High-Tech Junkies & High-Tech Pushers

Liam Scheff is on the case of the High-Tech Junkies (frightened and/or cocky AIDS patients) and the High-Tech Pushers (NY TImes, NIH, Big Pharma).

The Goal: Give toxic drugs to healthy  people to prevent AIDS. In the process, make a lotta $$ doing it. To do this, ya gotta hose some serious fear on the public.

Lemme back up a bit. I do remember the Big Apple under Mayor John Lindsay from decades past.

Still gotta lotta cousins/uncles/nephews/nieces who live there.

The dark, underbelly of New York -- 40 years ago: strung out, dishelved Junkies --- when high on horse, passive, agreeable, solitary.  When in need of a fix -- aggresive, confrontational, potentially violent.

These were the JUNKIES. Sadly, most were folks of color. We were told to avoid these folks.

In contrast, there were sharp-dressed, alert, charismatic, hard folks who made a livin' dealin' the junk. They didn't use, they dealt.  Some got rich and violent, some got shot in turf wars. They preyed on the weak or the naive. These were the PUSHERS.

Fast-forward 40 years to the current AIDS farrago.

We have a new class of JUNKIES and PUSHERS. The junkies are educated, but idiotic gay folk, like Andrew Sullivan. He really, really, really likes polypharmacopia -- ie, he loves dem drugs. Civilized, mind you. Supported by the science (allegedly), manufactured by respectable companies (Merck, Abbot), dispensed by local, respectful pharmacies. (Longs, Walgreens, CVC).

Andrew Sullivan, conservative, gay HIV-positive pundit, liked the idea, and wrote on his blog: “Why not put all HIV-negative men on a simple anti-retroviral regimen as a prophylaxis, rather than as a treatment?… My own view is that gay men, if the studies pan out, could and perhaps should embark on a proactive campaign to get as many sexually active men as possible on meds.

In short, he's a High-Tech JUNKIE.

Of course, the folks making the big $$ smile with delight as lapdog cheerleaders like 'ole Sully get the crowds in line. Gilead Sciences gets to sell a whole lotta Tenofovir (Viread), a nucleoside analogue, which means "phony DNA." The NY Times gets to publish its hysteria from its esteemed perch -- and the priests of science at the NIH get to double their funding, while they watch it all unfold below amongst us mere mortals.

They are the the High-Tech PUSHERS.

Of course, forgotten, is that these AIDS drugs kill you. Don' t believe me? Read the Reisler paper in JAIDS.

Shakespeare would have a lotta fun with this epic tragedy ----- or is it a comedy?

Comments

[Starbird]

This is an interesting perspective you have.

I think, for years, like most folks, I simply feared the virus due to all the news reports (Rock Hudson, Magic Johnson, Ryan White), was glad I never got it, and never worried too much about the medicines.

You sort of reverse this -- the virus is not as deadly as claimed, the drugs are much more lethal than asserted.

Interesting. I will have to think about this.

[Dan]

"Shakespeare would have a lotta fun with this epic tragedy ----- or is it a comedy?"

It would be a comedy, if it weren't so tragic. It just shows the lengths we're willing to go as far as "HIV" is concerned.

It just blows me away!!! We're going to get people on these drugs who aren't even officially "positive". How far will this madness go? It seems as though we'll all do ANYTHING but take a good look at how this thing ("AIDS") is constructed.

This whole AIDS-pharma bedpartner thing started with ACTUP. EVEN THEN, when I didn't know what was going on, I couldn't grasp getting in bed with the pharmaceutical companies. It was so apparent to me that the folks at ACTUP were giving away their power and responsibility and laying it at the feet of the drug companies. We're still living with that legacy, obviously.

[Schwartz]

Dan,

This really isn't my battle, but I think crotchedy old Hank might be on to something here.

I am reminded of that old phrase: 'if you go thru life as a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail'

The new version is, 'if you sell lots of medications, everything begins to look like an illness'

I do see a lot more ads on T.V. for the Viagra, Ambien, and the ubiquitous "purple pill."

But, again, I'm not one to storm the Bastille on this topic.

[Dan]

"The new version is, 'if you sell lots of medications, everything begins to look like an illness'"

I agree. It looks like drugs are created (or recycled) first, then a medical condition is found for them afterwards.

[Lawstud6]

Well now, thanks to modern medicine, we can now supress the immune system to the point where someone can actually come down with AIDS without contracting HIV. America, what a country.