Clinton's America/AIDS for Aides
York, Byron
AIDS for Aides by Byron York L ast September 30, Bill Clinton ordered every worker in the federal government to undergo AIDS awareness training. Despite its scope, the Federal Workplace AIDS...
...The Department of Agriculture has 110,000...
...Now classes are underway for thousands of ordinary workers...
...The Justice Department has 96,000...
...Clinton's order gave each agency the freedom to make its own training arrangements, with no mention of cost...
...A staple of World AIDS Day speeches at various departments last December was the theme of the love and mutual dependence that can exist within the bureaucracy...
...The company would then set up video screens and anaudio link-up to the Washington trainers...
...For example, the Federal Trade Commission recently signed a contract with Whitman-Walker...
...Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen and Labor Secretary Robert Reich had to sit down with trainers from Washington's Whitman-Walker Clinic...
...FERC will pay Westover $24,000 to train its 1,000 employees in the Washington area, a cost of $24 per worker—nearly five times the FCC cost...
...But the underlying assumption—that a degree of modesty equals ignorance about AIDS—is not necessarily correct...
...The cost: $3,500 to train the FTC's 730 employees in Washington, less than $5 per worker (The FTC is still lining up contracts to train workers at its ten regional offices, so its total cost of training will be substantially higher...
...She would say that she wanted people to accept it and understand why they should accept it," he said...
...On the other hand, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has signed a contract with Westover Consultants, a Washington-based firm that before the president's order had done AIDS training for "high-risk young people...
...W hat then is the rationale for the Federal Workplace AIDS Education Initiative...
...The Department of Health and Human Services has 140,000 employees, most of them outside Washington...
...An agency would hire a company to deliver satellite downlink equipment to some small town in, say, Wyoming or Alaska...
...Divided they fall BOOKS OF TILE YLNIi...
...They should want to take training...
...But this only means that at least $12-$25 million that could have been spent on real AIDS projects will be spent on consultants...
...Since 1828 The Spectator has been amusing, infuriating and provoking conflict and conversation among Britain's brightest lights...
...And 86 percentbelieve it is unlikely they would ever contract the virus by working near someone who is HIV-positive...
...They are precisely the people who have most likely already learned the basics about AIDS...
...We're taking names and recording," says Don Donaldson, who is coorByron York is a television producer and writer in Washington...
...Most assume the infection rate is similar to that of the nation as a whole, about one-third of one percent...
...But no single person controls spending...
...Ninety-four percent know a pregnant woman can pass it on to her baby...
...The AIDS office says no new money will be designated for the project...
...Yet the initiative has set off a massive and chaotic effort to set up classes for well over two million workers...
...Call 1-800-826-3689 or send a cheque to: The Spectator 386 Park Avenue...
...The most recent federal figures available show that 95 percent of Americans know that HIV can be transmitted through sexual intercourse...
...Clinton described his action as "leadership by example...
...And of course there is the Postal Service...
...omplaints about how the project is run don't address the fundamental issue of whether it is necessary in the first place...
...CI . .. . to from sin uld CHALLENGING/ CONTRARIAN...
...On Gebbie's part, it appears to be a deep faith—despite research to the contrary—in the ignorance of most Americans...
...Arrowhead, a Virginia telecommunications firm, is preparing bids on such an arrangement for the EPA...
...the president's order includes everyone...
...Attorney General Janet Reno was less compromising...
...No one should have to take training...
...But few agencies I contacted have made any effort to find out what their workers know about AIDS...
...Says one longtime AIDS trainer: "A lot of people became [AIDS] experts on September 30th...
...At Justice Department ceremonies, FBI Director Louis Freehannounced classes to teach employees how "to develop the care and understanding, help and love" needed by fellow workers who have AIDS...
...She was probably right...
...is a tightly localized plague...
...That the health workers presumably already know the facts about AIDS does not matter...
