crossposted at Amplify

Last week, I wrote about Pastor Rick Warren's problematic activities when it comes to his HIV/AIDS involvement. Well, his good friend Mark Dybul, Bush's Global AIDS Coordinator doesn't have such a hot record either. And as of this morning , the new administration has asked him to stay on, at least temporarily. Really Obama? It makes me really sick to quote the McCain-Palin ticket, but that is just not change I can believe in.

Let's review Dr. Dybul's record in his years as Global AIDS Coordinator, implementing the multi-billion dollar PEPFAR program. Dybul has not only followed the ideology-over-science mantra of his Bush administration bosses, but has taken the mantra and ran with it. This means that not only has he put up no protest to the continuance of abstinence-until-marriage funding requirements despite all signs pointing to this being completely ineffective, but he has gone much further.

Jodi Jacobson outlines in her blog for RHRealityCheck the actions Dr. Dybul has taken that make his tenure particularly problematic. Not speaking out against the abstinence focus of prevention efforts or the harmful policies when it comes to intravenous drug use makes him merely weak and unwilling to stand up for what's right against a strong boss. However, supporting problematic positions by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Relief Services such as thier push for a "conscience clause" that allows for discrimination in the implementation of policy, and writing program guidance that prevents commodities such as birth control pills and condoms from being purchased with PEPFAR funds make Dybul just as bad or worse than his ideologue bosses.

Mark Dybul has shown that he will put ideology over science at the costs of thousands of lives. Keeping him on shows that the Obama administration thinks that they can put this issue on the backburner at people die because of harmful policies. Hey Obama? You owe me an explanation, because this just is not change I can believe in. In fact it's not even change, it's more of the same.

crossposted at Amplify

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