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WPost: AIDS Activists Badger Gore Again
You can view the story, along with a fantastic accompany photo -- and an
ad for PhRMA!, at
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories
/gore061899.htm>
Robert Weissman
Essential Information | Internet: rob@essential.org
AIDS Activists Badger Gore Again
By Charles R. Babcock and Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, June 18, 1999; Page A12
NEW YORK, June 17 For the second day in a
row, AIDS activists disrupted Vice President
Gore's presidential campaign tour today,
protesting his behind-the-scenes role in a trade
dispute over the cost of drugs in South Africa.
At two campaign stops today and one yesterday,
Gore raised his voice and fired back at
demonstrators as they chanted "Gore's greed
kills." In one brief but tense exchange in New
Hampshire, the protesters stood yelling just a few
feet from Gore before being escorted out by
police.
Health and AIDS activists accuse Gore of favoring
drugmakers' profits over the lives of
millions of South Africans infected with the human
immunodeficiency virus, which causes
AIDS. They say Gore, in talks with South African
President Thabo Mbeki, has threatened
trade sanctions if South Africa permits the
widespread sale of cheaper, generic drugs that
would cut into U.S. companies' sales.
"Vice President Al Gore is doing drug company
dirty work," the group AIDS Drugs for
Africa says in fliers distributed at Gore's
appearances.
Small clutches of demonstrators first appeared
Wednesday at Gore's announcement of his
candidacy in Carthage, Tenn. Gore responded with a
quick phrase about free speech. But
today he was prepared with a full-throated
response.
"I love this country. I love the First Amendment,"
Gore boomed in response to fewer than a
dozen protesters here. "Let's give a hand to those
who are exercising their First Amendment
rights." As the audience clapped in approval,
Gore's voice grew louder: "Let's give them a
hand. Let's give them another hand. Make it
louder." New York police removed the
demonstrators, as Gore continued: "Now I'd like to
have my say."
At the heart of the dispute is a South African law
designed to give AIDS patients access to
cheaper drugs. U.S. pharmaceutical companies see
the law -- which allows South Africa's
health minister to bring in less expensive
imported AIDS drugs or locally produced generics --
as an infringement on their patent protections.
They have pushed aggressively for help in
Congress and at the White House, even proposing
that foreign aid to South Africa be cut off.
One senior Gore adviser acknowledged the vice
president is in a delicate position, balancing
the magnitude of the AIDS crisis in South Africa
and the needs of U.S. companies.
"Obviously the vice president's got to stick up
for the commercial interests of U.S.
companies," the adviser said. But, he said, Gore
realizes the disease "is a major threat to the
welfare and even the future stability" of South
Africa."
Gore has long had good relations with gay rights
groups, an important Democratic Party
constituency, and the South Africa issue does not
appear to be endangering that relationship.
David Smith, spokesman for the Human Rights
Campaign, one of the largest gay rights
lobbying groups, described the patent matter as a
"complicated issue" with "no easy solutions"
and added, "To single out the vice president is
not fair."
However, AIDS activist Eric Sawyer told the
President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS last
week that it should help change a "misguided
government policy" designed "simply to protect
the excessive profits of drug companies." Two of
the main companies producing the drugs --
Bristol-Myers Squibb and Glaxo Wellcome -- have
given the bulk of their corporate
contributions to the Republican Party in recent
years.
Gore met with Mbeki, who was then deputy
president, last August and again in February as
part of regular bilateral talks. A State
Department report released earlier this year called the
patent dispute "a central focus" of the August
talks, part of "an assiduous, concerted
campaign" by top U.S. officials to persuade South
Africa to change the law. South Africa
denies the law would violate international patent
rules.
An estimated 6 million South Africans are infected
with HIV, compared with about 1 million
in the United States. Many patients in this
country use a "cocktail" of three AIDS drugs often
costing more than $1,000 a month. South African
patients may buy the cocktail for about
$800 a month, but the new law -- which has yet to
take effect because of a court challenge --
would pave the way for far lower prices.
During a speech at Hesser College in Manchester,
N.H., this morning, Gore turned the
protest into an opportunity to talk about AIDS
awareness.
"Let me say in response to those who may have
chosen an inappropriate way to make their
point, that actually the crisis of AIDS in Africa
is one that should command the attention of
people in the United States and around the world,"
he said. "This epidemic was ignored for
too long in the United States of America and I'm
proud our nation is taking the lead to try to
do something about it."
His wife, Tipper, snapped photos as the four
demonstrators were led out.
Gore is in the middle of a four-day, cross-country
announcement swing aimed at pumping
some fresh energy into a campaign that has
sputtered throughout the spring. As his plane
headed to New York today, he said a Senate run by
Hillary Rodham Clinton "will generate
enthusiasm there and around the country."
The new stump speech, which he has dutifully
repeated at every stop, makes clear Gore is
ready to begin the shift away from President
Clinton on moral issues while still hoping to
share in the glories of the administration's
policy achievements.
As he told reporters on Air Force Two today: "It's
a new day because as a candidate for
president, I am obviously presenting my own vision
for the country's future."
1999 The Washington Post
Company