David Gilbert - Deadly Lies lyrics

Dougla**' disinformation becomes a deadly threat when he discredits the very prevention measures needed to save lives: It is possible that even the government propaganda concerning intravenous drug use is a red herring. If the intravenous route is the easiest way to catch AIDS, why does it take as long as five to seven years for some recipients of contaminated blood to come down with AIDS? (p. 171) Here he seems to forget the well established incubation period between infection with HIV and the onset of AIDS, although he manages to remember it later when he refers to a "latency" period of 10 years. (p. 245). And arguing that there isn't a perfect correlation between the number of acts of intercourse and infection, he declares, "AIDS is not a s**ually transmitted disease." (p. 243) Then, after sabotaging prevention efforts by disparaging the well-established danger of needle sharing and unprotected s**, Dougla** fuels hysteria with claims that AIDS can be contracted by casual contact. In his article he says, "The common cold is a virus. Have you ever had a cold? How did you catch it?" By failing to differentiate between airborne and bloodborne viruses, he is conjuring up a scare tactic as scientific as a warning that your hand will be chopped off if you put it in a goldfish bowl because, after all, a shark is a fish. He also a**erts, citing no evidence, that "the AIDS virus can live for as long as 10 days on a dry plate," and then asks, "so, are you worried about your salad in a restaurant that employs h*mos**uals?" While people are understandably skeptical of government rea**urances on any matter, we can turn instead to the experiences of families of people with AIDS and of gra**roots AIDS activists: There are hundreds of thousands of us who have worked closely with infected people for years without catching the virus. The unwarranted fears about casual contact deter sorely needed support for our brothers and sisters living with HIV infection and divert attention from the most common means of transmission: unprotected s** and shared drug injection equipment.