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Mark Lee Appler, MD
Mount Airy, NC

JAMA. 1990;264(19):2504.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

I was disturbed by a comment made by Dr Anderson in her review of Michael Fumento's The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS.¹ With regard to one's risk of acquiring acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, Dr Anderson states that "heterosexual white persons in middle America do not ordinarily frequent the breeding ground for HIV [human immunodeficiency virus]. Unfortunately, class may eventually be more important than sexual preference or skin color."

Why is it unfortunate that class be more important than sexual preference or skin color? Are we to presume from this statement that we are more fortunate when lethal diseases are confined to a certain skin color, or those of a certain sexual preference? There seems to be some significant underlying racism and intolerance to imply that we would all be better off as long as certain diseases do not cross into "white persons in middle America."

To paraphrase Martin . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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