Score another victory for trumped-up moralism, one more defeat for common-sense education to prevent AIDS.
The Centers for Disease Control rejected an advertising campaign that featured celebrities, occasional humor, a save-sex-for-marriage message and straightforward information about using condoms to prevent AIDS.
Too controversial, too plain-spoken, the CDC decided.
Instead, the federal health agency responsible for the government`s AIDS prevention program, opted for safe politics, not safe sex.
They`ll spend $1.5 million on a bland advertising campaign that has no humor and never, ever mentions the words ”sex” or ”condoms.”
The decision is more than ridiculous; it`s dangerous. Widespread use of condoms is one of the most effective ways to stop the spread of AIDS.
Even so, government health officials are willing to sacrifice science to moral judgment. ”When the goals of science collide with moral and ethical judgment, there are certain times when science has to take a timeout,” said James Masson, assistant secretary of Health and Human Services.
That may well be, but one of those times is definitely not when the disease that is so misunderstood and can be prevented is killing people by the thousands.
Rejecting honest information in favor of timid generalities is one more example of the undue influence of political conservatives on national health policies.
The words of epidemiologist Donald Francis, who retired from the CDC earlier this year, should not be forgotten.
The influence of political conservatives, he said, has ”increased infections, increased costs, increased misery and increased death.”
It is a shameful political legacy.
