Cuddling Male Soldiers
& Rogue DoD Contractors

The New York Times on Monday reported on independent Pentagon contractors establishing a network of spies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, who were recruited to track and kill alleged militants, and a photo with the story caught my gay eye. It showed a screen-capture of a post from the AfPax.com site clearly featuring hunky soldiers in their uniforms embracing.

The Times explained how the site came to exist and what its purpose would be:

[The contractors] proposal was to set up a reporting and research network in Afghanistan and Pakistan for the American military and private clients who were trying to understand a complex region that had become vital to Western interests. They already had a similar operation in Iraq — called “Iraq Slogger,” which employed local Iraqis to report and write news stories for their Web site.

[Former CNN producer Eason] Jordan proposed setting up a similar Web site in Afghanistan and Pakistan — except that the operation would be largely financed by the American military. The name of the Web site was Afpax.

The site is dormant and it appears the last updates on it were in September 2009. However, under the headline "Oakley Man Love: Cuddling Soldiers, Fake Shades," AfPax.com shared this homo-erotic image:


The caption reads: "These counterfeit Oakley sunglasses were purchased today (September 3, 2009) at a supermarket in Kabul. The cost: 500 afghanis or 10 USD."

Other than the cute headline, no other reference is made to the sexy gay imagery on the cardboard display box. (And who knew there were supermarkets in Afghanistan?)

Very interesting that whoever is behind marketing the fake Oakleys believes the best photo to hawk the wares is an image of two beefy male soldiers who display warm affection between them. The counterfeiters would mint a handsome penny using such a display in the Castro neighborhood's clothing stores.

Survey: High Tolerance for Gays
in Latin/Carib American Politics

Over at the Americas Quarterly blog, Mitchell Seligson, a political science professor who conducted some very thought-provoking findings about gay acceptance south of our borders, caught my attention with an excerpt from an on the surveys he conducted, and this graphic:

I wish the graphic from the Americas Quarterly were crisper, but I hope you can make out that the top blue bar is for people above 35-years-of age, and the red bar is for 18-to-34-year-olds.

What I found startling was that for Jamaica, one of the region's most homo-hating countries, in both age brackets, the level of tolerance for gays in politics was above the low single-digits. Where the hell did Seligson's surveyors find enough Jamaicans to say that more than 40 percent would tolerate gays in the political sphere? Sure would be fantastic if those folks surveyed could speak out for acceptance of gay people in Jamaica.

That aside, Seligson places the Jamaican numbers up against what he found in Latin America:

The new found momentum for allowing homosexuals to openly serve in the U.S. military springs from attitudinal changes that have taken place since the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy of 17 years ago. If only this type of generational change were occurring south of our own borders. Recent surveys demonstrate that levels of political tolerance of gay rights in Latin America have changed little across generations.

The most basic measure of tolerance is that of citizens to accept the right of a citizen (in this case a homosexual) to run for political office. Sadly, even by this basic measure of tolerance, younger generations in Latin America are only marginally more supportive of political gay rights, especially in the most notoriously intolerant environments for homosexuals, Jamaica and Haiti.

Unfortunately these sad trends look unlikely to change. The greatest predictor of tolerance toward the political rights of gays in Latin America--as throughout the world--is education. But educational levels are slowly rising throughout the Americas south of the Rio Grande. [...]

To read all of Seligson's post, you have to sign up for a trial offer with the Americas Quarterly. Sorry, but I don't sign up to read any full blog post. Either post the entire piece, or you won't find me signing or registering for anything just to read the piece. Nice of them to share the terrific graphic though.

SF Drug Users Union Formed
With Private Grant

The minutes from the February 11 meeting of the HIV Prevention Planning Council, which were recently posted to the web, report that an important step in creating better, saner drug policies came to San Francisco recently. Through the generosity of a private grant, we now have Drug Users Union forming, and the first meeting for the union was held last month.

Googling more info on this project didn't turn up more details than what is in the HPPC minutes, but I hope the council receives regular updates about the work of the union and the issues they want addressed.

