Former Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin used to
select what he deemed to be the biggest waste of money regarding a project in
Congress, and he would then point it out and it would headline the six o’clock
news. Let me take this opportunity to
borrow his stage for a moment. The
headline in a local newspaper last month stated, and I quote “AIDS Diagnosis
Changes Victims’ Behavior, Study Says.”
Did we really need a study to determine that? What would you think, your gut reaction; someone hears they have
AIDS, do you think it changes their behavior or not? Did we need a government study?
This study, which was done in Atlanta, and was done by the Centers for
Disease Control and prevention involved 180 people in Alabama, New Jersey, and
Tennessee. Ninety percent of those interviewed
over two years, 1997 and 1998, indicated that after they learned they were HIV
positive, they changed their sexual behavior.
A large majority indicated that they used condoms more frequently and/or
had sex less frequently. Is there a
surprise here? Let me see now, a person
learns he is HIV positive, does he become more sexually responsible or less
so? We do hear horror stories of people
who learn they are infected and then go out and attempt to infect others, but
that is always pointed out as the exception to the rule. The rule, of course, is the logical one: the
person learns he is HIV positive; the last thing in the world he wants is to
give it to somebody else, so he becomes more sexually protective.
In order to tie a ribbon on this study, Patricia
Sweney, a CDC epidemiologist concluded, “We generally found that once people
that are infected know their status, they do adopt safer behaviors. It has tremendous public health implications.” So, in other words, it took two years to
interview 180 people and from these interviews, they learned that when you are
diagnosed with HIV, you become more sexually responsible.
Former Senator Proxmire used to find out what these
studies cost so he could point to the incredible waste. I have been unable to determine the cost of
this study, and perhaps it is just as well.
It might be depressing to learn how much money could have been spent
towards HIV research or cancer research or heart research or something more
productive than confirming an obvious truism.
To me this is the equivalent of studying whether or not two plus two
equals four and making a pronouncement when one finds that it does. What a waste of money.