From: MPetrelis@aol.com Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 01:04:48 EDT Subject: SF DPH doctors Katz and McFarland to get pink slips [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 Welcome to AIDS-STATISTICS www.AIDS-statistics.com 2215-R Market Street, #413 San Francisco, CA 94114