The CDC announced Tuesday their first national HIV communication campaign in almost 20 years. And this "Every 9 1/2 minutes" totally uninteresting, trite, and utterly boring campaign was all they could come up with? As Lifelube notes, the campaign's website mentions very little about the gays, and of course gives a shout out to abstinence (sigh). As Jim also notes, this is the first half of the campaign, with a probably more targeted second phase to come.

But still: "Every Nine and a Half Minutes"? This is the problem with those sanitized public health-heads. They can only imagine to think in bland statistics, with no real meaning or lived experience reflected in their cold, calculating numbers. It's all about probabilities, correlations, and p-values. Anyone actually dealing with the possibility of becoming HIV-positive can't relate to this tripe. They're better off putting their $45 million towards housing for HIV-positive people or treatment.

In short, my message back to the CDC is clear: EARTH TO PUBLIC HEALTH! TALK ABOUT SEX! OR REAL PEOPLE! OR OUR EXPERIENCES! OR SOMETHING THAT MATTERS!!!!!!!!!!!

Jesus H Christ. This crap just pissed me off more than I can express. You can find the campaign website here. Here's the 411 via Out in America:

Every 9 ½ minutes another person in America becomes infected with HIV. Officials from the White House, Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today a new five-year national communication campaign, Act Against AIDS, which highlights this alarming statistic and aims to combat complacency about the HIV/AIDS crisis in the United States.

[snip]

“Act Against AIDS seeks to put the HIV crisis back on the national radar screen,” said Melody Barnes, Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. “Our goal is to remind Americans that HIV/AIDS continues to pose a serious health threat in the United States and encourage them to get the facts they need to take action for themselves and their communities.”

The campaign will feature public service announcements (PSAs) and online communications, as well as targeted messages and outreach to the populations most severely affected by HIV/AIDS, beginning with African-Americans, with subsequent phases focusing on Latinos and other communities disproportionately impacted.

To help achieve widespread use of the campaign messages within African-American communities, the Obama Administration also announced today the Act Against AIDS Leadership Initiative (AAALI), a partnership with 14 of the nation’s leading African-American civic organizations to integrate HIV prevention into each organization’s outreach programs.