A4 = TUESDAY, JUNE 29, 1993 fos Anacles Gimes ‘We Can Do Better, AIDS Panel Says = Disease: In its final report, commission urges Clinton to develop a national plan. It calls on Congress to fund the necessary research. By MARLENE CIMONS TIMES STAFF WRITER ASHINGTON—In what it described as “our final heartfelt public plea,” the National Commission on AIDS issued its last report Monday, calling upon the President, Congress and the country to face squarely the “human disaster” created by the epidemic. “AS a nation, we can do vastly better in confronting this crisis than we have to date,” the panel said. Repeating its major recommendations from previous reports, the commission urged the President to develop a national plan to confront the crisis and said Con- gress should fund whatever research is necessary to find preventive and therapeu- tic solutions. The commission, completing four years of work, also recommended that the federal government underwrite a “responsive” health care system for all HIV-infected people who need it. “.. . we call on all Americans to work single-mindedly to lessen the cruel dis- crimination that has added such horror to the lives of those infected,” the report said. “As a nation, we can do vastly better in confronting this crisis than we have to date.” And panel member Mary Fisher, the HIV-infected woman who mesmerized del- egates to the Republican National Conven- tion last summer with a speech of pain and hope, wept as she told a press conference Monday of taking her two small sons to Stand at the grave of their father, who died last week of AIDS. Fisher, who was infected by her late husband, said, “I will not go passively or quietly,” and urged the Clinton Adminis- tration to lead. “Stand up and speak for those hundreds of thousands whose voices have been stilled.” The commission is a bipartisan panel created by Congress, and whose members are appointed by Congress and the White House. Its mandate was to advise the nation on how to deal with the burgeoning epidemic. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, when asked about the report at a luncheon with reporters, said that she felt the panel's criticism was justified. “I had breakfast with the AIDS commis- sion today, and they said, “We hope you don’t take this criticism personally,’ and I said, ‘Keep criticizing,’” Shalala said. “My view is . . everybody ought to keep our feet to the fire until we're doing everything that is possible to do. “T think that until we have a vaccine and a first-class education campaign and a Strategy to change the risky behavior of people in relationship to AIDS, any criti- cism is justified,” she added. “I'm not going to be uptight or resentful, because what we have on our hands is just a horrible tragedy.” or 1994, the Administration has budget- ed $2.7 billion for AIDS research, prevention and treatment—a 28% increase from the year before. Since 1981, 290,000 cases have been diagnosed in the United States alone and an estimated 60% of those people have died. The panel did not spare strong language in expressing its longtime frustration. “This is a short, sometimes angry report tinged with sadness and foreboding,” said Drs. June E. Osborn and David E. Rogers in a statement. Osborn is panel chairwoman and Rogers is vice chairman. “It is short, because all of what we say here has been said many times before,” they said. “It is sometimes angry because the carefully considered, widely heralded recommendations contained in our previ- ous reports have been so consistently underfunded or ignored. “It is sad because a potentially prevent- able disease continues to expand relent- lessly and cause loss of life in young Americans on an unprecedented and unac- ceptable scale.” Previously, the panel had attacked the - Republican Administration of former Pres- ident George Bush for failing to address the AIDS crisis adequately, and said in its final report that “new hope surged with the election of President Clinton.” Nevertheless, the panel said that Clinton had thus far failed to get his AIDS effort off the ground. The panel’s criticism of Clinton, howev- er, was softened by his announcement Friday that he had named Kristine Gebbie as the federal government’s AIDS coordi- nator, or “czar.” “We're pleased that the Clinton Admin- istration has finally started its engine on AIDS,” Rogers said. The panel again beseeched “leaders at all levels” to speak out about AIDS to their constituencies, imploring the President, “regardless of who holds the office, to “speak out clearly and forcibly about the nature, extent and needs of the AIDS disaster. This has been our foremost rec- ommendations since 1991.” The panel cited the slogan of the activist group ACT UP, “silencesdeath” as an - appropriate description of the current soa mate. “The appalling lack of frank discussion about the epidemic at all levels of national leadership fostered a woefully inadequate response, yielding death and suffering well in excess of what might have been,” the panel said. “Silence has existed at too many levels of responsibility,” the report continued, list- ing governors, mayors, members of Con- gress, corporate executive, and community and religious leaders as all sharing blame. “We are vividly aware of the fact that addressing AIDS. . . is difficult for many — to deal with comfortably,” the panel said. “But to confront difficult and sensitive issues is what true leadership means and requires.” The panel said—as it has before—that the federal government should design’ a comprehensive national strategy for pre- vention, care and research, and that such a plan was essential if the nation is ever to come to grips with the epidemic. “To continue to treat HIV/AIDS as a marginal problem gravely threatens our nation’s future,” the report said. “Without action on our nation’s unfinished business on AIDS, we will have a continually expanding tragedy.” Times staff writer Sam Futwood Il! contribut- ed to this story.