Reagan Urged to Consider AIDS Information Mailing

The White House Domestic Policy Council has suggested that President Reagan consider a national mailing of information about AIDS to every household in America, The Times has learned.

Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, chairman of the council, said in a memo to Reagan: “The advantages of a national mailing are that it would increase our confidence that factual, accurate information reaches the widest possible audience and that our principles for educating about AIDS would be emphasized.

“The disadvantage is that some citizens may be critical of receiving unrequested material that may in their opinion contain objectionable information,” he wrote. A copy of the memo was obtained by The Times.

Support for Idea

While the council fell short of recommending such a mailing, which it estimated would cost between $10 million and $20 million, it raised the idea as one the Public Health Service supported as part of the federal government’s approach to educating the public about the fatal disease.

In the memo, Meese said that council members also discussed an alternative plan, under which public opinion would first be tested “to determine current public understanding about AIDS, and perhaps more important, to learn what people do not know that they should know about how to prevent the spread of the disease.”

He added: “A test would also assist in determining what mailing methods would best reach the high-risk populations.”

The April 29 memo, titled “AIDS in America,” also recommended establishment of a national advisory commission on AIDS, an action that the White House announced Monday.

Koop Report Too Long

A spokesman for the Public Health Service said that Dr. Robert E. Windom, assistant secretary of health, “thinks (a mailing) would be a good idea and wants to get input from other people.” He said that one early suggestion--that the AIDS report of Surgeon Gen. C. Everett Koop be used--was dropped, mainly because the report is too long for such a purpose.

Meese also urged in his memo that Reagan continue to speak out publicly on AIDS. The President, he said, could “reduce public tensions by giving the American people a clearer picture of what has been accomplished and what is being done to contain the spread of AIDS.”

Meese said that the council recommended that in future public statements, Reagan should emphasize additional points, such as “our determination to find a cure for AIDS” and the “uncertainty and potentially severe dimensions of the AIDS epidemic.”

Without elaborating, Meese also said that Reagan should emphasize “the protection of innocent victims from the disease” as well as “the need for individuals to take personal responsibility for their own preventive actions and those of their children.”

Fear of Giving Blood

Meese also urged the President to address “the need for public understanding and interest in learning about this disease” and “the importance of separating public health policies and politics.” He suggested that Reagan publicly encourage blood donations, which have fallen off sharply as a result of unfounded fears that AIDS could be contracted through the giving of blood.

AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is caused by a virus that destroys the body’s immune system, leaving it powerless against certain cancers and otherwise rare infections. It is commonly transmitted by anal and vaginal sexual intercourse and through the sharing of unsterilized hypodermic needles. Infected pregnant women can give AIDS to their unborn children.

In this country, AIDS primarily has afflicted homosexual and bisexual men, intravenous drug users and their sexual partners. As of Monday, known cases of the disease in the United States totaled 35,219, and 20,352 of the victims had died.

Federal health officials have estimated that about 1.5 million people in America are infected with the virus but have not yet shown symptoms.