percent through the use of contaminated Needles. An additional 13 percent involve heterosexual relations with infected addicts or homosexuals. Six percent Are classed As a House committee last year described the epidemic As a no less a National disaster than a Hurricane or earthquake a but this is bunk. This is no National crisis. Aids is a serious and expensive problem in Public health brought on largely by people who did it to themselves. If doctors will pledge to abide by new safety guidelines recommended by the cd that should suffice. The Senate amendment could be scrubbed. Those doctors who offend fatally will not be excused. Manslaughter is still part of the Law of the land. C Universal press Syndicate Steven Komaro television has t made Senate any less Dull five years ago Senate traditionalists feared the invasion of television cameras in their hallowed Hall would cause colleagues to showboat for the mass audience. In the words of former sen. Russell Long of Louisiana this would Foster a speeches that fail to improve on television supporters hoped that the Public Eye of a Span would Force members to tighten their prose and provide a better forum for presenting issues to the nation. Some dreamed it would help the Senate shake Loose from its molasses like Pace. But they were both wrong. The Senate has overcome television much As it has overcome almost every attempt to change it Over the years. Its just As Poky. The speeches Haven to improved. Senators have checked their mirrors and tightened their ties but not their prose. The fear of Boring a to audience has had no Impact at All a there Are still Long sometimes hours Long periods of dead time when literally nothing happens. And people seem to like it that Way. Sen. Daniel k. Inouye a Hawaii voted against allowing television cameras in the Senate five years ago. But he would vote for it now. A a in be changed my mind a he said. A it seems to be working Well and is not its a conduit to Dis Tant constituents and if some colleague hot dogs once in a while a whether or not you have to coverage senators will always play to the gallery a the stoical lawmaker said through a spokesman. A the More i watch it the less i worry about that. These Guys Arentt playing to the cameras they re playing to each other a said a longtime democratic aide who thought cameras were a bad idea. A study conducted during a spans initial trial period in 1986 showed Little change from the off Cam Era Senate except for More speeches unrelated to the legislation of the Day. Even that seems to have levelled off. A they thought it was going to radically change the Way the Senate did business a recalled Ray Strother a democratic Media guru who worked for Long during the great debates Over television. A it seems to me that after five years that it Hasni to had a tremendous amount of Impact except opening government up to a Small amount of people who Are a Span 2, the Senate Channel was born seven years after the House Channel and still trails the older one in availability. The House can be seen in 54 million households compared with 24.5 million for the Senate. The actual audience at any one time is of course Only a fraction of that. But there Are Many devotees. A almost always when i travel around the country people come up to me and say they watch the Senate on a Span a said Senate majority Leader George j. Mitchell a Maine. Mitchell said what viewers see happening or not happening is an accurate portrayal of the Senate which dares to be Dull. A a it a difficult to get business done in the Senate hut that has More to do with the rules of the Senate than. Television a he said. Strother said the senators might look better on television if the cameras were positioned Down in the chamber instead of High above them. But that might also make the camera snore intrusive. A pc spans idea was to be kind of a Birds Eye View pc a pc Span does a Good Job of by far the most avid viewers of Senate television Are the senators and their staffs who Monitor the floor from their offices instead of loitering near the chamber to keep track of developments. A a it a a great efficiency Quot Strother said. A maybe they should be Able to Cut some staff you can count on that being another change that wont occur because of television. C the associated press of the proceedings. An Eye in the sky a he said and
