Warren: There are parallels between the early years of the AIDS epidemic & the opioid crisis,

[riversedge]

Warren gets it---we need to put the treatment where the problems are.



Warren calls for new federal approach to opioid crisis

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/warren-to-call-for-new-federal-approach-to-opioid-crisis/2018/04/06/4cfa1964-399a-11e8-af3c-2123715f78df_story.html?utm_term=.f97b06e57736

by Steve Leblanc?|?AP



by Steve Leblanc?|?AP April 6 at 6:11 PM

BOSTON — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is calling for the federal government to confront the opioid addiction crisis like it ultimately attacked the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

The Massachusetts Democrat said Friday that she will be unveiling legislation next week with Democratic U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, of Maryland, that would pump $100 billion in federal funding over the next 10 years to help communities battle the crisis that claims tens of thousands of lives each year.

Warren said the goal is to make sure funding goes directly to the hardest-hit counties where the most people are dying from drug overdoses. The bill also would ensure a portion of the money goes directly from the federal government to clinics and nonprofits pioneering new models of treatment.

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Warren said her bill is modeled after the Ryan White CARE Act, which targeted federal funds to areas of the country most impacted by the HIV virus. White, an Indiana teenager, became a global advocate for AIDS patients after he contracted the disease through a blood transfusion. He died in 1990.

There are parallels between the early years of the AIDS epidemic and the opioid crisis, Warren said..................................


In both instances, people were stigmatized and blamed for their disease, the federal government under-invested in basic science and lawmakers initially lacked the courage to confront the crisis, she said.........................

Link to tweet

[zaj]

1. Huge difference...

AIDS spread by an essential and universal human behavior and thus needed universal behavior change or risk population destruction. It was a Darwin-level threat.

I don't see any vitality or species level threat.

It's far closer to the crack epidemic than the AIDS one.

[Merlot]

2. Looks like she's refering to the solution, not the epidemic

The bill is modeled on how the AIDS epidemic was treated.

To bad they couldn't have spent all that money on better schools and infrastructure before the crisis. Then maybe the crisis would not have been as large and hard hitting if people's lives didn't feel as desperate.

[CountAllVotes]

3. +1,000 !!

I worked in the medical profession during the AIDS crisis.

Nothing and I repeat NOTHING abt. the alleged "opiate crisis" even comes close to the horrors of the years that the virus spread like wildfire.

AIDS = a virus

"Opiate *War on Drugs* crisis" is a manufactured POS!

[PufPuf23]

4. Warren is wrong in comparing opioids to AIDs.

The opioid crisis is phrased as another front on the War of Drugs.