In praise of patience

[pecunium]

rivka has made me glad I did not jump on the bandwagon of outrage over the use of children as unwitting test subjects for HIV drugs in New York City.

She goes into detail on the subject at Respectful of Otters.

I'd like to say this tripped my worry meter enough that I'd done more than set it aside, pending corroboration, before I let outrage take over, but I didn't. I merely filed it as unlikely.

Maia and I are heading to L.A. this afternoon, because I have drill this weekend, and it's mandatory fun (to be honest, I'd rather have some real work to do this weekend, but it's needful. We have to have a couple of briefings every year, and this letes family get together. With guys deployed, it lets their families know we've not forgotten them, but feh. Even with people I really like, mandatory fun is tedious).

I may make the time to try and marshall some thoughts a fight in another place has set to bubbling, but I may not.

No food porn, no descriptives, and no real ranting at the moment. See you all later.


Oh, andmatociquala thanks for all the exposure. If I were having a subscription drive, you'd be the prize winner, by miles.

Comments

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I'd like to say this tripped my worry meter enough that I'd done more than set it aside, pending corroboration, before I let outrage take over, but I didn't. I merely filed it as unlikely.

I bet that some of the same false notes struck you too. Particularly, "if this were really happening, why wouldn't the story get picked up by the mainstream press?"

Thanks for helping spread the word, Terry.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

Story WAS picked up by the mainstream press, here in NYC.

And having ACS in my life RIGHT NOW, I know that they can be heavy-handed jerks who lie to you, make things up, and will do anything they can to push their own agenda.

So besides taking the first with a grain of salt, I will take the Respectful of Otters bit with a grain of salt as well. I don't trust ACS, not one bit. It is an agency that abuses its power, gives parents no way to fight back, and isn't held accountable because of 'privacy concerns'.

[balmofgilead.livejournal.com]

Who picked it up besides the NY Post?

IMO, even if the ACS can be heavy-handed dishonest jerks, the reporting on the situation hasn't given the whole picture. The ACS may push their agenda on people, but if in this case "their agenda" was to give reasonably safe AIDS meds to HIV+ kids, that's not a scandal. If the meds in question were indeed in the children's best interest, well, that's kind of the ACS's job.

The issue of parents'/guardians' consent still remains. I don't know a lot about the ACS or the foster care system. However, wouldn't the foster care system be the children's guardian when they're in their care?

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

Didn't the News do something on it as well? I know I read it and I know I avoid the Post like the plague, and can't get Newsday.

I don't know at which point ACS is the guardian, it is not in my case (and I hope it remains that way) it may vary from case to case. I just don't trust ACS to keep children's best interests in mind, seriously. I know that's not much to go on, but besides my case, and from the other cases I personally know of, they'd rather be 'right' than do the right thing. Next time I go to the big library I'll see if I can search the daily news archives from there.

[balmofgilead.livejournal.com]

Hey, I have enough (healthy) skepticism towards authority that I wouldn't quibble with what you say about ACS. If the ACS generally acts inappropriately, that's a problem that needs to be fixed, but I think it makes sense to keep that separate from this particular scandal. If the ACS is "bad" that doesn't make the AIDS drug trial bad, and if the drug trial was "good," that wouldn't make the ACS "good."

I hope things turn out smoothly for you with the ACS.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I don't see anything in my post that amounts to an unqualified endorsement of ACS.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

No, it seems to me that personal facts relating to ACS make kibbles make her suspicious enough of them to be willing to believe they would be the strongarm for a Tuskegee sort of experiment.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Okay, I can see that.

Hopefully it helps in this case to know that the conspiracy would also have to involve the FDA, the federal Office of Research Protections, and several indepedent-of-each-other divisions of Columbia University.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

Didn't say THAT, but I am just saying that I don't trust ACS, and from what I know of them, such a story wouldn't suprise me. (Which is really sad because of what their purpose is supposed to be -- protecting children.)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

No, the mainstream can be slow, and sometimes deliberate.

That it was the BBC was a point in its favor, but the issues of protocols was niggling at my mind.

TK