anni & dani blog

Georgia State Rep. Betty Price – spouse of former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who recently left his role in Donald Trump’s administration after taking a few too many taxpayer-funded charter flights – casually asked a state epidemiologist whether it would be more cost-effective to just force HIV-positive people into quarantine.

Per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Price’s phrasing left open the possibility she’s not thrilled HIV-positive people are not dying “more readily,” at which point they would pose less of a risk.

“And I don’t want to say the quarantine word, but I guess I just said it,” Price asked Georgia state Department of Public Health HIV epidemiology chief Dr. Pascale Wortley at a study committee meeting this week. “Is there an ability, since I would guess that public dollars are expended heavily in prophylaxis and treatment of this condition?”

“So we have a public interest in curtailing the spread,” Price continued. “What would you advise or are there any methods legally that we could do that would curtail the spread?”

Not one to slow down, Price added, “It seems to me it’s almost frightening, the number of people who are living that are potentially carriers. Well they are carriers, with the potential to spread, whereas in the past they died more readily and then at that point they are not posing a risk. So we’ve got a huge population posing a risk if they are not in treatment.”

Wortley, who had just explained HIV treatments as well as routine medical care remain out of reach for many Georgians, responded that the state was already attempting to track the spread of the virus and get more people into care. The AJC reported Georgia has the second-highest rate of HIV infection in the US at 28.3 per 100,000 population in 2015, and just half are virally suppressed.

Aside from the obvious moral implications—Price was more or less suggesting rounding up the disproportionately LGBTQ HIV-positive population—there’s also the fact that this awful solution would never work. Quarantines are only advised for diseases that can be easily identified, progress quickly and are contagious enough via transmission methods like casual physical contact or the air to pose a risk to the general public, none of which really apply to HIV.

Both of the Prices are physicians, and should presumably be aware of this.

The history of epidemiology is also littered with quarantine horror stories, and fears that authorities could use quarantines as a pretext to put LGBTQ people in camps are still relevant today.

Tom Price’s selection as HHS secretary drew alarm from progressive groups, which pointed out his noxious record on gay rights is staunchly conservative, and that his efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and limit coverage of reproductive health services could harm LGBTQ communities and reduce access to HIV treatment.

“We need to emphasize that in this day and age, quarantining is not a useful strategy to control HIV,” Emory Center for AIDS Research co-director Dr. Carlos del Rio told STAT, adding he believed Price’s intent was misinformed rather than malicious.

“We need to get public health [workers] to find people, get them into care, keep them in care, and keep them virally suppressed,” he added. “If we can keep them virally suppressed, we can stop the epidemic.”

“When we come into spaces like this and we hear questions around how legally far can we go to isolate people or even quarantine people, then it just lets you know that we have a real uphill battle,” SisterLove executive director Dazon Dixon Diallo told Project Q Atlanta.

In a response released to the AJC, Price seemingly did not apologize and said her remarks were taken out of context:

“I made a provocative and rhetorical comment as part of a free-flowing conversation which has been taken completely out of context. I do not support a quarantine in this public health challenge and dilemma of undertreated HIV patients. I do, however, wish to light a fire under all of us with responsibility in the public health arena - a fire that will result in resolve and commitment to ensure that all of our fellow citizens with HIV will receive, and adhere to, a treatment regimen that will enhance their quality of life and protect the health of the public.”

➣ See the video link here: [Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Project Q Atlanta]

This bitch^ needs to feel every bit of the shame & humiliation she is attempting to project onto those living with HIV! – And let’s not forget that she is a practicing physician.

➣  Shame Betty Price with your phone calls to her office & to all levels of GA state government and media & call for her scalp.

Let’s force the resignation of yet another Price family member!

Betty Price - R Member, House of Representatives State of GA Phone: 404-656-0202

Hon. David Ralston Speaker of the House of Representatives State of Georgia Phone: 404-656-5020

Hon. Nathan Deal Governor State of Georgia Phone: 404-656-1776

Kevin Riley Editor The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 404-526-2161

WSB-TV (ABC Affiliate) Newsroom Direct Line 404-897-6276

WXIA-TV (NBC Affiliate) Newsroom Direct Line 404-873-9191

WGCL-TV (CBS Affiliate) Newsroom Direct Line 404-327-3200

WAGA-TV (FOX Affiliate) Newsroom Direct Line 404-898-0100

CNN (Headquartered in Atlanta) Breaking News: 1-404-827-1500 Option 1 Customer Service: 1-800-CNN-News

We CAN force this resignation. Our phone calls can make it happen!

Of all the women who have come forward with sexual assault accusations against him, for some reason Harvey Weinstein has decided that disputing Lupita Nyong’o was really important.

Lupita’s testimony is an important part of the #MeToo discussions. We should all support and believe Lupita.

It happened to me.

“ If you suck my d**k, you can get that account.”

