AIDS: the Humane Course

The disagreements in the California Legislature over varying proposals to deal with the AIDS epidemic offer Gov. George Deukmejian the opportunity to end the politicization of the epidemic and to put the state on a sound approach to this tragic disease.

Under the guise of protecting public health, the Senate has passed and sent to the Assembly three measures by Sen. John Doolittle (R-Citrus Heights), among them one that would reduce the strict confidentiality of testing for the AIDS virus that is the law in California.

This idea is opposed by all medical and public health officials precisely because it would not help curtail the spread of AIDS. It would simply drive people in high-risk groups underground, increasing the threat of AIDS rather than decreasing it. Fearful of disclosure of their AIDS-antibody status, the people who might benefit from being tested would shun the test. They would not want to invite discrimination in housing, employment and insurance that would be a byproduct of disclosure.

The Legislature also has before it an omnibus AIDS bill (AB 87) proposed by Assemblyman Art Agnos (D-San Francisco), which among other things would reaffirm the Deukmejian Administration’s commitment to oppose discrimination against people with AIDS and people feared to have AIDS, while creating a commission to bring much-needed coordination to the state’s AIDS effort. The Agnos bill was developed in collaboration with the surgeon general of the United States, C. Everett Koop. This is the humane and proper course that the state should take. It would serve both the public health and civil liberties.

The Agnos bill would give Deukmejian the opportunity to direct the state’s resources to where they should be put and to use his office to help foster public understanding of the issues related to AIDS. With the Agnos bill passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor, California would be on a sound footing to address the disease.