The full set of minutes from the February HPPC meeting are posted here. These are the pertinent excerpts from the minutes:

2. General Public Comment

The following public comments were made:

Alexandra Goldman announced the creation of the San Francisco Drug Users Union Project. While a drug union has been attempted in the past, funding was not available to support it. With funding available this year, it is hoped that the drug union will become active. The union will be organized by people who identify themselves as drug users in order to empower themselves to make decisions for themselves. The first meeting will be on Tuesday, 2/16 at 4pm at Tenderloin Health. A flier was distributed.

3. Members’ Response to Public Comment

HPPC members requested further clarification on the SF Drug Users Union Project and its funding, staffing, and outreach to youth. The SF Drug Users Union Project is funded through a grant written by the Drug Policy Alliance.

The SF Drug Users Union Project is currently staffed by one person, but it is hoped that the union will grow to include staff members from the community.

The SF Drug Users Union Project is not a program of Tenderloin Health. Tenderloin Health will host some of the meetings with additional meetings being held at the Mission Neighborhood Resource Center.

The program will work with youth as it branches out into other areas such as the Haight. Any help with access to youth would be helpful.

Drug Users Union Projects in other cities have helped pass policies on a city level to get syringe access in homeless shelters and have staff trained in drug overdose prevention.

On a state level, drug unions have helped pass laws making it illegal for police to harass people outside of syringe exchange and have worked towards the opening of safe injection facilities.

UCSF Gay MRSA Study Used
to Retain FDA Blood Ban?

Remember all the turmoil and outrage in January 2008, when researchers at UCSF released a study on gays and drug-resistant staph infections, or MRSA? The UCSF press office responded to the gay community's concerns, and tried to undo the tremendous damage brought about by the university. The Bay Area Reporter noted:

San Francisco activist Michael Petrelis was among the first to raise his voice in criticism. He called the UCSF news release on the journal article "alarming," and noted in an e-mail to UCSF press contact Wallace Ravven, "You went out of your way to mention, four times, that gay men are not considered by UCSF to be members of the general population."

Within hours of receiving the complaint last Friday, the UCSF press office issued a statement expressing regrets that its initial release "contained some information that could be interpreted as misleading. We deplore negative targeting of specific populations in association with MRSA infections or other public health concerns." It pledged to do a better job.

Ravven sent his own apology to Petrelis, which was posted on the activist's blog. He explained, "The distinction that the release appeared to make between the gay population and the general population stems from epidemiological language, which includes everyone - gays, straights, etc. - in the 'general population.' But this clearly was not the context in which it appeared, which was unclear and unfortunate." [...]

Sure, many people and components at UCSF were contrite over their incredibly stigmatizing study and press release, and many university employees, gay and AIDS advocates and orgs, worked to limit the damage done.

However, two years later, despite UCSF's apology and lots of statements correcting their initial mistakes from the researchers, the MRSA mess created by the usually-respected and gay-friendly UCSF is now being used by hard-right conservatives to argue in favor of retaining the Food and Drug Administration ban on gays donating blood.

Over at the Right Side News site, editor Cliff Kincaid yesterday quoted conservative writer Dale O'Leary, who cites the UCSF staph infection study, among other reasons why the gay blood ban should continue:

Currently, she noted, "HIV infection rates among MSM continue to rise, particularly among young MSM. Other STDs are rampant among both those who are HIV positive and those who are HIV negative. An outbreak of syphilis was traced to men seeking sex on the Internet. There was an epidemic of MRSA - the so-called flesh-eating bacteria among MSM. There have been outbreaks of Shigella in several urban areas."

Why, it's as if all O'Leary and Kincaid and their colleagues need do to make their arguments favoring the gay blood ban is gather UCSF research or press releases, studies and quotes from San Francisco Department of Public Health about gay men and HIV or STDs from the past decade. Every problem mentioned above can be traced back to UCSF or SF DPH officials.