I was told that by a former employer. I almost cried, I wanted to cry but I just got angry.

He laughed in my face and said the “joke” again just to see my pain. I decided the “adult thing” was to say NO and demand that he would never say that to me again. He told me “ it was a joke” and I couldn’t be in this industry if I couldn’t take men saying whatever they wanted around me. “Get over it.”

For a while, that’s exactly what I did. I put all of my anger into my work. I wanted to prove MY worth as a young 20 something on that creative team and I was sure that it would never happen again.

But, it did. I left but not before the damage was done. I now have a fear of doing business with men. That may sound horrible but it is true. I constantly wait for an improper joke in a meeting, during a presentation or even a conference call. I sometimes hold my breath until each meeting is completed. Especially if I’m the only woman in that meeting.

It has been over 10 years but I never forgot, you never forget. But I decided now is the time to let go of the power that he had over me. He will not be part of my future.

I’m finally in control.

A view of the Chicago River looking west from the State Street bridge showing (from foreground) the Dearborn Street, Clark Street, LaSalle Street, and Wells Street bridges, October 4, 1987. Photograph by John McCarthy

Read more about Chicago’s bridges

To purchase a copy E-mail [email protected] and give them this number: ICHi-093216

Amen

People with no drinking water. People with no food. People with no medicine. No dialysis. No insulin. No homes. Water full of feces. No fuel for generators.

The mayor of San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz describes the horror:

Where the hell is the Army, the Navy, the Marines?  Why is there no massive airlift in and out?

WTF is the President of the United States and the Republican controlled Congress doing?

Why the hell is the situation in Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands not being covered round the clock —and at the top of the headlines?

I was looking at the notice to VI from FEMA — I was struck by the announcement that people could register on line. How do you do that if you have no internet?  How do you call when phones aren’t working?

This disaster was already brewing with Irma.

Call your Congressperson. Call your Senators. Flood their switchboards the same way people in PR and VI are flooded.

To call your Member of Congress:        US Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121

To locate your Member on-line:        U.S. House of Representatives: www.house.gov        U.S. Senate: www.senate.gov

Ask them, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR IMMEDIATE SUPPORT for PUERTO RICO and THE VIRGIN ISLANDS?”

Yes that is bolded and in all caps.  Yes, I am shouting.

Watching this nightmare unfold as a person who has worked in public health, who has family and friends in Puerto Rico and the VI, I am not going to stop shouting.

Tweet #SOSPuertoRico

[The thread Hillary quoted:]

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En fotos: Así golpeó el poderoso huracán María a Puerto Rico [Univision Puerto Rico, September 20]

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The entire island is without power, a dam is in danger of bursting, and Sunday political talk shows talked about it for less than a minute [Media Matters, September 24]

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Battered Puerto Rico hospitals on life support after Hurricane Maria: “People Are Going to Start Dying” [Reuters, September 24]

Updated 9:35 PM EDT, Mon September 25, 2017

Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said the nation faces a humanitarian crisis. He urged Congress to approve a commensurate aid package as the US commonwealth, already hammered by a prolonged economic crisis, tries to get back on its feet. The governor joined others in emphasizing that Puerto Rico’s residents are American citizens.

“It is as if Puerto Rico got hit with the strength of Irma’s winds, leaving a trail of devastation worse than much of the destruction Irma left in Florida,” said CNN meteorologist Judson Jones. “The rainfall in some areas of Puerto Rico rival the amounts of rain left by Harvey in Houston. And now they are contending with a dam disaster that is reminiscent of California’s Oroville Dam crisis earlier this year.”

The Guajataca Dam in the island’s northwest corner is releasing water after suffering a “critical infrastructure failure” following the Category 5 storm. “Some of the dam has fallen apart,” Rosselló said. “Now we are making sure that we can assess if the other part will fall down as well. It represents a great danger for about an estimated 70,000 people.” Residents below the dam were told to evacuate on Friday, according to the National Guard.

With more than 95% of wireless cell sites out of service, authorities had to physically go to thousands of homes to warn people of the potential collapse.

Without power and communications in much of the island, millions of people have been cut off from the world since Maria hit Wednesday.

After flying over Puerto Rico on Sunday, CNN’s Leyla Santiago said residents could be seen along the highways searching for a cellphone signal. “The island from above is a completely different color” due to the lack of trees, Santiago said, while pools are filled with black water and debris. The storm ripped the roofs of houses, exposing their interiors to the sky, she said.

Authorities who flew over the island Saturday were also stunned by what they saw. Roads are completely washed away and others are blocked by debris, isolating residents. “It was devastating to see all that kind of debris in all areas, in all towns of the island,” Jenniffer González, the island’s nonvoting representative in Congress, told CNN.

A doctor at Canovanas Medical Center – one of the few hospitals with a working generator – said they were running out of fuel to keep it going. Dr. Norbert Seda told CNN that the center only had 2-3 days left of medical supplies and medicine.