Routine testing — solution or placebo?
Although public health officials reject mandatory
testing as counterproductive, state-level politicians
are enacting laws requiring it.
BY
MICHAEL
S.
REED
cross the country, the nation’s
political machines are trying to
deal with a situation that has finally
been perceived by the media to be a crisis
condition. One of the supposed solutions
arising in this latest wave of AIDS hysteria
is to legislate for mandatory AIDS testing
for marriage license applicants.
Mandatory AIDS testing, blandly
known as “ routine testing,” was rejected
as a viable solution to the problem by a
Centers for Disease Control conference in
late February. At that conference Public
Health officials from around the country
publicly rejected mandatory testing by a
resounding margin of 850 to 2.
In New York City, the deputy Commis
sioner of Health, Dr. Stephen Schultz said,
“ This is not a question of civil liberties as
opposed to public health. It won’t work
even as a public health measure.” Schultz
further predicted that routine testing would
“ drive people away” because those who
already considered themselves outcasts
would fear that the Government wanted to
“ find out who the bad people are.”
Ronald Bayer, a medical ethicist with
the Hastings Center said that “ such inter
ventions would be little more than social
placebos designed to reassure a frightened
people.”
A
But placebos are what politicians are
coming up with now. The Idaho State Se
nate recently passed a bill requiring all
marriage license applicants to be tested for
the virus that causes AIDS. Similar legis
lation is appearing in the Oregon and
Washington legislatures.
The Oregon Senate is currently review
ing a bill introduced by Senator Jan Wyers
(D.-Portland). Senate Bill 994 would re
quire a physician to certify whether an
applicant for a marriage license had any
sexually transmitted disease, including
AIDS.
Chuck Johnson, a legislative assistant
for Senator Wyers justified Senate Bill 994
in this way: “ The heterosexual population
is still not aware of the size of the problem
and we need to be more aware. I think that
testing in the heterosexual population will
raise people’s awareness.” He went on to
say that, “ If they’re a carrier of the virus,
they need to be made aware. If more people
know they have got it, that’s good — that
way they can try to stop spreading it.”
Johnson also suggested that the bill would
help to keep track of the number of cases in
Oregon.
One of the problems with Senate Bill
994 is that it makes no provisions for the
individual’s privacy. The test results are
given to the marriage license applicants,
but the bill apparently does not provide for
where that information is kept and what is
done with it.
This, unfortunately, is just another ex
ample of how the protection of an indi
vidual's privacy has become irrelevant in
this country. The New York Times reported
on February 23 that, according to the Inter
governmental Health Policy Project at
George Washington University, “ ai least
eight states already require that the names
of all people who test positive for the
AIDS virus be reported to health authori
ties. Such reports are now mandatory in
Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Minnesota,
Montana, Idaho, New Jersey, South
Carolina and Wisconsin.”
In the epidemic warfare, keeping track
of the numbers involved is important.
Keeping track of the names, however, just
makes it easier to track us down when yet
another placebo for mass hysteria is
needed. Senate Bill 994, although well-
intentioned and certainly not homophobic,
remains an ineffective and costly placebo
for a problem that requires solutions.
Solutions needed now are mandatory
safe-sex education programs in schools,
public service announcements and com
mercials that specify what safe-sex is and
how to practice it; and answers that deal
with the horrific medical costs that arise
from the disease.
We must begin planning now to take
care of the people who contract AIDS and
who are forced from their jobs, lose their
incomes or who simply cannot work any
longer— we must find ways of housing
and caring for the people who can no longer
afford the luxury of health insurance.
Currently established programs are not
sufficient and will soon become laughing
ly inadequate for dealing with the numbers
of people who will be dying from this
disease. Our politicians must face and
solve the immediate problems involved,
rather than look for placebos to alleviate
hysteria.
•
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