The fine print at the bottom of the publication's cover is U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1988.
This story is now on the front page of FOXNews.
Referring to his "quarantine" statements in 1992, Mike says:
"My concern was safety first, political correctness last."
How about accuracy and proper understanding first? You were beyond being politically incorrect, you were flat wrong!Huck goes on:
"In the late 80’s and early 90’s we were still learning about the virus that causes AIDS. My concern, as a Senate candidate at the time, was to deal with the virus using the same public health protocols that medical science and public health professionals would use with any infectious disease," he said.
"Before a disease can be cured and contained we need to know exactly how and with near certainty what level of contact transmits the disease. There was still too much confusion about HIV transmission in those early years."
Whatever, Mike. That's absolutely false. By 1992, officials had figured out enough to know Mike's campaign statements were not based in fact. Who knows where he came up with them.
In fact, in 1988--four years before Mike's statements on the campaign trail--the U.S. government mailed 107 million copies of a booklet entitled, "Understanding AIDS," throughout the U.S.
Go here to view and read a copy. The booklet's cover is shown above.
I'm sure some of those ended up in Arkansas. Local public health officials, as well as scientists at state universities surely knew about the real transmission of HIV, risks, prevention, associated public health realities, etc.
Again, I repeat, the Surgeon General mailed out all those booklets to Americans in 1988--four years before Huckabee made his statements about gathering up people with AIDS and quarantining them.
I just finished reading almost all of the "Understanding AIDS" document. The document details the modes of transmission and provides preventive steps. Huckabee's suggestions (quarantine) were way out of line--even in 1992.
You can read a timeline of events here associated with discovery of HIV and relative events.
Further, professional basketball player Magic Johnson told the world, including Arkansas, he had HIV in 1991. People didn't think of locking up Magic. Didn't Huckabee watch TV in 1991?
The FOX story concludes:
"When Huckabee wrote his answers in 1992, it was common knowledge that AIDS could not be spread by casual contact."
Indeed. Uncommon to Mike, but common to everyone else.
2 comments:
The Politico AIDS story makes me want to weep as a Romney supporter: distract from the huge story about Huckabee's chronically bad judgment about criminals that even resulted in two women being raped and killed and replace that with the storyline that basically says "Huckabee has Christian view of homosexuality". Next they go on the offense against Huckabee so as to seemingly make sure that all Christians feel under attack for their moral beliefs. Now, just when Huckabee's pattern of horrible judgment comes to light and is becoming impressed upon voters, the press tries to undo that by making conservatives empathize with him and perhaps vote for him to spite those attacking him/them. Nixon once said never ever forget the Silent Majority. They make up the bulk of the country, hold conservative values, and are listening...
This story needs to be killed. Now.
P.S. I know your post is bringing up his bad judgment, but I worry that any story about Huck and AIDS can only remind people that Huck is being attacked mostly because of his Christian views.
Anon,
This story says nothing about Huck's views of homosexuality. AIDS is not just a homosexual problem. Saying the story attacks Mike's view on homosexuality just because he was comically incorrect medically about AIDS is skipping a step in logic. And frankly, if your implication is right (Huck's quarantine on AIDS was really because he wanted to quarantine gays) I think it's a much bigger problem.
In any case, certainly his problem w/releasing hundreds of felons is a bigger deal and that's the story to hammer home. But I think this site has had more stories on that this week than any other site. I see this story is a little more evidence that Huck's near-crazy world view would be dangerous in the White House.
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