...Across the Mall at the Department of Energy, Don Donaldson was speaking admiringly of Secretary Hazel O'Leary, who had volunteered to take a leading role in the AIDS awareness campaign...
...Most people know where the epidemic is at the present time, in two segments of the population," says John Gagnon, one of the stddy's authors, pointing to evidence showing AIDS staying mostly within the ranks of gay males (where it is receding) and IV drug users and their sex partners...
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...Whoa, whoa, whoa, we ought to love, Yes, we ought to love each other...
...No official I spoke to would hazard an estimate of how many federal workers are HIV-positive...
...He made senior staffers go first, ordering White House officials and the heads of all departments to attend training sessions by World AIDS Day, last December 1. Senior White House staff attended seminars run by AIDS czar Kristine Gebbie's office...
...Anticipating some resistance, the AIDS office hopes to link attendance to the year-end employee evaluations that are the basis for raises and promotions...
...Most of the training involves basic information about AIDS: how it is transmitted, how it is prevented, how it progresses...
...Those people who don't attend the training will certainly have some problems...
...Across the country, AIDS education groups are now lining up for millions of dollars in federal contracts...
...Even the National Institutes of Health, which includes many of the world's top AIDS scientists and conducts much of the government's AIDS research, has agreed to pay Whitman-Walker $99,090 to train its employees in'the Washington area...
...dinating the effort...
...Ninety-seven percent know it is spread by sharing needles...
...so much so that the majority of victims are concentrated in a rather small number of urban neighborhoods...
...South • Suite 1605 New York, NY 10016 The American Spectator June 1994 43...
...Another motive seems to be the desire to impose a warm, brotherly feeling on what some officials call the "federal family...
...Gagnon's work supports those who advocate focusing government AIDS programs on those most at risk—and not at large populations like the federal work force...
...Mary-Ann Elliott, owner of the company, declined to answer questions on how much it might cost...
...The Customs Service and INS have workers at every entry point into the United States...
...They are older (three-quarters of them are 35 or over), more stable, and more educated than the rest of the work force...
...I bet if I asked you to say sex, condom, semen and vagina three times, you would get a red face," she told a group of fifty political appointees...
...Despite its scope, the Federal Workplace AIDS Education Initiative attracted only a brief notice in the Washington Post...
...We are determined," she said, "to strip away ignorance and prejudice—by education if we can, by litigation if we must...
...Secretary of State Warren Christopher and deputy Strobe Talbott still haven't complied...
...In turn, some large agencies are giving their smaller departments leeway to handle their own training...
...A reporter for Government Executive magazine recently accompanied Gebbie to an AIDS awareness session at the Pentagon...
...But hundreds of thousands of workers spread across the country—many in isolated areas—pose huge logistical difficulties...
...Steven Michael, spokesperson for the AIDS activist group ACT-UP Washington, calls the initiative "job creation for 42 The American Spectator June 1994 bureaucrats...
...But last year a much-publicized study from the National Research Council graphically pointed out that AIDS in the U.S...
...Now you can be entertained, enlightened and informed at a Special Introductory U.S...
...While the government certainly employs members of risk groups, as a whole its workers do.not tend toward any particularly dangerous categories...
...The bill will vary wildly from agency to agency...
...He received a standing ovation, and the program ended with a sing-along led by the DOE chorus: Instead of building walls of hate We really ought to concentrate On treating our fellow man like he was our brother...
...M ost experts believe effective AIDS awareness training has to involve face-to-face contact...
...And the diplomatic corps...
...Managers will receive instruction on how to deal with HIV-positive workers...
...One proposal for reaching the far-flung bureaucrats involves satellite teleconferences...
...None had any idea about the number of those infected in his specific agency...
...O'Leary, Donaldson explained, would not force people into training...
...Officials at the AIDS office say they hope the, whole project can be done for $5 to $10 per worker, or between $12 and $25 million for the entire civilian workforce...
Vol. 27 • June 1994 • No. 6
