U.S. Funding, Policy on AIDS
Your editorial (July 15) is correct in urging more money to combat AIDS, but I believe it places the wrong emphasis on how to more effectively use it--namely education.
Is there anybody over the age of 12 who does not know what causes AIDS? Sixty-four percent of the Camp Fire boys and girls in a survey said the current level of education is insufficient, but apparently nobody polled them to see how much they do know about it.
The problem lies in the “it can’t happen to me” attitude. How many drug addicts will not use a dirty drug needle to satisfy a craving? How many couples in the throes of passion will stop to go buy condoms (which may also be unsafe)? Particularly when the odds of getting AIDS apparently are about the same as dying in an automobile accident.
The bottom line is that no amount of education is going to stamp out AIDS. The only way to do it is to find a cure and that is where our effort and resources should be directed. We should find a major effort in AIDS research as if our survival depended on it. And indeed it may.
HOWARD R. BARNES
Corona
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