I don't believe it's possible, or even probably wise, to dismiss all the stigmatizing and sometimes questionable studies and alarmist news releases from UCSF and SF DPH on gays and diseases, especially blood-borne infections, and argue to the FDA that the ban should be lifted.

There is so much research from just those two SF institutions to justify the ban, it ain't funny. And if UCSF and SF DPH research isn't enough evidence to retain the ban, conservatives could always turn to UCLA's Sally Blower and her continuing research into HIV drug resistance in San Francisco.

As I've been saying for two months now, UCLA and its David Geffen School of Medicine math modeler Blower, maintain that gays in San Francisco are carelessly spreading drug-resistant HIV strains that are currently at epidemic proportions, and that the behavior and blood of gay men is "a great and immediate threat to global public health."

In case the conservatives don't read the full UCLA study, they can get the gist of the international threat gay sex and gay blood pose from the UCLA release on the study:

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.

I'm not saying it's right or justified that those who want to retain the FDA gay blood ban use UCSF, UCLA or SF DPH research to make their arguments. At the same time, I don't see how it's possible to take into consideration all the research those entities have created and shared with the world in recent years, and say to the blood banks, "Gay blood is safe."

In the end, I believe the cumulative effect of all the gays and infectious diseases research from UCSF/UCLA/SF DPH is a pronounced and significant contributing factor arguing to retain the gay blood ban.

Folsom/Dore Fairs 2010:
Permit Hearing Coming Up

(Submit favorable public comments on behalf
of the fairs, to keep this man happy.)

Demetri Moshoyannis, the terrific executive director of Folsom Street Events, the fabulous organization that puts on two wildly-popular leather/BDSM/fetish fairs, sent out an announcement recently about an important hearing about the permits and city agencies involved for the fairs. The city meeting is next week, and it's crucial that people who enjoy the fairs, or the many nonprofit beneficiaries that receive community grants from the events, attend the hearing and express strong support for fetish events.

Last year, one or two citizen complaints were lodged against the police turning a blind-eye to consensual, adult sexual expressions on the streets, and the city agencies in turn insisted the fair organizers clamp down on such expressions. If we want to keep alive the decades of proud street sexuality and cumaraderie of fetishists that embody San Francisco's community values, we have to make sure the city agencies that hold the permits hear from us.

Here's the info from Demetri:

Hi, everyone! You're receiving this email because you attended the Folsom Street Events Town Hall meeting at City Hall last year. Our ISCOTT hearing is scheduled for Thursday, March 25th at 9:00am at MTA, 1 South Van Ness Avenue, 7th Floor (right at the Van Ness MUNI stop).

If you'd like to say some kind words about the positive impacts of the fairs - e.g. sexual freedom, charity and philanthropy, sense of community - that would be much appreciated. All you have to do is sign in at the front desk and you'll be given a badge to come up to the 7th Floor. Turn right out of the elevator and go through the glass doors. You'll be directed by the MTA front desk to the hearing room.

If you have any questions, let me know. Thanks so much!

You can send questions to Demetri here: demetri (at) folsomstreetevents (dot) org

Who Killed 'Pelosi Watch'?

The Roxie theater in San Francisco's Mission District was the location for a standing-room-only town hall meeting in December 2006, with Ralph Nader as the keynote speaker. Leading progressive and liberal activists gathered to discuss the best ways to persuade our Congresswoman, Nancy Pelosi, to better represent the interests of her district.

Many of us in attendance had been trying for years to get Pelosi to address local voters' wishes for her to aggressively oppose Bush and Cheney's foreign wars, and to push for Congressional action on gay issues. We were ravenous for an organized, multi-cultural and multi-purpose accountability effort involving Pelosi, especially she would be elevated to the Speaker of the House position.

A sign-up sheet was circulated for Pelosi Watch by Medea Benjamin, founder and leader of Global Exchange and Code Pink, pro-peace organizations frequently in the news for their creative disruptions of government hearings. Benjamin is often derided for her massive ego and ceaseless desire for press attention, to the point where some activists have nicknamed her "Me-Me-Media" Benjamin.

