Subject: ACT UP to Clinton: "Show me the money"
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 13:15:54 -0400 (EDT)

ACT UP to Clinton: 
Show me the Money!
National goal writes off the lives of millions already infected

for immediate release    May 17, 1997
contact Steve Michael at 202.547.0854

AIDS activists with ACT UP Washington derided President Clinton's latest "I
feel you pain' announcement for a vaccine to prevent new AIDS infections as
an empty public relations ploy with no funding attached.  Clinton, who
promised back in his 1992 campaign an all-out research effort to find a cure
for AIDS based on the Manhattan Project, has come under fire from AIDS
activists for offering only lip-service on his promises to combat the AIDS
epidemic.  
Cure for AIDS abandoned!
Vaccines that that stop the progression of the disease, therapeutic vaccines,
and the notion of an AIDS cure have been abandoned by Clinton in favor of
preventive vaccines.  "This President have just written off the lives of
those of us already infected,he is abandoning efforts to find an AIDS cure, "
states ACT UP Washington spokesperson Steve Michael, who is HIV positive.
 More than two million Americans are currently infected with HIV, and AIDS
has become America's leading killer among people between the ages of 25-44.  
Apollo Project for a Cure!!!
States ACT UP New York member Ann Northrop, "This is utter nonsense. It's a
smokescreen.  Scientists have told us for years that a preventative vaccine
is virtually impossible.  If Clinton is serious about helping people with
AIDS and  preventing new infections  he should launch an Apollo Project for a
Cure and he should release federal funds for needle exchange."  Northrop was
also the vice-presidential candidate of the AIDS Cure Party in 1996.
Bill Clinton has shuffled a couple a dozen employees in his phoney war on
AIDS" 

"Great American presidents have mobilized resources in times of national
crisis.  Bill Clinton has shuffled a couple a dozen employees in his phoney
war on AIDS" states Wayne Turner, spokesperson with ACT UP Washington.  

Adds Steve Michael, "We can't even get protease inhibitors to people with
AIDS in DC.  How are we ever going to be able to deliver a vaccine
world-wide.  How are we going to save the lives of those already infected?"

AIDS activists have long demanded a coordinated AIDS research effort to
develop an AIDS cure.  Yet there is no coordination among researchers within
the agencies at the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health
and Human Services and the Department of Defense, University research
centers, and the private sectors.  

Notes Michael,  "This is nothing more than another 'unfunded mandate.'  It
takes money to hire researchers and build new labs."

Clinton-era increases do not match the increase in caseload---they don't even
match AIDS funding increases in the Bush years. 

Concludes Michael, "Clinton claims increases in US AIDS spending.  Facts
prove him wrong.  Clinton-era increases do not match the increase in
caseload---they don't even match AIDS funding increases in the Bush years.
This president is still playing politics with our lives.  He invokes the
image of President Kennedy's bold initiative to land a man on the moon, yet
refuses to back up his plan with real coordination or money."

Michael was the presidential candidate of the AIDS Cure Party in 1996.
 During that election Michael and Northrop ran a series of television
commercials including one that focused on the need for an Apollo-style
Project to Cure AIDS.  The ads challenged Clinton to declare war on AIDS.

ACT UP Washington will be updating this early release with a more detailed
study later in the day.

for on-camera interviews call ACT UP Washington at 202.547.0854.  Our offices
are located at 409 H Street, NE (four blocks away from Union Station)