Health Commissioner Hijinks
One Louisiana AIDS leader gave Farley the thumbs up; another told the Update, “proceed with caution”
This week’s appointment of New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provoked dismay among AIDS advocates and the gay press in New York City and beyond (with some exceptions).
As Health Commissioner, Frieden tried to do away with informed consent for HIV tests, made an Orwellian power grab for the medical information of people living with HIV, and infamously mishandled the so-called AIDS “superbug” case in 2005. As head of the CDC, Frieden may try to bully states into adopting routine testing without informed consent and will almost certainly take a step away from the real concerns of real people living with HIV/AIDS.
“It’s disheartening that President Obama would put the nation’s health in the hands of somebody with Frieden’s record,” said Housing Works President and CEO Charles King. “If Frieden could not work with community advocates in New York City, he will be even more disconnected as the head of the CDC. We will do everything possible to make sure that people living with HIV have a seat at the CDC’s table.”
Bailey House Executive Director Gina Quattrochi pointed out that Frieden was likely to pursue some sound AIDS-related policies such as support for syringe exchange and widespread condom distribution, but, like King, doubted Frieden could work with people living with AIDS and AIDS service providers effectively.
“The bad news is that [Frieden’s] propensity to ignore the concerns of affected communities may hinder his ultimate success in achieving the goals of aligning public health with the best that science has to offer,” she said.
New York City’s Gay City News raked Frieden over the coals for his failure to significantly reduce HIV infections among gay and bisexual men, while Chicago’s Windy City Times and other gay outlets condemned him for prematurely tipping off the media to the later-disproved existence of a deadly, completely drug-resistant mutation of the HIV virus.
“[Frieden] demonized gay men during the supervirus story, he pathologized gay men and scared the entire world about a rampaging untreatable virus that was later disproved,” veteran Chicago AIDS advocate Jim Pickett told the Update. “We’re still feeling the effects. People think a supervirus is rampaging and gay men are immoral and spreading dangerous diseases. That story was picked up everywhere.”
Pickett added, “[This appointment means that] the gay community and the HIV prevention community need to pay attention. This is not the time to sit back in the La-Z-Boy and say, ‘The Dems are in Congress. Everything is alright.’ ”
Same name, same beliefs?
New York City’s new Health Commissioner, Thomas Farley, bears an eerie resemblance to the outgoing one. According to an article the New York Times, Farley is a public health zealot who, like Frieden, is an infectious disease specialist who trained at the CDC and overseas. Farley spent a year as one of Frieden’s adviser’s in New York City.
An unnamed health official told the Times that Farley “shares with Mr. Bloomberg an unbridled — and at times contentious — enthusiasm for using government” to improve public health.
And, like Frieden, Farley seems to have a knack for antagonizing the gay community. He is already embroiled in a controversy over an article he wrote for the Washington Monthly advocating the closure of bathhouses.
That article was also disheartening because it revealed Farley’s attitude toward community input regarding HIV prevention: “As beneficial as [community input] may be in building mutual trust,” he wrote, “it prohibits health departments from taking virtually any action to prevent AIDS that contains even the barest whiff of enforcement. Inclusion can be a good thing in planning public policy—but it can also be taken too far.”
Farley hails from the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and spent time in the Louisiana Office of Public Health. Executive Director of the New Orleans AIDS Task Force Noel Twilbeck Jr. is familiar with Farley’s work in Lousiana. Farley asked Twilbeck to speak to classes at Tulane about HIV. When the Update contacted Twilbeck, he had not heard of Farley’s new appointment and reacted positively.
“He always included the AIDS community in dialogue regarding policy. He relied on the community for information. He’s a very nice guy, easy to speak with. He had an ability to take a creative look at things and engage in out of the box thinking that I really admire. I think the world of him,” Twilbeck said.
Twilbeck was not familiar with Farley’s bathhouse article but pointed out that New Orleans still has two bathhouses.
Joyce Turner-Keller, executive director of the Baton Rouge AIDS service organization Aspiring Dreams, has never met Farley, but warns New Yorkers to be wary. “As a positive woman and advocate one of the issues we faced with the Louisiana Office of Public Health was that we don’t get a lot of support, thought that’s not just on [Farley]. But if you’re assertive and knowledgeable, that’s an issue. Unless his mindset has changed as far as consumers, I would proceed with caution,” she said.
Posted on May 20, 2009 at 5:08 pm
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