Benjamin and her Code Pink colleagues soon set up a listserv and web site for Pelosi Watch, and on their own, without holding single meeting, decided how things would operate. The folks at Code Pink said decisions would be made by them on how best to organize, and everyone who added their names and emails to the sign-up sheet were supposed to just follow Code Pink leaders' decrees.

Several folks on the listserv in early 2007 asked when Pelosi Watch would hold some meetings, bring everyone together to organize and strategize, and put forward an accountability agenda involving our U.S. Representative. We were told a meeting could not be held until important speakers were lined up to lecture the rest of us. In short, Pelosi Watch was to be run by a small clique with a top-down mentality.

Along with many others, I got off the listserv because Pelosi Watch was not going to be the grassroots-driven watchdog effort we wanted it to be. We were just not the least bit interested in serving as a fan base for Benjamin and her pals, being lectured at, and not allowed a real voice in setting the agenda.

According to the dormant Pelosi Watch web site, Benjamin and her buddies did hold a lecture in February 2007, and nothing is reported about how many activists attended, what proposals were made, or what actions would be taken.

However, there is a long report on what one lecturer said, which probably boosted his ego, but did nothing to engage activists. That appears to be the only such public meeting Pelosi Watch attempted. The last update of any sort from Pelosi Watch was back in October 2007.

Who killed Pelosi Watch? Benjamin and her followers in Code Pink. They squandered the deep interest across many San Francisco constituencies, after Pelosi was elected Speaker of the House, to hold her accountable to local voters.

With Benjamin leading a grassroots campaign to hold Pelosi accountable, maybe make the Speaker more responsive to constituents' needs, Pelosi had nothing to worry about. If a new Pelosi watchdog effort is ever attempted again, let's hope Benjamin and her colleagues are not in key positions.

(Me-Me-Media Benjamin, Code Pink founder.)

Fein: UCSF Disputes UCLA's
Sloppy P.R. Over HIV Model

(Photo illustration of Sally Blower by Clinton Fein.)

Clinton Fein, being a gay male health writer among his many talents, has written a fabulous essay about the continuing troubles over a shoddy HIV math model created by UCLA's Sally Blower, and the importance of a recently statement from a Vice Chancellor at UCSF, putting great distance between the two campuses.

In phone chat yesterday, he said I had underplayed and obscured the full significance of the UCSF Vice Chancellor's statement, in writing about it in a piece that gave higher prominence to the Bloomberg News story about the study. Clinton, as he often is, was right. That is why I've taken a healthy chunk of his essay and have posted it here.

The campaign to hold Blower and UCLA's press office accountable for their shameful, and continuing, silence about the dozens of questions raised and the two-months of ire from many San Francisco leaders and institutions, is not going away.

What is disappearing is the excellent reputation of UCLA's medical schools and research, and by extension the entire UCLA campus. Make no mistake about this: UCLA'S headache over the HIV math model for San Francisco's HIV drug resistance will only go away when Blower and the UCLA press office respectfully and constructively engage us.

From Clinton's Pointing Fingers web site:

In a damning transcript released by University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Professor Sally Blower, the besieged UCLA director of of the Disease Modeling Group at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is exposed to have deliberately ignored concerns raised by UCSF in the first draft of a joint press release, and rewrote it, “changing both tone and substance” of the original draft. Dr. Blower had attempted to focus accountability on Enrique Rivero of UCLA Health Sciences Communications and Government Relations, headed by Executive Director Dale Triber Tate, and UCSF.

The alarmist press release on January 14th, 2010, headlined "Study predicts HIV drug resistance will surge," touted the publication of a study by Dr. Blower, co-authored by UCSF’s Dr. Jim Kahn in the journal Science.

