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Top U.S. Official Booed Off Stage at World AIDS Conference

Aired July 09, 2002 - 14:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Booed off the stage. That's what happened to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson today. He was speaking to the World AIDS Conference in Spain when about 100 demonstrators began chanting. They accuse the U.S. of failing to contribute enough in the global fight against AIDS.

CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now from Barcelona -- Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, not a good day for the secretary, Kyra. No question. He came to the conference, he came to this particular speech armed with the speech about the United States' commitment to fight global AIDS.

Activists also showed up with placards, with whistles. Take a look what happened and why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): More than 100 AIDS activists from around the world took over the meeting on Tuesday when Secretary Tommy Thompson rose to speak.

At issue: The amount of money the United States government is giving a new, independent fund to set up after the United Nations meeting on AIDS just last year.

TOMMY THOMPSON, SECRETARY, HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: And they can shout, but that doesn't deter me or the president.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need action from governments, especially the U.S. government. We need leadership and not empty promises. We need Tommy Thompson's actions to match his words. And what we are demanding is billions for the global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

GUPTA (on camera): To date, the United States has pledged $500 million to the fund. Activists say that is not enough. Thompson says the activists have their guns pointed in the wrong direction.

THOMPSON: And I understand the people want to yell and scream. They would serve their cause much better if they would try and get other countries to contribute to the global fund like the United States has. GUPTA: Equally contentious: Another $500 million recently announced by President Bush to focus on preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission in Africa and the Caribbean. Activists think the money should also be used to also treat the parents of those children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you can't get something comprehensive now -- and from an infrastructure standpoint, you can't -- what can you do right now?

GUPTA: The activists are also bitter about the lack of funding for needle exchange programs in the United States. Studies have shown that these programs providing clean needles to drug addicts do reduce HIV infections.

Last year, the United States gave almost $2 billion to AIDS programs worldwide. Thompson says that since this global fund is barely a year old, they want to see that it's working well before contributing any more money.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(on camera): Ten billion dollars, that's the magic number that we are hearing about, $10 billion a year needed annually to be able to treat HIV in low-income countries.

And it's just not the activists who are concerned about the United States' commitment. Jeffrey Sacks (ph), a well-known economist actually spoke out today as well and said that, in perhaps the most scathing assessments, that perhaps the United States government has not done their homework in its entirety. Perhaps they're pulling some of these numbers really out of the air, and perhaps the plan really is not in place yet. So, there are lot of concerns and, no question, a lot of controversy as we saw right there -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Sanjay Gupta, we will check in with you tomorrow. Thanks, Sanjay.

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