Subject: SF health chief again admits he lacks definitive data
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999 15:59:45 EDT

[Dear friends,

The day after Dr. Katz sent the following letter to the HIV prevention 
council the SF STD control branch issued a brief one page alert alleging an 
outbreak of syphilis among gay men cruising AOL chatrooms.  This July 28 
letter is part of the August HPPC co-chairs report and is now being sent to 
everyone on the HPPC mailing list.

Hmmmm.  The SF health director over the years boasts of lacking hard science 
behind his gay bathhouse prohibition and now the STD branch sounds a syphilis 
alarm without providing the gay community any definitive data validating the 
syphilis scare.

Is there any other minority community being singled out by public health 
officials for unrelenting warnings about their sex habits and alleged STD 
rates, either in SF or elsewhere in the nation?  Not that I can see.

Why are gays targeted by the SF health department for unending "research" and 
warning about our alleged increased STD rate, WHILE S.F. HETEROSEXUAL STD 
RATES HERE ARE MUCH HIGHER?  Why is Katz silent about the larger STD caseload 
among heterosexuals?  

If you think it's time for Katz and his colleagues to produce definitive 
data, hard independent scientific proof behind their anti-gay sex campaigns, 
then call him at 415-554-2600.  If you don't demand the definitive data, who 
will?
--MP]
------------------------------------------

July 28, 1999

HIV Prevention Planning Council
25 Van Ness Avenue, Fifth Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102

Dear HPPC Co-Chairs and Members:

Thank you for your letter advising me on the HIV Prevention Planning 
Council's (HPPC) stance on private spaces in public commerical sex 
enviroments.

First, I want to thank all HPPC members for their thoughtful, comprehensive 
discussion of this issue.  It is an issue that has very much divided the gay 
male community and raises strong feelings on both sides.  I appreciate the 
inclusiveness and depth of the discussion held by the HPPC.

Although I am grateful for the consultation provided by the HPPC, I do not 
intend to change the departmental policy that prohibits unmonitorable spaces 
in public commercial sex enviroments.  It is my belief that a change in our 
current policy would increase the number of HIV seroconversions in San 
Francisco.

I appreciate that there is no definitive data to support or refute my 
position.  It is not unusual in public health to lack definitive data.  In 
such cases, we must act in the way most likely to protect the public health.

Sincerely,
Mitchell H. Katz, MD
Director of Health
Phone: 415-554-2600