In early February, demands for an explanation and retraction from UCLA by me and activist Michael Petrelis, were sent to Dr, Blower. I suggested that UCLA follow the lead set by Barbara French, associate vice chancellor of University Relations at UCSF and UCSF's liaison for LGBT health issues, Ms. Shane Snowdon, who met with us following fallout from a MRSA study that turned into a scandal in 2008, and established a set of concrete steps to take to ensure it didn’t happen again.

A letter requesting an explanation was also sent by San Francisco Supervisor, Bevan Dufty, to which Dr. Blower responded two weeks later, in which she wrote: “We wish to stress that the press release was written by the UCLA media person for HIV and was approved by the media team at UCSF.”

Seeking clarification from UCSF, a statement by Ms. French was issued to Michael Petrelis through Ms. Snowdon.

Categorically disputing Dr. Blower’s claim, Ms. French stated that UCSF media personnel did not “have the opportunity to approve the UCLA press release.” Ms. French further stated: “When the study was circulated at UCLA and UCSF, Jeff Sheehy, Communications Director at the AIDS Research Institute at UCSF, told Enrique Rivero, the UCLA media representative for the study, that he thought it would be controversial. Rivero drafted a press release about the study that used qualifiers such as 'could' and differed significantly from the final UCLA release.”

Dr. Blower, it appears, didn’t like qualifiers that would water down the sensational and unsubstantiated claims being touted by her study.

According to Ms. French, “On receiving this draft release, Dr. Blower apparently rewrote it, changing both tone and substance.” Again, according to Ms. French, UCSF’s Mr. Sheehy warned Rivero that the rewritten release “would create problems, but the release was distributed.” Mr. Sheehy “did not have an opportunity to edit or approve the rewritten release” and considered it problematic enough that he “did not submit it to UCSF channels for distribution and did not send it to his contacts.” [...]

I recently wrote a long expose on Professor Sally Blower, who has a history of fabricating information, and falsely accusing her colleagues of sexual harassment and other damaging lies that she’s been required to retract publicly.

Fellow scientists criticize her publicly, denouncing her as unpleasant and difficult to get along with, let alone work with. Her tumultuous departure from UCSF under a cloud of lies and strong-armed tactics, designed to hurt individuals and the university, was replicated at UCLA, where incredibly, she still works. [...]

In 2005, Sir Roy Anderson, of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College at the University of London wrote a terse letter to The Journal of Infectious Diseases, providing evidence of a mathematical model he had originally published in Nature in 1991 which was “the first transmission model of HIV vaccines to assess the potential epidemic-level impact of imperfect vaccines.”

His letter followed an attempt by Dr. Blower to discredit his claim in 2005 by falsely claiming that her 1993 and 1994 articles represented the first publication of the first transmission model related to the potential epidemic-level impact of imperfect vaccines.

While Sir Anderson has his own baggage around failures to disclose business associations, he is widely respected for his expertise. He is a is a leading British expert on epidemiology, and also currently chairs the science advisory board of WHO's Neglected Tropical Diseases program, is a member of the Bill and Melinda Gates Grand Challenges advisory board, and chairs the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative advisory board (SCI) funded by the Gates Foundation. He is a non-executive director of GlaxoSmithKline.

Dr. Sally Blower, on the other hand, has a history of lying, fabricating and then publicly having to apologize in addition to criticisms by scientists and colleagues who question the veracity of her claims and feasibility of her models. Dr. Blower deliberately eliminated the cautions and qualifiers inserted by UCSF in order to sensationalize the findings of her study. [...]

Dr. Blower further used the media opportunity to cast doubt on current HIV prevention strategies, particularly the “test and treat’’ approach being advocated by the World Health Organization, which aims to reduce high quantities of the virus being generated in an infected person to low enough levels that little to no HIV is passed along to a partner.

These actions are dangerous and deadly and impact the lives of other people. [...]

Originally I had called for an explanation, which I later changed to a demand for an apology or a retraction. In light of these new revelations and Dr. Blower’s deliberate and calculated attempt to give more credence to her findings by removing qualifiers, ignoring legitimate concerns raised by UCSF and her willingness to demonize a community in the process is reprehensible and represents a black eye to UCLA’s credibility.

