Who Would Volunteer For This?

I can’t imagine volunteering for something like this.

China Says AIDS Vaccine Shown to Be Effective in Human Trials

Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) — China’s government said its first human trial of an AIDS vaccine showed it was effective in protecting against the HIV-1 virus and didn’t produce any serious side effects among 49 volunteers to whom it was administered.

All participants showed signs they had “become immune against the HIV-1 virus” after it had been administered for 15 days, the State Food and Drug Administration said in a statement posted on its Web site over the weekend.

I’m also extremely skeptical since the source is China – whose Communist government is not exactly known for honesty, but they do at least have a certain John Kerry-like forthrightness. So maybe it’s legit after all.

After all, China is becoming known for it’s fantastic (and like Cuba, completely free!) medical care. Apparently it’s the go-to place for transplants. Pity that the recipients can’t get a conscience transplanted along with the organ they came to get. I ran across an excellent blog entry about a man taking his wife to China for an organ transplant. Turns out the the long wait times for organs that are experienced in other countries are practically nonexistent in China. The reason for that abundance of organs is not a country populated with people who really care about helping others. It is the multitude of prisoners, including the Falun Gong, and Christians, who are sitting in prisons and slaving away in lao gai (labor camps) making your Christmas lights and a great deal of what’s on sale at Wal-Mart. Unfortunately I didn’t bookmark the post, and didn’t get back to it the same day, so now I can’t find it. Here’s a news story on the topic.

The rationale is that these are prisoners who are going to be executed. Well, maybe so. However, it’s doesn’t follow that these are all hardened criminals. You can be a prisoner in China for your religious beliefs, or for thinking that Communism hasn’t really served your country that well. And gee, you think that maybe in a country where they’ll execute you for your beliefs, they just might do it for money?

Come to think of it, maybe that’s where they got the AIDS testing volunteers.