The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS

429 Pages·1990·12.621 MB·English

by  Michael Fumento

HETEROSEXUAL
y '
ISBN Q-4tS-0t1fl03-7 > $22.^5
MYTH
THE O F
HETEROSEXUAL
Michael Fumento
America's most popular daytime televi­
sion host declared that "one in five hetero­
sexuals could be dead from AIDS in the
next three years. That's by 1990." A
member of the President's AIDS Commis­
sion predicted that the disease, on its
current course, could infect the entire
human race by early in the next century.
For years now we have been warned that
AIDS is poised to break out into the gen­
eral heterosexual population, with head­
lines such as "The Disease of Them Sud­
denly is the Disease of Us" and "Now No
One is Safe from AIDS." In this lucid and
informative book, Michael Fumento dem­
onstrates why such a scenario is highly
unlikely and how the very real tragedy of
the disease has been overshadowed by a
collective hysteria often fueled by parti­
san politics.
While acknowledging that the AIDS virus
can be heterosexually transmitted to the
regular partners of bisexuals and addicts,
Fumento systematically debunks the
myths that suggest a general epidemic is
imminent, including the so-called "multi­
plier" effect of promiscuity and the impli­
cations of the situation in Africa for the
West. He also takes a hard look at those
who have been promulgating these
myths, from the liberals who insist that
(continued on bock flap)
G11D
T H E M Y T H OF
H E T E R O S E X U A L
AIDS
THE MYTH OF
HETEROSEXUAL
AIDS
M IC H A EL F U M E N T O
A N E W R E P U B L I C BOOK
,
Basic Books Inc., Publishers
NEW Y ORK
Figure 4.1 on p. 53, from H. Hunter Handsfield, “Heterosexual Transmission of the
Human Immunodeficiency Virus,” JAMA 260 (13 [7 October 1988]): 1944. Copyright
© 1988. Reprinted with permission of the American Medical Association.
Table 5.1 on p. 64, adapted from Harvey V. Fineberg, “Education to Prevent AIDS:
Prospects and Obstacles,” Science 239 (4840 [5 February 1988]): 593.
Copyright © 1988, by the AAAS.
Table 5.2 on p. 68, from Susan Okie, “Heterosexuals Told to Avoid Risky Partners,”
Washington Post, 22 April 1988. Copyright © The Washington Post.
Figure 21.1 on p. 315, adapted from Michael A. Fumento, “The Incredible Shrinking
AIDS Epidemic,” The American Spectator 22 (5 [May 1989]): 24. Used by permission
of The American Spectator.
Figure 21.2A on p. 316, from Eduardo Cortes et al, “HIV-I, HIV-II, and HTLV-I
Infection in High-Risk Groups in Brazil,” A/E/M320 (15 [13 April 1989]): 1006.
Reprinted by permission of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Figure 21.2B on p. 316, from the Panos Institute, AIDS in the Third World, 3d ed.
(Philadelphia: New Society, 1988), p. 128. Used by permission of the Panos Institute.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fumento, Michael.
The myth of heterosexual AIDS/Michael Fumento.
p. cm.
“A New republic book.”
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-465-09803-7
1. AIDS (Disease)—Political aspects—United States. 2. AIDS
(Disease)—Social aspects—United States. 3. AIDS (Disease)—
Transmission. I. New republic (New York, N.Y.). II. Title.
RA644.A25F86 1989 89-42518
362.1'969792—dc20 CIP
Copyright © 1990 by Michael Fumento
Printed in the United States of America
Designed by Vincent Torre
90 91 92 HC 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To My Parents

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
1. The Reign of Terror 3
2. The Once and Future Heterosexual
Non-Epidemic 15
3. A Primer on a Pestilence 33
4. The Risks of Heterosexual Intercourse 44
5. The “Perils” of Promiscuity 61
6. “Russian Roulette,” and Other Fearsome
Fallacies 72
7. To Tell the Truth 87
8. Prostitutes: The “AIDS Assassins” 97
9. But What About Africa? 107
10. The Agony of the Underclass 129
11. The Liberal Democratizers 145
12. Safe Sex and the Condom Wars 160
13. The Conservative Alarmists 178
14. The Homosexual Lobby 196
15. AIDS Goes to Hollywood 214
viii Contents
16. The Death of the Sexual Revolution (Again) 227
17. Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics 235
18. The Media and the Doctors of Doorti 249
19. An Epidemic of Media Hype 264
20. The Terror, Revisited 289
21. The Incredible Shrinking Epidemic 301
22. The AIDS Lobby: Are We Giving It
Too Much Money? 326
23. Alarmism for Fun and Profit 332
Appendix: The 1989 Montreal Conference on AIDS 335
Notes 351
Index 401
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I must state first that all the opinions expressed in this book are my own.
Acknowledging that some individuals provided assistance in some areas
in no wise indicates that they necessarily endorse each and every idea,
conclusion, and more importantly, criticism. I wish to thank Thomas
(Burke) Balch for stretching his work weeks, already often 100 hours
long, that much further to help me in almost all areas of this project,
especially in editing the first draft. While I began the book before
meeting him, the thought of having had to complete it without his help
is terrifying. Thanks also to Matthew Kaufman for his editing and skills
as a sounding board. The fortuity of his having been a time zone behind
mine meant that poor Mr. Kaufman was the victim of many an excited
late-night phone call. Dr. Joel Hay of the Hoover Institution has my
appreciation for reviewing the entire manuscript and providing a con­
stant flow of advice and new information. Chuck Fallis, public affairs
specialist at the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta,
is as efficient a public affairs official as one could ever hope to meet, and
I note also the help I received from Sam Friedman of the New York
Department of Health and the health department public affairs officials
in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, and elsewhere.
James Boulet, formerly of The Moral Majority, graciously opened up
to me that organization’s Washington office AIDS files. Allan Ryskind
did likewise at Human Events, even though he was convinced that I
was going to find material to use against his own publication. (I didn’t.)
Thanks to Paul Noël for his ideas and Susan Adair for help in pulling
articles and checking citations. Homer Giles, my publisher at the Amer­
ican Economic Foundation, and Leon Stevens, came through with
some badly needed Nexis research.
Editors at Commentary, The New Republic, The American Spectator,
and elsewhere have provided me with space to get some of this material
across before it became of mere historical interest.
Robert Whelan provided valuable material from the United King­