UCLA needs to qualify why they continue to support Dr. Blower, or Dr. Blower should resign.

State Dept Plagiarizes Itself:
'07, '08, '09 Gay Jamaica Reports

Let's talk cut-and-paste human rights accountability from the State Department under President Obama, and the annual country reports. While this year's survey of gay and HIV/AIDS related citations and abuses is probably the largest ever, it's maddening to see that the report for Jamaica and its serious violations against gay people, is not nearly as reflective of what happened in 2009 as it ought to be.

As this blog has well documented, as have so many other gay blogs and news outlets, 2009 was another year of hostilities and violence for gay Jamaicans, and the only significant difference in the latest Jamaica report over last year's is that it mentions the murder of a white non-Jamaican, the British honorary consul John Terry.

I certainly don't intend to belittle that citation, but there was plenty of new violence and troubles for native, black Jamaicans, and the annual human rights report from the U.S. State Department has done a piss-poor job of accurately informing Congress and the American public about the continuing anti-gay violations.

Questions must be raised as to why Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton think it is acceptable to cut-and-paste Jamaica's annual gay human rights record, with marginally changes. We've got to advocate for reality of the previous year to be truly reflected in the annual surveys. This current approach is a real disservice to America's commitment to protect the human rights guarantees of gays around the world.

Let's put more of the evolving truth into the reports. Here's another idea for State to implement. Inform us of what embassy personnel did about the anti-gay abuses. Just stop with the cutting-and-pasting.

From the annual reports:

J-FLAG

2007

The Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All Sexuals, and Gays (J-FLAG) continued to report human rights abuses, including police harassment, arbitrary detention, mob attacks, stabbings, harassment of homosexual patients by hospital and prison staff, and targeted shootings of homosexuals. Police often did not investigate such incidents.

2008

The Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All Sexuals, and Gays (J-FLAG) continued to report human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention, mob attacks, stabbings, harassment of homosexual patients by hospital and prison staff, and targeted shootings of homosexuals. Police often did not investigate such incidents.

2009

The Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All Sexuals, and Gays (J-FLAG) continued to report human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention, mob attacks, stabbings, harassment of homosexual patients by hospital and prison staff, and targeted shootings of such persons. Police often did not investigate such incidents.

Steve Harvey Murder

2007

Authorities postponed the trial of six suspects arrested for the 2005 robbery and murder of Lenford "Steve" Harvey, and it had not been held by year's end.

2008

The trial of six suspects arrested for the 2005 robbery and murder of Lenford "Steve" Harvey, initially begun and then postponed in 2007, was scheduled to recommence in January 2009.

2009

The trial of six suspects arrested for the 2005 robbery and murder of prominent gay rights advocate Lenford "Steve" Harvey, initially begun and then postponed in 2007, was scheduled to recommence on January 25, 2010.

Gay Prisoners

2007

Male inmates deemed by prison wardens to be homosexual were held in a separate facility for their protection. The method used for determining their sexual orientation was subjective and not regulated by the prison system, although inmates were said to confirm their homosexuality for their own safety. There were numerous reports of violence against homosexual inmates, perpetrated by the wardens and by other inmates, but few inmates sought recourse through the prison system.

2008

Male inmates deemed by prison wardens to be homosexual were held in a separate facility for their protection. The method used for determining their sexual orientation was subjective and not regulated by the prison system, although inmates were said to confirm their homosexuality for their own safety. There were numerous reports of violence against homosexual inmates, perpetrated by the wardens and by other inmates, but few inmates sought recourse through the prison system.

2009

Male inmates deemed by prison wardens to be gay were held in a separate facility for their protection. The method used for determining their sexual orientation was subjective and not regulated by the prison system, although inmates were said to confirm their homosexuality for their own safety. There were numerous reports of violence against gay inmates, perpetrated by the wardens and by other inmates, but few inmates sought recourse through the prison system.

