Document Type

Committee Report

Publication Date

9-1986

Abstract

The Prevent AIDS Now Initiative Committee (PANIC), working closely with Lyndon LaRouche's national organization, has placed on the November ballot a short, seemingly simple initiative measure whose stated purpose is to protect people with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and protect the public health. Although no one could criticize such a purpose, PANIC's initiative uses ambiguous, unclear language that can be interpreted in strikingly different ways, with widely varying effects on public health AIDS prevention efforts.

If the Initiative is approved by the voters, we can expect intense and lengthy litigation over the many legal questions raised by its confusing language. But no matter how it is ultimately interpreted by the courts, the medical and public health community are deeply worried about the Initiative's impact on their current AIDS prevention and treatment efforts. They fear that the Initiative will divert time and resources from important AIDS prevention and research work already under way, and will subject local public health officers to political pressure that prevents them from following their best professional judgment and good public health practice. For these reasons, California's major medical and public health organizations are strongly opposed to PANIC's AIDS Initiative. There are no known medical or public health organizations, and no AIDS experts with recognized medical credentials, who support this Initiative.

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