Subject: Sources Say
From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 12:54:24 EDT

July 31, 2000

Sources Say
by Michael Petrelis

What was supposed to be an intimate meeting between Cynthia Laird and Terry 
Beswick, the editor and a reporter from the Bay Area Reporter, and Mitch 
Katz, MD, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, along 
with Thomas Coates, director of the UCSF AIDS programs, turned into an ambush 
of the BAR.

On Friday, July 21 the BAR folks showed up for the one hour meeting in Katz's 
office to discover not only Katz and Coates sitting at the table, but several 
uninvited people from UCSF's AIDS divisions. Namely, Jeff Sheehy, Mike 
Shriver, Ellen Goldstein, Steve Morin. Also present was Dr. Sandra Schwarcz, 
AIDS epidemiologist for The City.

Sources say the meeting was tense as the participants discussed the recent 
allegations by DPH and UCSF that the HIV transmission rate in San Francisco 
has tripled. "It was clear the health officials were suffering from 'bunker 
mentality,'" my source said. Showing yet again why Laird's nose for news is 
clogged up, not a word about the meeting appeared in last week's BAR.

   *   *   *

Gay president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Tom Ammiano, has 
quietly announced he will hold a hearing in the Finance and Labor Committee 
on Wednesday, August 9 at City Hall to consider the alleged HIV increases. 

Confirmed speakers include Katz, Coates and Dr. Willi McFarland, the DPH and 
UCSF researcher who concocted the new HIV numbers. City Hall sources say 
Ammiano does not want lots of attention for the hearing since he thinks the 
community needs a cooling off after all the heat recently about the alleged 
surge of HIV.

Too bad the issue here does not involve left handed Lithuanian hockey players 
of hefty weight being demonized and targeted by health authorities. If it 
did, you can be sure Ammiano would have held a hearing sooner and pounded the 
drums to get attention for the hockey players.

So far, Ammiano has not put out a release about the August 9 hearing.

   *   *   *

Sources in Washington, DC report the federal AIDS public policy analyst for 
the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Ernest Hopkins, was royally mad over the 
House debate on July 25 over reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act.

Among the items brought up during debate was the AIDS Foundation's $55,000 
political donation to the No on Knight campaign to defeat a California ballot 
initiative banning same-sex marriages. No one outside of the foundation is 
sure exactly how the contribution qualifies as AIDS care or prevention.

Hopkins furiously worked the phones doing damage control over the donation. 
He tried convincing legislators that the foundation handles its millions in 
federal AIDS dollars responsibly. Hopkins was also promoting the allegation 
that HIV numbers are out of control in San Francisco and that Congress should 
continue to send double the amount of Ryan White dollars here than they do to 
any other metropolitan area because we supposedly have increasing HIV disease 
cases.

Too bad for Hopkins that lawmakers are also questioning the validity of the 
DPH and UCSF HIV numbers.

   *   *   *

Speaking of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, they've released an updated 
and comprehensive HIV Resource Guide. It's full of valuable information about 
the myriad AIDS agencies in town and how to access all sorts of services.

So what's the problem? The foundation is keeping mum about the guide. Why 
inform the community and clients about the guide when you have petty mental 
games to play?, is the question being asked by many social workers around 
town who want copies for their HIV positive clients.

"I had to literally beg for a copy," one social worker told me. "It's got 
great information in it that could really assist my clients, many of whom are 
afraid to be too demanding of anything from the AIDS Foundation because 
they've seen assertive people denied services by the foundation."

   *   *   * 

Finally, sources at the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, 
the agency responsible for managing the Ryan White CARE Act programs, are 
saying Dr. Joseph O'Neill, director of the programs, is angry about his 
travel arrangements in early June when he flew to an AIDS junket held at a 
swank resort on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

You may recall the uproar in the Washington Post when is was discovered care 
and treatment funding was being used for bureaucrats to give themselves a 
fun-in-the-sun vacation.

Well, some computer hacker upset with O'Neill upgraded his airline ticket 
from coach to first class. Round trip, of course. Apparently, O'Neill had to 
fly in first class and couldn't persuade the airline to give him a seat back 
in the coach section.

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