THE TWO VIRUSES OF AIDS S in f ects political field ( AIDS) K Ih.- Octode ; AIDS. h,. .inictl i - (•onl leatlmp VGIIMW ;iBM' hncc land. ■U eve ^'•U! County ( <r. num- n. "Won l.i^isl;, pushed CIlVKIv . .... . ™™ « M ,1,,. u „" ' IW i - I l l l ( I’o-Miions m r W"s pr^m s,^ ( s " l l others* ||L,. nve hopeful । w of th.- .HM- US, 4 ” " “ a m * . i ' " ' 17*. S t» |y Initiative |,‘j ' rii-f.-aim^ Hight. i . 9 „ F o u n l ( t tlon spond. n-tused to n . I n hl« 19 8 4 camnaion , nor promised oavs rhP. 9. ' & ' ^ s a x j t a I should have the ngnt to protect myself and my family horn the disease. KlllVes in u , i, . or , jgteTwswWe liS iS . I- • .urnini Ilie S....nl , <oum 11 |„ ... r „ v pndiilim,^ ' ( -•nd others h , - ' '""Hord-. k f / K ' m ? ,m| A " ’S , h c eounty ex.vunv - . d 'hat some day l 'r" l “'1 .be for.-rtt loz ,....? ‘ """'.V m.n . . . » « • nw>i’ , s ‘almost a; S'P (he " a s s ieh flay rig .. h.t . s . .u ..n'd "C erfire! Neu ~ a = - iv . - — . W Ds virus fological impact of wu —------- ' 5 I ^hole new । ni diffic"1 ncn.w » " " 0I r r ;a* ?. ..,7 .- 'uv'w ’'V" i v m - n ' By James Winchell 'ATIJADAY NOVEMBER i f . jwing Surgeon general speaks out on spread of AIDS and 1 t0- g ^ t h t n ^V Beauties WithGaY* JO kiss the ! J ®cno»g and ’ as f0r victim^0 5 .v ’W K’*’ ' w 2 S ™ w « 2 ' w n « W " ; " " " " ' ' i f f * «»»» ,„ -^nd. ih,. u i f l u m X - r . d.-M * ' \ MOSsca'®’ m aSks poW>e during r®5" * ■^ " 2 THE SOVIETS ARE SAID TO HAVE SPREAD AIDS AS A SECRET WEAPON IRRESPONSIBLE " ‘- n I the " ° S l ^ e S A/OS public ‘neral C. F Hphia pediairi ■1 before hel n^ tnf post >11! passed In ^rmissidn J CHR C L E 5*S?”w « de” t a g s ..... *8 AlDft ^ ^ n t in e r , ^ » » n . " » f “ w * ; • » * ' C M is te r , r 2Kbi ^ ‘ Use h “ k l'hhin, ' r , ',J<T;il f, n ' ‘nt u.„. >. ..... ..... - " » ........... '" r t h . ; ' ' "'Uni,. M i , , . , I• In Search of a Body such previously “ incurable” diseases as smallpox and polio. The HTLV-3 virus, as Michel Serres tells us in The Parasite, “ intercepts a function; it is a noise that mixes up messages in the circuits of the organism, parasiting their ordinary circulation.” For Serres, the parasite is an “ expansion” that invades and occupies the host in a furious arena of tumult, incomprehension, violence, asymmetry and hunger; it is as concrete as the beasts that have historically frightened humans: rats, bats, insects and wolves. The HTLV-3 virus is fatal, not metaphoric; physiological, not fictional. But is AIDS virus number two a metaphor? Yes and no. Strictly speaking it is a social problem, not a medical one. A problem of interpretation. While the HTLV-3 virus spreads through intimate, blood-level contact or interaction, AIDS-2 I n Flint, Michigan, a man leaps from his car during a traffic arrest and spits on four officers. The police subsequently charge him with assault with intent to commit murder,, a felony. He is John Richards, a confirmed AIDS victim, suffering from the HTLV-3 virus. The Flint police, unknown to themselves, are suffering from an old, enduring disease, which can now be called AIDS virus number two. In New York City, parents withdraw their children from public schools and stage a boycott to protest the school distr ic t ’s refusal to quarantine a second grader with the HTLV-3 virus. Closer to home, the Puget Sound Blood Center recently has experienced dangerously low inventory levels, the worst shortage of available blood in three decades. And in last November’s elections, a candidate for the King County council gambled his political future (and lost miserably) on a campaign proposal that homosexuals suffering from the HTLV-3 virus should be quarantined. In each case, the problem stems from AIDS virus number two, which, though virtually unrecognized, has become far more contagious than its suddenly famous cousin. A friend has helped me understand its frightful power. She says she will no longer take meals at a Capitol Hill restaurant known, or so she thinks, for its gay staff and clientele. Despite the fact that she stands a far greater risk of contracting hepatitis-B in heterosexual eateries from Renton to Roseburg, she will boycott the place, surreptitiously, because she has already contracted the second virus of AIDS. Her life is changed, limited; her very being is disfigured. She is ill. II• “Sickness is a noise,” not a metaphor T JL he HTLV-3 virus is a medical problem, a scientific puzzle, the disease of the end of the century. The New York Times states that eighty percent of AIDS victims die within two years. The disease is still incurable, and is spreading at an ever faster rate. The scientific method, rational and comprehensive, remains the best and only tool with which the race may approach its solution, just as scientific, practicable solutions were found to POLITICIANS DEMAND QUARANTINE, AND WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY SERIOUSLY PROPOSES FORCED TATTOOING FOR CARRIERS OF THE HTLV-3 VIRUS. spreads through all other forms of communication. Social intercourse. It is a metaphor inasmuch as it is a figure of speech, a cerebral relation. It does not pass through blood or mucous membranes, but rather across the synaptic - gaps of apprehension, dependent for its symbiosis on the symbols of language. Clinton St. Quarterly 33
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