Subject: SF DPH doctors Katz and McFarland to get pink slips
From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 01:04:48 EDT

[Dear friends,

I am sending this release out for ACT UP SF for one simple reason: Dr. Willi 
McFarland owes every gay male in San Francisco an explanation about his 
research allegedly showing HIV rates here have tripled.

As many of you know, I believe HIV is the cause of AIDS. For this reason 
alone, I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of ACT UP SF.

Of course, I will be there to cover this news conference on behalf of PIS, 
Petrelis's Information Service. In that capacity, I have informed McFarland 
in numerous voice mails over the past three weeks that I would be at his 
office one minute after the start of business the day he returned from his 
vacation abroad.

At 9:01 am I will be at McFarland's office at the SF DPH's AIDS Office fully 
expecting him to meet with me for one hour. See you there. --MP]

==========================

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 23, 2000

Contacts:
David Pasquarelli - (415) 637-4666
Ronnie Burk - (415) 626-8749

ACT UP SF To Hold Press Conference Condemning Bogus HIV Increase
-----
Pink slips of dismissal to be presented to DPH doctors Katz and McFarland

SAN FRANCISCO -- Members of the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP) will 
hold a press conference outside San Francisco's AIDS Office at 25 Van Ness 
Avenue on Monday, July 24 at 10:00 a.m. ACT UP activists are outraged over a 
locally manufactured and internationally promoted HIV rate increase concocted 
by University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) researcher and Department 
of Public Health (DPH) epidemiologist Willi McFarland to garner more AIDS 
funding for his institutions and The City.

Monday will be McFarland's first day back in the office since an alarming 
front-page San Francisco Chronicle story claimed on June 30 that "S.F. HIV 
Rate Surges" based on his study that employed an elaborate mathematical model 
to triple local HIV rates overnight. After commenting to The Chronicle that 
San Francisco was suddenly at "sub-Saharan African levels of HIV 
transmission," McFarland headed to the Durban AIDS conference and then spent 
two weeks on a fun-in-the-sun vacation while controversy over his bogus HIV 
increase erupted. Skeptical stories questioning the alleged S.F. HIV rate 
increase have now appeared in San Francisco's Bay Area Reporter, The New York 
Press, Los Angeles Frontiers, Boston's Bay Windows and on the Kaiser Family 
Foundation website. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle has censored all 
letters and op-ed pieces critical of their June 30 HIV scare story by Sabin 
Russell. According to gay journalist Andrew Sullivan, UCSF's and DPH's 
promotion of the HIV rate increase was "factually extremely misleading...the 
stories were almost universally bogus."

The HIV rate controversy has reached such a fevered pitch that on Monday, 
July 17 Board of Supervisor President Tom Ammiano called for a hearing on the 
matter in early August.

ACT UP members demand the immediate dismissal of both McFarland and DPH 
Director Mitch Katz for terrorizing San Francisco with HIV hysteria and for 
scapegoating the sexual behavior of gay men. They will present McFarland and 
Katz with "pink slips" terminating their jobs and will provide media 
representatives with packets of press reports about the HIV rate controversy.

"Gay men are sick of the DPH's statistical numbers game that blames us for an 
HIV increase that isn't even real," commented ACT UP SF member David 
Pasquarelli. "Katz and McFarland are bought-off AIDS industry hacks who get 
paid to protect industry profits not public health. It's time to fire these 
liars!"

=====

ACT UP San Francisco
1884 Market Street * San Francisco, CA 94102
Phone: (415) 864-6686 * Fax: (415) 864-6687 * Web: www.actupsf.com

================

Michael Petrelis
 <A HREF="http://www.aids-statistics.com/">Welcome to AIDS-STATISTICS</A>
www.AIDS-statistics.com 
2215-R Market Street, #413
San Francisco, CA 94114