“Gov’t ‘consistently misled’ Canadians about AIDS”

…So the Sault Ste Marie Star headlined a story last August 24, 1991, beginning a series prepared by a news team from the Hamilton Spectator.

The report as a whole confirmed what The Interim has been saying for the last five or six years. In itself AIDS is not a disease threatening the general population (though it eventually could be through promiscuity), and public health authorities have been distorting the facts about this.

Toronto Star

Two months later a similar set of articles appeared in the Toronto Star.

When Andrew Nikiforuk won an Atkinson Fellowship for the high quality of his magazine articles, he used the grant to study the AIDS situation in Canada. The result was a series of long articles published in theToronto Star between October 9, 1991.

“AIDS: How health campaigns have missed the mark,” the title he gave to the series, signals the main conclusion he came to.

Hamilton – Saul Ste. Marie series

The Hamilton Spectator articles were written by Wayne MacPhail and Paul Beneditti. Among other sources they used material provided by Toronto epidemiologist Eric Mintz, who also had an article published in the Globe and Mail (October 10, 1991, “Time to face the facts about AIDS”).

Dr. Mintz states that despite the impression created by public education campaigns, the average Canadian has as much chance of contracting AIDS as of dying in an air crash – about three in a million. Slogans like “AIDS is Everyone’s Disease” and “AIDS Does Not Discriminate” are downright lies.

“We’re coming to the point,” Dr. Mintz continues, “where you have people saying you can’t talk about Haitians getting more AIDS, you can’t talk about gays getting more AIDS. That would turn into a gay disease. I’m not turning it into anything. My job is to tell who’s at risk and why, for the purpose of allocating health resources in the most effective way to save as many lives as possible. The government is doing just the opposite.”

By analyzing various statistical sources, Mr. MacPhail and Mr. Beneditti show that AIDS in Canada remains almost exclusively in the original high-risk groups, particularly homosexual men. Cases among women remain concentrated among partners of drug users and those from high-risk countries, especially Haitians living in Quebec.

Women at risk?

A graph produced by the Ontario Ministry of Health shows cases among women rising at a 45-degree angle, from 26 in 1986 to 300 in 1989. On examination it proved that all the cases had been added together, leaving the impression that the numbers have been rising steadily. In actuality there were 97 reported cases in 1987, 88 in 1988, and 89 in 1989, so that the incidence is not rising at all.

There is a good reason for women not contracting HIV: unprotected anal intercourse poses a far greater risk of torn tissue with the virus getting into the bloodstream than does unprotected vaginal intercourse. This was pointed out several years ago by Michael Fumento, and it is proving to be accurate.

Government predictions

In 1986, Dr. Alastair Clayton, director of the Laboratory Center for Disease Control in Ottawa, predicted that there would be a total of 20,000 AIDS cases by 1990.

Jim Etherington, Vice-President of corporate affairs for London Life Insurance Company, said his company didn’t believe this projection. It relied instead on figures produced by Ian MacNeill, chairman of the Department of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences at the University of Western Ontario.

His prediction was 3,200 cases.

Between 1981 and the end of 1990 there were 4,193 reported cases. So Mr. MacNeill’s estimate was too low – by about a thousand. Mr. Clayton’s estimate was far too high – by nearly sixteen thousand. Mr. MacNeill thinks that the disease actually peaked in 1985.

Media scare tactics

In a separate story in the Sault Star, newspapers and other media were criticized for scaring people needlessly. They put all the frightening predictions into headlines, but gave little attention to corrections when they were needed.

For example, Anita Gordon, producer of the CBC’s Quirks and Quarks series, was responsible for a 1987 special which opened with, “We are in the middle of an AIDS epidemic.” She defends the predictions made at that time, and continues to believe that people need to be shaken into an awareness of how AIDS can spread.

Stephen Strauss, science writer for the Globe and Mail, on the other hand has consistently questioned the estimates. “One should have a real soft heart for the people that have the disease,” he says. “One should have a real hard mind for the public health officials and scientists.”

Jon Gates, coordinator of a coalition on AISD, said that when Europeans saw the Canadian prevention campaigns “they just laughed, because they saw them as so far away from the target groups.”

Contrary to the slogans, AIDS is highly discriminating.

The Nikiforuk articles

Writing in the Toronto Star, October 6-9, 1991, Andrew Nikiforuk demonstrates that politicians and bureaucrats have misused data and championed wild predictions. An epidemic which is ruthlessly specific, afflicting ‘gays’ and drug users, has been falsely transformed into a democratic affair, supported by such catch phrases as “AIDS Affects Everyone” and “No One is Immune to AIDS”.

So-called homophobia has played a role in this transformation. “We couldn’t talk about the needs of gay men,” says one medical officer, “so we applied the message to everyone. Maybe we have diluted the message too much and created a credibility problem.”

It’s the understatement of the year.

Youth and AIDS

At a recent Canadian Youth and AIDS Conference, Mr. Nikiforuk reports that speakers made alarming comments about 792 youths with AIDS. Yet no more than 200 had the disease at the time, even though ‘youth’ was conveniently defined as anyone under 30.

In fact, there have been only 20 reported cases of AIDS in the 15 to 19 age group since 1979, and most of these were hemophiliacs who contracted it from blood transfusions.

Across the country, medical officers report that the epidemic is waning. In Toronto, the number of infections dropped 25 per cent from 968 in 1989 to 688 in 1990 – exactly the pattern which has been seen in other developed countries.

