The United Nations' top AIDS scientists plan to acknowledge this week that they have long overestimated both the size and the course of the epidemic, which they now believe has been slowing for nearly a decade, according to U.N. documents prepared for the announcement.
AIDS remains a devastating public health crisis in the most heavily affected areas of sub-Saharan Africa. But the far-reaching revisions amount to at least a partial acknowledgment of criticisms long leveled by outside researchers who disputed the U.N. portrayal of an ever-expanding global epidemic. {...}
The latest estimates, due to be released publicly Tuesday, put the number of annual new HIV infections at 2.5 million, a cut of more than 40 percent from last year's estimate, documents show.
Some researchers, however, contend that persistent overestimates in the widely quoted U.N. reports have long skewed funding decisions and obscured potential lessons about how to slow the spread of HIV. Critics have also said that U.N. officials overstated the extent of the epidemic to help gather political and financial support for combating AIDS.
Whoopsie...
AIDS is still a serious problem, and that shouldn't be downgraded. But it's obvious that, like most things concerned with the UN, it's been a pretty nice pay day for certain people.
The United States is the major payer of most UN programs. This means the UN has robbed the United States government and the United States taxpayer. Will the US and others who contributed to this program be paid back? Somehow I doubt it but it would be nice if someone would prosecute these officials or at least demand to be repaid the money that was extorted from them.
ReplyDeleteAs is my habit, I will quietly insist again that the UN be bulldozed into the East River to make way for high rise condos with a large Starbucks on the first floor...
ReplyDeleteRosey
ReplyDeleteI could not agree with you more!! The UN is a net drain on the US. Its only purpose seems to be to undermine American interests. The only things it does well is undermine the US and Israel. This may well be why the anti-American left likes it so much. If we implement what you propose, this would be a net benefit to the United States and to the people of New York City.