People With HIV/AIDS

2007

No laws protect persons living with HIV/AIDS from discrimination. Human rights NGOs reported severe stigma and discrimination against this group. The ILO worked with the Ministry of Labor on a program to reduce the stigma of HIV/AIDS in the workplace and to assist employers in designing policies for workers with HIV/AIDS. Although health care facilities were prepared to handle patients with HIV/AIDS, health care workers often neglected such patients.

2008

No laws protect persons living with HIV/AIDS from discrimination. Human rights NGOs reported severe stigma and discrimination against this group. The ILO worked with the Ministry of Labor on a program to reduce the stigma of HIV/AIDS in the workplace and to assist employers in designing policies for workers with HIV/AIDS. Although health care facilities were prepared to handle patients with HIV/AIDS, health care workers often neglected such patients.

2009

No laws protect persons living with HIV/AIDS from discrimination. Human rights NGOs reported severe stigma and discrimination against this group. The ILO worked with the Ministry of Labor on a program to reduce the stigma of HIV/AIDS in the workplace and to assist employers in designing policies for workers with HIV/AIDS. Although health care facilities were prepared to handle patients with HIV/AIDS, health care workers often neglected such patients.

UCLA: Mutant HIV Spreads to NY, UK;
UCSF Didn't Approve News Release

There is much news to report, two full months after HIV modeler Sally Blower published a questionable study and the public relations team at UCLA wrote a controversial and stigmatizing news release about the study.

First up, Bloomberg News has put out a stenographic "story" about the two-month-old Blower study, and the only person quoted is the researcher, Blower. I guess it was too much trouble for Bloomberg News to find one of the many critics of the study and include skepticism in the story. Let's go over this example of stenographic journalism.

Bloomberg News' headline, Mutant HIV may undo drug progress, sets an apocalyptic tone and I don't recall the study addressing if the supposed resistance HIV strains are indeed undoing medical progress. If this headline is true, then I want to hear from Dr. Tony Fauci or other HIV drug experts at the National Institutes of Health, backing up this new claim.

The news service doesn't report that the UCLA study came out two months ago, nor is it explained why they are all of sudden reporting on the findings, but Bloomberg News reports that Blower has now found mutant strains are spreading:

Similar trends are emerging in other rich cities including New York, Chicago and London, said Sally Blower, a professor of mathematical biology, who led the research.

Oh, really? Who exactly, besides Madame Sally and her crystal ball, can back up her new alleged strains in three more cities besides San Francisco? Look here, there may be these alarming drug resistant HIV strains causing trouble, in the four cities claimed by Blower, but I am not aware of a single responsible public health official or AIDS agency in any of those cities saying what she says.

Here's a question Bloomberg News and Blower: Can you produce independently verified data to back up the four-cities claim or health officials endorsing the claim at the local level?

Also, since Blower now posits that three U.S. cities are facing the mutant strains, and it's the big worry she alleges, she should tell the federal health authorities at NIH and the CDC to do something about it.

The story struck fear in the hearts of many readers with this sentence: "Mutant forms 'pose a great and immediate threat to global public health,' they said."

That is quite a troubling claim, one that Blower herself moved away from in her recent letter to SF Supervisor Bevan Dufty, but Bloomberg News couldn't be bothered to find another source to back it up.

Blower was allowed to keep up her dire drumbeat, without any skepticism, and trash the "test and treat" theories of rivals:

"Universal test and treat is just a recipe for disaster," she said. "Our modeling is saying the drug resistant strains that you will generate from this kind of strategy are ones that will be very strong, transmissible, and therefore you will get an awful lot of problems."

What is also a recipe for disaster is the hysterical predictions of one UCLA math modeler whose research continues to generate questions and controversy, and who does not give a whit about the increased burden of stigma on people with AIDS.

In other news about Blower's model, the head of UC at San Francisco's public affairs department, Ms. Barbara French, issued the following statement to me today, through UCSF's liaison for LGBT health issues, Ms. Shane Snowdon.

