Diseases Are Scary, But Advocacy Shouldn't Be

From what I’ve seen on campus, the two most active disease-related advocacy groups here are those supporting the fights against AIDS and breast cancer. One of these groups is doing an excellent job of raising awareness and support with its message; the other, however, is not.

I think it’s fair to say that many people are specifically knowledgeable about or concerned with one or two particular diseases over others. If a cousin has diabetes or a grandparent suffers from Alzheimer’s, family members or friends are directly motivated to learn about and support outreach efforts for those specific diseases.

At the collegiate level, this means that many students may choose to join a group that fights the disease with which they are familiar, and about which most others are probably ambivalent. But since fighting any disease is pretty much universally seen as a worthy cause — unlike many other social programs — groups should recognize this and attempt to attract the support and involvement of an admittedly casual audience.

It seems that this is exactly what the breast cancer outreach folks are doing on campus. They’re getting that crucial casual support from people who haven’t been and don’t know anyone affected by the disease.

The nationally recognizable “Think Pink” campaign is obviously prevalent now, and people are receptive to its message. What’s even better is the unique “Save Second Base” campaign, which of course refers to a beloved baseball metaphor for a “coed breast examination,” if you will. The slogan is printed on T-shirts on sale for about $10. Buy one if you see them out (no pun intended).

While this column doesn’t generally present anecdotal evidence, I will say that, after purchasing a shirt for my girlfriend, I had to bring five more with me at the request of her friends the next time I visited her at her university. If I, one of the breast cancer bystanders, am responsible for the sale of six shirts, they must flying off of the tables in Red Square. Kudos to you, breast cancer T-shirt salespeople, because you’re making a difference.

The AIDS outreach I’ve seen on campus, on the other hand, is not only unattractive, but relies on the same tired and wasteful message repeated nationally.

Posters displayed around campus for World AIDS Day in December admonished, “We all have AIDS if one of us does.” I mean, seriously, what does that even mean? Can you imagine any other disease outreach people acting like that? (“We all have dysentery if one of us does.”) Frankly, that’s just farcical.

The other big thing for AIDS awareness groups is making sure every single person gets tested for AIDS. This is a tremendous waste of time and money. Yes, many people infected with the disease don’t know they have it, but there is a clear target market of those who need to be tested versus those who don’t.

Sens. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) both got tested for AIDS as part of what I will generously call a publicity stunt. I would not put a U.S. Senator in the high-risk category for contracting AIDS — or in any category, for that matter.

According to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, a home AIDS test costs between $45 and $70. The state of Illinois passed a law in 1988 — quickly repealed the next year — requiring all couples seeking a marriage license to get an AIDS test. It cost 70,846 applicants $2.5 million in fees and only yielded 8 positive cases. While these tests are very accurate and effective, couldn't that $2.5 million have been better spent elsewhere?

Of course, advocating a “target market” for AIDS testing might require a value judgment many liberals are obviously uncomfortable making. Instead of taking the actions that would help the most, these people can’t get past their own politics. I’m sure if you got AIDS from sharing the Communion cup at church instead of sharing drug needles, the only celebrity you’d hear talking about the disease would be Mel Gibson.

People involved with AIDS outreach should learn from the folks fighting breast cancer and offer a message that will resonate with a much larger number of people instead of ignoring a crucial aspect of their disease and insulting the intelligence of the general public. I’m not sure what you could put on an AIDS T-shirt, but “Safe at Home Plate” might be something somebody could work with.

Eric Rodawig is a senior in the College and a Contributing Editor for The Hoya He can be reached at rodawig@thehoya.com. Thoughtcrime appears every Friday.