Mark Hyman: Fact-Distorting Slander Monkey

There was more Franco-phobia (remember "cheese-eating surrender monkeys"?) and Kerry Bashing in the latest “Point,” this time mixed with disinformation on one of the most deadly health risks on the planet.

Taking issue with recent criticism by Kofi Annan and Jacques Chirac of U.S. AIDS policy, Mark Hyman suggests the United States is doing heroic service by committing $15 billion to the fight against AIDS and mandating that all drugs purchased with U.S. funds are approved by the FDA.

There are some problems with this reasoning, however. First, the Bush administration has promised $15 billion over the next several years, but has done little to actually provide it. In fact, in his latest proposed budged, Bush only requests 2 billion, when at least 3 billion is needed to keep his promised funds on schedule. This is even more troubling when every dollar that is spent now can do many times the good of the same dollar spent five years from now. (See the Global Aids Alliance summary of the Bush policy statements vs. reality here.)

Second, as Hyman admits (although downplaying its significance), the Bush administration is holding much of the funding hostage to a promise of “abstinence” programs rather than condom use or treatment, in an overt play to religious conservatives in this country. The Counterpoint suggests that maybe the actual countries with the AIDS problems can best determine how to effectively use the money in their own particular situation, but apparently the Bush administration and Hyman feel Washington should dictate how the money is to be spent in order to score domestic political points. And all this time we thought conservatives were for local control rather than Washington bureaucracy! (See a copy of Human Rights Watch’s letter to Bush on this issue here.)

Lastly, Hyman makes a silly and baseless swipe at France, suggesting that the French disapprove of the Bush administration’s insistence that all drugs purchased for AIDS treatment be FDA approved because they want to profiteer by selling generic drugs produced in France. The exact opposite is the case. The generic drugs, approved by the World Health Organization, are produced in third-world countries. Mandating FDA approval not only dramatically slows down the rate at which these drugs reach those who desperately need them, but it virtually ensures that profits will be made by American and European drug makers. (See Foreign Policy in Focus’s article on the dangers of Bush’s policy, along with many helpful links, here.) Is it any coincidence that the Bush administration’s point man on AIDS is a former executive with giant pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly? The Counterpoint thinks not. Oh, by the way: guess who helped broker the landmark deal that would make inexpensive AIDS drugs available in Africa? None other than former president Bill Clinton, who as an ex-president has done more in the fight against global AIDS than has Bush as president.

And it wouldn’t be “The Point” without a gratuitous anti-Kerry slander. Hyman says that Kerry thinks we should “defer” to the U.N. and France on international issues. The source of this quotation? Hyman doesn’t provide one, because Kerry has never said such a thing, or anything even close to it. Kerry has simply said that we might be more effective as an international leader if we work with the U.N. and other nations rather than pulling out of international treaties and gallivanting around the world on our own without winning support from others. What treachery!

And that’s The Counterpoint.