Proposition 64: AIDS Initiative

We are physicians in training at Alameda County’s Highland General Hospital. Many of our patients are in high-risk groups for AIDS or have the disease itself. We have seen young people suffer and die in increasing numbers from a disease we can not yet fight.

Because of our daily grappling with the problem of AIDS, we have been contemplating in disbelief and dismay the misleading text and unconstitutional implications of Proposition 64; easily the most dangerous initiative on this November’s ballot.

Proposition 64’s backers are trying to convince voters that quarantining and reporting Californians who have AIDS or who test positive for the AIDS antibody will help stop the spread of the disease. This has no basis in medical fact.

No one has ever gotten AIDS from casual contact with an infected person at work, at school, in a restaurant, or even in a hospital setting. Barring people who have AIDS or HTLV III antibody from their jobs won’t prevent even one new case; what it will do is transfer the financial burden of their medical care from job-related health insurance to taxpayer-supported care.

In addition, the proposition will cripple the AIDS research effort. If people are afraid they will lose their jobs or even be essentially imprisoned for admitting they have the disease, they are going to seek care much later in their illness and will be afraid to join in research studies that are necessary in finding a solution to this awful problem.

Proposition 64 will help spread the disease it means to control. We join all major California health organizations in urging everyone to register and vote against Proposition 64.

R. CARTER CLEMENTS MD

Oakland

Clements is president of the Highland Assn. of Interns and Residents.