Talk:Jesse Helms/Archive 6

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Views on AIDS in Africa

Perhaps someone could contribute to his views on AIDS in Africa. He was monumental in refusing AIDS prevention measures citing that it was due to immorality. He then partered up with Bono for a bill to increase AID to Africa.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.100.191.114 (talk) 10 November 2005

Before his retirement, Helms led the fight in Congress for an emergency appropriation of funds to combat AIDS in Africa, primarily by providing antiviral drugs to HIV-positive pregnant moms and their newborn infants, which drastically reduces the risk of transmission of the virus from the mother to her baby.[1][2] After Helms retired, President Bush led the effort.[3] NCdave (talk) 05:42, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

This foreign aid program is now called PEPFAR, and it has prevented over 150,000 cases of HIV infection in infants, through prophylactic antiretroviral treatment in over 800,000 pregnancies. NCdave (talk) 09:40, 25 June 2008 (UTC)

I agree an entire section on his treatment of the AIDS pandemic including his surprising involvement with Bono would be helpful and interesting. Banjeboi 00:30, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

BTW, the accusation that "he was monumental in refusing AIDS prevention measures citing that it was due to immorality" is simply false. Helms never opposed AIDS prevention measures. Rather, I think (though I don't have a reference at my fingertips) that he supported AIDS prevention measures, such as closing gay bathhouses, which many of his harshest critics opposed, even though a substantial percentage of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who died from HIV/AIDS contracted the disease either directly or indirectly through gay bathhouses. Also, I think that when he opposed the confirmation of Roberta Achtenberg, one of his criticisms of her was because she opposed closing the gay bathhouses (though, again, I don't have a reference at my fingertips). NCdave (talk) 21:20, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

The article says twice that Helms believed AIDS was "God's punishment for homosexuals." Is there a citation for this? I think it was Jerry Falwell who expressed that idea. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.194.35.117 (talk) 15:01, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

I can find his quote about AIDS being the result of peoples' disgusting behavior, but the quote about "God's punishment for homosexuals" does seem to be attributed to Falwell. I do think it's something that Helms could have said, but as I can't find a source for it I have added the citation needed tag to it, as it is a direct quote and should therefore have a source. Rreagan007 (talk) 19:43, 26 April 2020 (UTC)