In some-what related new, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Council voted to comply with Center for Disease Control protocol and require HIV positive patients to give their names when receiving treatment. The names will then be stored on a guarded data base accessible by ten people. Still, the mere existence of such a list worries some activists, who think numbered codes worked just fine. The government insists that the inventory will help keep monitor infection rates, but AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts policy director Denise Williams tells The Boston Herald: “It does not adequately address the serious issues of privacy and security”. Had it not agreed to the discretionary direction, the state would have lost it’s federal AIDS funding: an estimated at $33 million. Thus, it came down to helping well-identified, yet possibly targeted patients or letting the anonymous die.
It’s an unfortunate choice to have to make, but ultimately necessary and, really, seems pretty cut-and-dry to us.
Ian D. Stewart
These are the same people that brought us the IRS and TSA, and we’re supposed to trust them with this?
I guess suppose we’re supposed to be thankful that they don’t make us wear little pink triangle armbands?
Paul Raposo
No government ever does anything “just because”. There is something going on here, with a specific and desired outcome that they don’t want people to know about. Someone better keep an eye on this.
Alipi
When exactly does this CDC policy date back to – does anyone know? Has the ACLU or Lambda challenged it? It sounds like one of many politically motivated decisions being made at the CDC as of late… after all, no other disease requires name ID – why is HIV so special?