When the disease was first identified, it was expected that in a matter of time it would spread like wildfire through normal (or, as it is called, the heterosexual) population; but this has not happened in North America.

The situation is different in Africa, and a team of Canadian researchers found out why: it is not easy for women to catch the virus through ordinary intercourse, except when they already have another sexually-transmitted disease, such as chancroid. The main carriers of the African epidemic are urban prostitutes and their male clients who have such infections.

In developed countries, the explosion among normal living people which the health authorities had forecast seems likely to remain a fable. “Authorities and experts have wrongly given Canadians the impression that AIDS is a universal health risk. Yet the epidemiological data illustrate again and again that the germ associated with AIDS is highly discriminating…it has never imperiled all Canadians equally. To say so is not just bad science but a lie,” Mr. Nikiforuk asserts.

Mr. Nikiforuk goes on to point out that placing the onus for change on the public, which is not responsible for health among the homosexual population, evades a life-and-death issue.

“Promiscuous sex incubated the epidemic, and promiscuous sex will sustain it for centuries to come unless the gay community re-examines the meaning of sex in its culture.”

Gay activists have tackled every contentious issue except the biological consequences of frequent sex with multiple partners, Mr. Nikiforuk states. The bathhouses are again doing a brisk business and younger homosexuals “are behaving like the me-generation of the 1970s, giving little or no thought to the fatal march of sexual microbes.”

‘Gay’ protests

In fact the strong reaction of some homosexuals against Mr. Nikiforuk’s articles showed that they still refuse to accept blame for the spread of AIDS: members of Queer Nation and AIDS Action Now protested outside the Toronto Star building and burned copies of the paper. “It’s struck a raw nerve with many people,” said one of their spokesmen, “because AIDS is certainly not restricted to the gay community and that’s what’s being implied.”

So they still object to the truth being told.

So does the Globe and Mail and no doubt, so will other media, including perhaps the newspapers which have published the reports. In an editorial on October 12, the Globe claimed that there is no evidence that AIDS awareness campaigns have terrorized heterosexuals.

On the contrary, the paper says, common-sense warnings about using condoms have spread understanding about the whole range of sexually-transmitted diseases, “to say nothing of preventing teenage pregnancies.” “If, in the process, Canadians have become more concerned about the disease,” the editors ask, “is that wrong?”

Hardness of heart

So the Globe forgets that lies are being told about the disease and faulty statistics are passed on as truth. And like many of the health authorities, it regards the condom as the solution for the social, moral, medical and psychological problems associated with the transmission of HIV – and so Canadians continue to live with lies.

The condom does not diminish either teenage pregnancies or abortions. On the contrary, as The Interim continues to reiterate, the contraceptive propaganda used with teenagers increases promiscuity, therefore pregnancies, therefore abortions.

As for the whole range of sexually-transmitted diseases, two of them have apparently reached epidemic proportions in our country – genital herpes and Chlamydia. The latter, says Mr. Nikiforuk, infects nearly a million women a year.

More condoms

Needless to say, the federal government, too, puts its faith in condoms. On October 30, Health Minister Benoit Bouchard, speaking before the parliamentary standing committee on AIDS, announced that condoms will be distributed to prison inmates.

The principal way in which AIDS is transmitted in Canada is through sodomy. Even setting aside the moral aspect, the only safe-sex message for prison inmates is not to engage in anal intercourse. But here is our government promoting it!

It has lost both its morals and its mind.

AIDS infection often hidden

Edmonton (FNIF) – The AIDS death toll continues to rise. Some suggest it could be because of a false sense of security.

Doctor Steven Genuis says it’s possible to receive negative HIV-test results and still have the deadly virus. “We don’t really know how many people may carry it for long periods of time, thus thinking they’re safe if they get tested, and who may be transmitting it on to others,” says the Alberta physician.

Dr. Genuis bases his facts on a study reported in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. It reported 100 people had the AIDS virus through experimental testing even though the usual HIV antibody test came up negative. The majority of those tested carried the virus for more than three years without turning positive.

Former homosexual Michael Tan, who is dying of AISD, says the only way to really protect yourself from the virus is to practice abstinence outside of marriage. Mr. Tan witnesses the devastation caused by the disease first-hand: “I’m living in this apartment but only people with HIV can life here. I can see people die every month – two or three people – and it is very sad, I tell you.”

Before acquiring AIDS, Mr. Tan says, he never really thought about his lifestyle putting him at risk.

AIDS Awareness campaign

Vancouver (FNIF) – Researchers have announced that most people’s chances of catching AIDS are about one in three million – less than the odds of dying in a commercial plane crash. Vancouver researcher Michael Rekart claims that only high-risk groups, such as homosexuals and hard drug users, are likely to catch the HIV virus.

Mr. Rekart says a sweeping media campaign has created some confusion and alarm among the general public. “AIDS is everyone’s disease doesn’t mean everyone’s going to get it,” says Rekart, quoting a now-familiar advertising phrase. “It’s a slogan that’s trying to get people’s attention.”

Yet the researcher does stress the importance of awareness about the deadly disease. “AIDS, unlike many other diseases,” stresses Rekart, “is fatal in almost every case.”

Ottawa epidemiologist Dr. Paul Gully agrees that groups like health care workers, homosexuals and needle drug users are at risk.