Charles Krauthammer

In May 1997, President Bill Clinton called for the United States to set a national goal of developing a vaccine for AIDS within the next ten years. In the following viewpoint, Charles Krauthammer questions the need for expending the nation’s limited resources on such an effort. He argues that AIDS is already easily preventable because it is not spread by casual contact but is instead transmitted through avoidable behaviors: unsafe sexual activity and intravenous drug use. Rather than attempting to produce a vaccine, Krauthammer maintains, public health efforts should concentrate on reducing these behaviors. Developing a vaccine for AIDS, he asserts, should be considered no more important a national priority than developing a vaccine for lung cancer that would enable people to smoke without health risks. Krauthammer...