Diary Prequel Package — page 19

well. If you have a few moments, please take a look below. Do you have answers for my questions? Feelings about these issues? I welcome responses......Hey, I'm a reporter: I ask questions and hope to get thoughtful answers. Thanks very very much for your time and thoughtful attention. Laurie Garrett lgarrett@newsday.com *************************************************************** Gregg, Did you see Newsday's editorial two days ago? Total support for your position regarding treatment access. Last night I was in a screaming match with a doc who does work in South Africa. An American. He actually said, "I don't give a fuck about microbicides! I don't give a fuck about prevention! Fuck all you public health assholes! This is about what is morally right --- treating. Fuck everything else! Bitch!" Unbelievable. It is absolutely amazing to me that the classic Public Health v Organized Medicine dichotomy has so deeply divided the AIDS community all of a sudden. Correction: the do-gooder community of Westerners. I haven't heard many African voices chiming in on this one. Why the hell is there any dichotomy? Haven't we learned anything from all the mistakes made with TB, drug resistant bacteria, vaccine campaigns......? Jesus! I have never seen a moment so desperately in need of leadership. Somebody needs ---- IMMEDIATELY --- to call an emergency scientific meeting, with a very very focused agenda, super-fast. We need: - Assessment of the validity of the Harvard model. And of other HAART treatment models. With emphasis on AFRICAN reactions and desires to said model (and not just five African academics who have been collaborating with Americans or Europeans for years. REAL people, who toil in thankless jobs in horrible clinics all over the continent.) - Assessment of the questionable validity of a few assumptions in that report, including: - HAART is a public health measure because is lowers transmissability (oh really? ALL studies of the matter at the Human Retrovirus meeting showed that there was no clear correlation between blood viral load and semen or