The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Tom:

I suppose this marks me as being antediluvian, but I still feel people who engage in risky behavior and get sick should be lower in priority than people who have had nothing to do with their illness.

In the zero sum game of who gets treated, we are in effect involved in triage. More money sent on AIDS research means less money spent on diabetes, for instance, and more people dying of that.

If looking at a sexual situation beforehand and not getting involved when the odds are against you equates to being anti-sex, I plead guilty. However, I would suggest that such behavior involves a survival trait. As I was once told, if you stick your pecker in a pencil sharpener, you can't complain about being whittled. Think of wearing seatbelts and motorcyclists wearing helmets.

A few notes

The amount of money spent on medical research over the past few years (in constant dollars) has remained about the same. We have a zero-sum game where money spent on one disease is not spent on another.

I would prefer money spent on AIDS research be spent on things like diabetes, asthma, sickle cell, and spinal cord injuries. After all the persiflage, the fact remains that the preponderant majority of people with AIDS got it because of some voluntary action they took.
I can't see that people ln the 70's (or now) who engaged in unprotected sex in a community where STDs were epidemic on the basis that they can cure anything I catch were not engaging in risky behavior.

As to ascribing my attitude to hostility toward homosexuals, I can only say that I was around then, and felt exactly the same way about Plato's Retreat and "your place or my place".

Anone who blames the spread of AIDS on lack of publicity by the government should read "And The Band Played On ". If you pay attention, you will find that with all the publicity by both the gay and straight communities, unprotected sex is stil quite common in the gay communlity, and infection rates remain relatively high.

As to Teresa's thought that I lack sympathy because I do not know about serious diseases, I have a particularly unpleasant progressive degenerative disease for which there is no cure, and am quite familiar with the situation AIDS patients are in.
As to Patrick's comment, I did NOT say that all AIDS patients are in their situation because of their own behavior. However, I think it arguable that the majority of them are, and that this should put them rather further down the line for research than those with, for instance, congenital diseases.
I should also point out that I have had a number of friends who have died from AIDS, Hep C, etc. While I have mourned their loss, I had to realize, as they did, that they were in holes they dug themselves. Most of them admitted that their behavior was really careless, and that they put themselves where they were.

I hope I didn't pass on my germs on Sunday while I imparted my bad puns. It turns out that I went to Friendly Neighborhood Physician this week and found I have had pneumonia for the past few weeks.

Be well; I don't have that many audiences who know about serendipity.

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