Myth of Heterosexual AIDS

Talk of a general AIDS epidemic may have been premature according to a new study that narrows the previously projected spread of the disease and refutes implications made that it is easily transmitted through sexual contact

The belief that AIDS is poised to break out widely among non-drug-abusing heterosexuals is a myth created by the media and public health officials, charges Fumento. This former AIDS analyst for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights contends that estimates of the number of infected people, and of the risks to heterosexuals, have been grossly exaggerated, arguing further that the epidemic appears to be peaking. According to Fumento, two groups have fueled the alarmist myth: prudish conservative moralists and liberal "democratizers" eager to demonstrate that AIDS is not a "gay plague." His allegation that AIDS research has drained funds from the fight against cancer will outrage activists who want more federal dollars spent on AIDS. Among this polemic's more controversial or startling contentions is the assertion that the incidence of AIDS in Africa has been greatly overstated, and the claim that bisexuality among U.S. blacks and Hispanics, far more than that among whites, has played a major role in AIDS transmission.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Written by a former AIDS analyst for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, this book is certain to be controversial. Its stated purpose is "one of trying to show the effect of politics on AIDS and to some extent on science in general, and to provide an objective account of the risks of contracting AIDS and of the scope of the epidemic." Fumento's premise: "among the great wide percentage of the nation the media calls 'the general population,' that section the media and the public health authorities has tried desperately to terrify, there is no epidemic." Attempting to mollify the fears created by "alarmists," the author uses an insidiously homophobic, flippant style to heighten an "us verus them" attitude toward the crisis, claiming that the money spent on research and education is being siphoned from other more deserving diseases. Though Fumento throws a lot of statistics around, his argument is contradicted by the continuing spread of AIDS among heterosexuals. Not a balanced approach.
-James E. Van Buskirk, Acad . of Art Coll. Lib., San Francisco
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.