Would you be angry, insulted, or feel imposed upon if the
government made HIV
testing mandatory for every citizen? Would you revolt? Or would you
acquiesce because you were sure it was all part of an effort to stop the spread
of the disease?
The U.S.
Preventive Services Task Force is recommending that every American
between the ages of 15 and 65 be tested for the virus. Everybody in
that age range, regardless of personal history.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist or anything (OK, just sometimes), but I wonder
if there’s a certain threat to civil liberties if the government were to line us
up and make us all have a go at testing. Is that preventative healthcare or an
exploitation of power?
On the other hand, some 20 percent of
folks infected with HIV have no idea and probably have no intention to
get tested because they think they’re perfectly healthy. It’s been a hard cycle
to break, despite the push for public information and widespread advocacy,
particularly in communities that have been hardest hit. And that’s with the
availability of free testing, new at-home
testing kits, and celebrity spokespeople supporting the movement.
Still, a recommendation that everyone be tested seems like a precursor
to something more… forced. And that, I’m sure, would infuriate and ostracize a
whole heap of Americans, public health epidemic or not. You know we don’t like
anybody trying to tell us what we have to do. I can almost hear people seceding
from the union now.
Honestly, is it really a bad idea? I get the whole
Constitutional rights bag, but I sure am thankful that polio and TB vaccines
were made standard and have put the chokehold on those public health threats. I
don’t see the harm in nudging people into knowing their status, especially since
outreach isn’t influencing some of us to get ‘er done—even folks who know they
haven’t behaved responsibly.
After all of the energy invested into
spreading knowledge, I still know people who get dangerously comfortable with a
sex partner after a couple of romps in the sack, like the possibility of
infection lessens as the relationship progresses. Commitment doesn’t compromise
the virus. Plenty of us now know that. But plenty isn’t all.
Is
mandatory testing for everyone between the ages of 15 and 65 a good idea?
Sinus infection
- Cafe AmyS
on Nov. 28, 2012 at 3:06 PM