Seems quite clear to me that UCSF had nothing to do with the UCLA news release back in January. I believe the UCSF press office, and many others at UCSF, learned valuable lessons from the debacle of 2008 when the SF campus created a mess with a study alleging drug-resistant staph infections among gays.

As I read this statement, I was reminded, as if the thought is ever far from my mind the topic is Blower and her hype, that the sole problem here is Blower herself. She may think generating a stenographic news story will deflect the very real campaign to hold her math modeling to a high degree of scrutiny, but the story and UCSF statement only add more ingredients to the recipe of accountability she and the UCLA press office will day deliver.

Here's the UCSF statement, putting much distance between them and Blower and UCLA:

RECAP OF ASSOCIATE VICE CHANCELLOR BARBARA FRENCH'S CALL TO SUPERVISOR BEVAN DUFTY:

"Thank you for your interest in the ramifications of the recent study of HIV drug resistance published by Sally Blower et al. We received a copy of your letter to Dr. Blower about the study, and recently reviewed her response to you.

I would like to clarify the role of UCSF’s media personnel.

"Dr. Blower writes: 'We wish to stress that the press release was written by the UCLA media person for HIV and was approved by the media team at UCSF.' UCSF media personnel did not, however, have the opportunity to approve the UCLA press release.

"When the study was circulated at UCLA and UCSF, Jeff Sheehy, Communications Director at the AIDS Research Institute at UCSF, told Enrique Rivero, the UCLA media representative for the study, that he thought it would be controversial. Rivero drafted a press release about the study that used qualifiers such as 'could' and differed significantly from the final UCLA release.

"On receiving this draft release, Dr. Blower apparently rewrote it, changing both tone and substance. On seeing the rewritten release, Sheehy told Rivero that he thought it would create problems, but the release was distributed. Sheehy, who did not have an opportunity to edit or approve the rewritten release, did not submit it to UCSF channels for distribution and did not send it to his contacts.

"Sheehy did contact Eileen Shields at the S.F. Department of Public Health, and Dr. Grant Colfax of DPH was designated to respond to media inquiries about the study. Sheehy directed media to Dr. Colfax to ensure that DPH concerns were presented.

"The study had UCLA first, second and senior authors, and UCSF’s ability to influence the content of the related press release was extremely limited. In the process that unfolded, UCSF media relations personnel did not have the opportunity to give meaningful input.

"We would be happy to provide any additional information that might be helpful. We appreciate your concern about this important topic."

Big shout out to UCSF's Barbara French and Shane Snowdon for issuing this very important background and clarification.

4 Gay Jamaicans Attacked by Mob

The Jamaica Star, in a shoddy example of what passes for journalism in Jamaica, on March 1 ran a story about several gays facing violence from a mob. Here's the latest news excerpted from the Star about the incredibly hostile environment gay Jamaicans face every day:

A police station in St Catherine was the scene of hostility yesterday after residents demanded their own brand of justice for four men who they believe are lovers.

Police reports are that about 5 p.m. the men were at home when one went to a nearby shop and persons started to call him 'fish'.

The man went and reported this to his friends who drove to the shop. They were attacked and their car damaged. They went to report the matter to the police, when a mob converged and demanded that they come out. [...]

"We want them fi let out di bwoy dem mek wi deal wid dem business, in a cold cold time yah dem a wrap up in a de place," an irate woman screamed.

"A long time mi a notice sey dem a fish and we want them bad fi gi dem a proper beating," another woman said.

The men told THE STAR they were homosexuals.

"Yes, you can let the world know that although we a fish, we a pay mortgage for the house for two years and want to live in peace," one who gave his name as Barbee said.

The men danced up a storm and declared that they would live their lives as they want. [...]

Up to late last night, the men could not be released as the angry residents remained resolute that they wanted to administer their own form of justice. [...]

Let's the gays were able to leave the police station, in relative safety, and did not endure physical harm.