may 1.1998 * Jaast out ^3
S halala S huffle
Health and Human Services admits under pressure that needle
exchange w orks, but federal funding is not forthcoming by Bob
W
ith one hand, the Clinton
administration officially lift
ed the ban on federal fund
ing of needle exchange pro
grams, which aim to reduce
the spread of HIV. W ith the other hand, how
ever, officials withheld funding from such pro
grams.
Secretary of Health and Human Services
Donna Shalala surrounded herself with the sur
geon general and the directors of the federal
National Institutes of Health and the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention at an April
20 Washington, D.C., news conference address
ing needle exchange.
During the briefing she said the programs
were “life-saving” interventions that require a
“careful local design.” (Literally dozens of stud
ies have concluded that needle exchange pro-
Roehr
charged James Loyce Jr., executive director of
A ID S Project Los Angeles. “This egregious dis
regard for science and public health may sacri
fice the lives of 33 Americans who will be
infected by dirty needles each day on the altar of
political expediency.”
Sean Strub, founder and executive editor of
POZ magazine, added, “The fact is, virtually
every infant bom with HIV and most of the
women who have acquired HIV in recent years
can credit Bill C linton and Donna Shalala with
their illnesses. This was a litmus test issue. If
[Shalala] truly recognized the science and the
efficacy of these programs, she should have been
willing to resign over it or go public in favor of
federal funding.”
T he negative feedback didn’t end there.
Longtime Clinton backer U .S. Rep. Nancy
Pelosi, a California Democrat, said, “It defies
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Donna Shalala
R. Scott Hitt
grams can lead to a reduction in the rate of HIV
transmission.)
But, she added, “We will not release federal
funds at this point.”
Shalala did not explain how federal funding
and local design were incompatible.
Reaction to Shalala’s pronouncement was
swift.
“It is unconscionable that the administration
acknowledges that needle exchange programs
work and save lives, then turn their backs on
people who are in need,” said Daniel Zingale,
executive director of the A ID S Action Council.
“At best this is hypocrisy, at worst its a lie,”
charged R. S co tt Hitt, chairm an o f the
Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.
“And no matter what, it’s immoral.”
T he council issued a statement redoubling its
call for federal funding of needle exchange pro
grams as part of a comprehensive program of
reducing new HIV infections. T he statement
called Shalala’s action “akin to refusing to throw
a life preserver to a drowning person.” It also
urged Clinton to “check his moral compass and
then take bold action.”
H. Alexander Robinson, a W ashington
A ID S lobbyist and chair of the PACHA com
mittee on prevention, said, “O nce again this
administration has managed to do something
that satisfies no one.”
“Shalala abdicated her responsibility to pro
tect the health of United States citizens today,”
logic to determine a program’s efficacy and then
not fund the program, especially in the middle
o f an epidemic. The administration’s decision
shows a lack of political will in the midst of a
public health emergency.”
Winnie Stachelberg, political director of the
Human Rights Campaign, said the decision
“validated the politics of the Family Research
Council, which wishes to play politics with peo
ple’s lives.”
Even opponents of needle exchange were
displeased.
Republican Sen. John Ashcroft of Missouri
blasted Shalala’s half measure as “an intolerable
message that it’s time to accept drug use as a way
o f life.”
He is running for the G O P presidential nom
ination and is thought by many to be the
favorite of the Christian right wing.
A statement released in late April by U.S.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said
federal funding of needle exchange “would in
reality use tax dollars and the authority of the
federal government to push drug paraphernalia
into already drug-ravaged inner cities. This is
reckless and irresponsible.”
Meanwhile, U .S. Sen. Paul Coverdell, a
Georgia Republican, introduced a bill that
would prevent the secretary from ever lifting the
ban— an action that has the full backing of the
Family Research Council.
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