Petrelis Files

UCLA's SF PWA Drug-Resistance
Forum Held in . . . NYC?

The more I learn about UCLA mathematician Sally Blower, the more I see a highly irresponsible, unethical and immoral researcher.

Blower unleashed her latest stigmatizing math model targeting gays and people with AIDS in San Francisco in January, and she simply hasn't had the inclination or time to deal with the continuing fallout from her study.

Despite loud pleas from gay PWAs, diplomatic appeals from Supervisor Bevan Dufty, constant criticism from Dr. Grant Colfax at SF DPH, an damning editorial in the Bay Area Reporter, a skeptical 4-minute KPIX-TV news story, an article at HIVandHepatitis.com countering her claims of drug-resistance with decade-plus study on dramatically decreasing resistant HIV strains, Blower has maintained a vow of silence.

But earlier this month, on the same night a gay wellness town hall forum was held at the SF gay community center, at which Colfax spoke of concerns with Blower's research and its potential influence of harm, where was Blower?

Clear across the continent:

Feb 10, 2010

Columbia University Epidemiology Grand Rounds (CUEGR)

Evolution, Complex Networks, and Drug Resistance to HIV

Sponsor: Department of Epidemiology

Speakers: Sally Blower, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine

Hey, I'm glad everyone in the New York City area had the chance to speak with her over the course of a 90-minute lecture, about her theories on drug-resistance to HIV in SF.

Read again the offensive and sensationalistic UCLA press release, heralding the latest PWA bashing by Blower and colleagues. You'll find the key words -- evolution, complex networks, HIV drug resistance -- in the release. There's also the requisite "blame gay sex" quote UCLA and UCSF press officers love to put in their propaganda:

The researchers' model was able to explain this increase, said Justin T. Okano, the other co-first author on the study and a research associate in Blower's group.

"Our model showed that what is going on in San Francisco is very complicated — but in a nutshell, it is due to the bug, the drugs and sex," he said.

The situation we are faced with, is thus. UCLA experts allegedly diagnosed a public health threat in SF, potentially jeopardizing the health of thousands of PWAs here, there is widespread public outcry for transparency and communication from the grassroots, over the course of month's time, and they can't make even a small effort to ameliorate the damage they have caused here, and speak with us in SF.

But Blower had the time and resources to jet off to Manhattan to tawk to New Yawkers, about the HIV mini-epidemics in SF.

Blower/UCLA = Irresponsible, Unethical, Immoral.