AIDS: Politics and Science

Ethicists sometimes embark on an approach to thorny issues with the assertion that "good data make good ethics"; the same could be said of good politics. The burgeoning problems posed by the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic will put social systems and political skills to a severe test, but in the six years since the first cases of AIDS were diagnosed, biomedical and epidemiologic scientists have established a firm foundation of data on which to construct focused public health programs responsive to the precise contours of the epidemic. Meanwhile, the hazards of overreaction are becoming very clear. The good news . . .