-Caveat Lector-
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 10:26:49 -0400
Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: FAIR <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [FAIR-L] Action Alert: ABC AGREES WITH DRUG INDUSTRY:
AFFORDABLE
MEDICINE
FOR AFRICANS IS DANGEROUS
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
FAIR-L
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and news reports
Action Alert:
ABC AGREES WITH DRUG INDUSTRY:
AFFORDABLE MEDICINE FOR AFRICANS IS DANGEROUS
On July 8, ABC's World News Tonight aired two stories on the subject of
treating AIDS in African countries. ABC's conclusion: It's better for poor
Africans to die than to have access to cheap AIDS drugs.
The South African government is currently in a trade dispute with the
United States over this issue: South Africa, which is in the midst of an
AIDS epidemic, claims the right to license local pharmaceutical
manufacturers to produce cheap generic versions of AIDS drugs that would
otherwise be unaffordable for poor South Africans. The U.S. has taken the
side of American pharmaceutical companies, who are trying to put a stop to
the practice, known as "compulsory licensing."
The ABC stories were largely a brief for the drug industry. Jennings
started out by framing the debate: "Should the wealthier nations provide
AIDS drugs to those countries that cannot possibly afford them?" The
debate over compulsory licensing has nothing to do with wealthy nations
providing drugs; its about whether poor nations should be allowed to
produce their own generic drugs, as they are authorized to do under
international trade laws.
In the first segment, ABC News correspondent Jackie Judd claimed that
"many health professionals agree" with the drug industry's claim that
"cheaper drugs alone are never the answer," since AIDS "patients need to
be closely supervised, which the South African medical system cannot
provide."
But Judd presented no evidence that anyone has ever argued that "cheaper
drugs alone" are the "answer." This argument seems, instead, to be a straw
man manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry to justify its opposition
to the production of cheaper drugs. The only "health professional" Judd
used as an on-air source for this claim was Thomas Bombelles, a spokesman
for PhRMA, a consortium of large pharmaceutical companies.
Before her story aired, Judd had in fact contacted James Love, a health
economist who directs the Consumers' Project on Technology in Washington,
and one of the United States' leading experts on compulsory licensing for
AIDS drugs. Love told Judd that the industry's spin was wrong -- that
compulsory licensing would have a positive effect on public health in
Africa. But neither Love, nor his concerns, was mentioned in Judd's piece.
Judd also could have quoted Mark Biot, who oversees AIDS programs
worldwide for Doctors Without Borders. He told the Chicago Tribune
(4/28/99) that "clinics in most of the larger cities of the developing
world would be fully equipped to handle AIDS patients if they had access
to affordable drugs." The Tribune reported that physicians who treat AIDS
in developing countries call the drug industry's warnings about resistant
strains a "false issue."
The second segment was by ABC reporter Richard Gizbert in Zambia. After
introducing a Zambian AIDS patient named Veronica, Gizbert says "The
newest [AIDS] drugs are hard to get here as well. But even if they were
available, Zambian officials believe it is better to let someone like
Veronica die than to give the drugs without the proper supervision.
Because in Zambia, they agree with the drug companies, that anything less
than a full course of treatment with the right drugs could result in the
HIV virus mutating into something even more deadly."
Again, ABC is stressing that Zambian officials "agree with the drug
companies." In fact, the Zambian health official quoted in the broadcast
says only that "supportive services" are needed for AIDS patients--hardly
a startling position.
Gizbert concludes by reporting that "Zambia is letting its people die
today so that thousands, maybe even millions can be saved tomorrow." No
evidence is presented that the Zambian government is choosing to allow
people to die. As Gizbert himself reports, Zambia does not have the
resources to provide drugs to its AIDS-stricken population even if it
wants to.
After the segments, anchor Peter Jennings added "one final note about the
drug companies -- Glaxo Wellcome that makes the AZT drug has cut drug
prices to some African countries. And Bristol-Myers Squibb, the makers of
three of the AIDS drugs, says it is spending $100 million in Africa on
AIDS-related programs."
Jennings did not mention that AZT normally sells in the U.S. for more than
ten times the cost of production--or that the drug was invented and
identified as a useful treatment for AIDS by the U.S. government, not by
Glaxo Wellcome.
Nor did ABC note that much of Bristol-Myers Squibb's money will fund train
doctors to do research for the company in Africa. As Dan Berman, also of
Doctors Without Borders, told Time magazine (7/12/99), "A lot of the
companies are using the cheaper labor costs and the lack of ethical codes
in developing countries as a way to get the trials done more cheaply and
quickly."
ACTION ALERT: Please call on ABC News to return to the issue of medicine
for Africa's AIDS crisis--with a report that does not uncritically accept
the pharmaceutical industry's spin that Africa can't be trusted with
affordable AIDS drugs.
Peter Jennings
ABC News
47 W. 66 St., New York, NY 10023
Phone: 212-456-7777
Fax: 212-456-4297
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
You can read a version of ABC's report at
http://abcnews.go.com/onair/CloserLook/wnt990708_aidsdrugs.html .
________________________________________________________
NetZero - We believe in a FREE Internet. Shouldn't you?
Get your FREE Internet Access and Email at
http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html
----------
Feel free to respond to FAIR ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] ). We can't reply to
everything, but we will look at each message. We especially appreciate
documented example of media bias or censorship. All messages to the
'FAIR-L' list will be forwarded to the editor of the list.
Also, please send copies of email correspondence, including any
responses, to us at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Feel free to spread this message around. Put it on conferences
where it is appropriate. We depend on word of mouth to get our message
out, so please let others know about FAIR and this mailing list.
Don't miss a single email from FAIR-L.
To subscribe to FAIR-L send a "subscribe FAIR-L enter your full name"
command to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The subscriber list is kept confidential, so no need to worry about
spammers.
You may leave the list at any time by sending a "SIGNOFF FAIR-L"
command to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Please support FAIR by becoming a member.
You will receive FAIR's magazine, EXTRA! and its newsletter, EXTRA!
Update. You can become a member by calling 1-800-847-3993 from 9 to
5 Eastern Time (be sure to tell them you got the information
on-line) or by sending $19 with your name and address to:
FAIR/EXTRA! Subscription Service
P.O. Box 170
Congers, NY 10920-9930
FAIR
(212) 633-6700
http://www.fair.org/
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
list administrators: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
A<>E<>R
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said
it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your
own reason and your common sense." --Buddha
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
