From: MPetrelis@aol.com Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 12:54:24 EDT Subject: Sources Say 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 Welcome to AIDS-STATISTICS www.AIDS-statistics.com 2215-R Market Street, #413 San Francisco, CA 94114