TV Reviews : Frustrating Episodes of ‘AIDS Quarterly’

“Tales of Frustration” might be the umbrella title for two of the segments--the third was unavailable for review--of the latest “The AIDS Quarterly” (tonight at 8, Channels 28, 50, 15 and 24).

A San Francisco immunologist, Alan Levin, with the encouragement of AIDS activist Martin Delaney, made a leap into the ethical void last year when he decided to test the powerful drug Compound-Q on volunteer patients with advanced cases of AIDS. A big problem, besides the fact that the drug was still being tested by the Food and Drug Administration and therefore not yet approved for use, was not knowing when a dosage level became fatally toxic.

Two of the first three volunteers died within months of taking Compound-Q, leaving Levin in an ethical gray area. The report pictures him in a dilemma: On one side is Delaney, imploring him to continue testing what may eventually be “the magic bullet” for the virus; on the other side is the FDA, ordering him to stop the unauthorized testing. This is the other, continuing Drug War, putting doctors in the trenches.

“Money and Morals,” an unusually hard hitting segment for the generally soft “AIDS Quarterly,” shows how three states dole out AIDS education money, distributed federally via the Centers for Disease Control. It indirectly raises questions about how Christian some “Christians” are.

After the passage of Sen. Jesse Helms’ (R-N.C.) bill preventing federal funds from directly supporting gay activist organizations, the Centers for Disease Control became a money conduit for the states, which then decide which educational organizations are funded.

Well-funded efforts in Florida have a fraction of the effect of privately funded, grass-roots projects. In Colorado, a hi-tech, Big Brother approach tracks down AIDS carriers and partners with such intimidation that it may be driving people with AIDS underground. North Carolina’s Christian right stopped all education funding to community-based groups in 1988 because of material some ministers and politicians deemed as “obscene.” North Carolina activist David Jones laments on-camera: “We gave AIDS a headstart in this state.” Frustrating.