What Mike Huckabee said about people with AIDS

[fourier jr]

from a 1992 questionnaire, when it was common knowledge that AIDS couldn't be transmitted by casual contact:

"If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague."

"It is difficult to understand the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents."

"In light of the extraordinary funds already being given for AIDS research, it does not seem that additional federal spending can be justified. An alternative would be to request that multimillionaire celebrities, such as Elizabeth Taylor, Madonna and others who are pushing for more AIDS funding be encouraged to give out of their own personal treasuries increased amounts for AIDS research."

"Medical protocol typically says that if you have a disease for which there is no cure, and you are uncertain about the transmission of it, then the first thing you do is that you quarantine or isolate carriers."

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071208/aids_isolation_071208/20071208 [Broken]

Admittedly, that's the website of a news station in godless, socialist "Canuckistan" & Huckabee sort of said he would reconsider his answers to that questionnaire if he were to redo it today. He still managed to become governor, which blows my mind. I don't understand is how someone like that can even be taken seriously. Only in the United States I guess... or Iran, or Afghanistan.

 

This was in 1992, we've learned a lot about AIDS since then. I don't think his answer was all that crazy. The way I see it, he was just being practical with the information he had at the time.

 

[fourier jr]

If you hit the link it was common knowledge that AIDS wasn't transmitted by casual contact because Magic Johnson did a lot to raise awareness of it. That was before 1992 iirc.

 

I was 22 yrs old in 92, I remember stories of people with HIV purposefully infecting others. I personally knew one kid that died of AIDS at 17 yrs. I don't think Huckabee's remarks were so un-PC that one should base their entire view of him on that. He's not a medical doctor.