Bush’s Response to AIDS Called ‘Inadequate’

Government spending on AIDS research is almost adequate, but the Bush Administration has devoted far too little effort to AIDS prevention and care for AIDS victims, the chairwoman of the National AIDS Commission said.

“People are literally dying in the streets,” said Dr. June Osborn, chairwoman of the panel that was appointed to be the government’s conscience for the epidemic that already has claimed more than 152,000 American lives.

“This is going to get very, very big,” Osborn said. “It seems big now, but you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

A Democratic appointee to the commission, Osborn said she has tried to keep herself and the panel away from partisan politics. She recently declined a request that she make a campaign appearance with Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton.

But the commission, which is set to go out of business next fall, has kept itself in the public eye, often scolding the government for failing to do more or act faster. The centerpiece of its work was a 1991 report listing 30 recommendations for dealing with the epidemic.

Many of the recommendations involved making health care available and affordable, establishing a national plan for handling AIDS and promoting AIDS education.

In the nine months after they issued the recommendations, members of the commission met with President Bush and Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, urging them to take action. Finally they issued a statement calling the Administration’s response “woefully inadequate.” They said that Bush and Sullivan had failed in critical areas of leadership, including the development of a national plan and support for health care.

The only area in which Osborn says the government’s efforts are close to adequate is research, where the Administration has asked for about $1.2 billion.