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The President's Commission on the HIV Epidemic was a commission formed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 to investigate the AIDS pandemic. It is also known as the Watkins Commission for James D. Watkins, its chairman when the commission issued its final report in 1988. == Organization == President Reagan issued Executive Order 12601 creating the President's Commission on the HIV Epidemic on June 24, 1987.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/1987.html )〕 On June 26, he appointed Dr. W. Eugene Mayberry, CEO of the Mayo Clinic, to chair the commission. Jeff Levi, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force objected to the appointment of someone with no experience with the disease, but others praised Mayberry's experience in both medical research and clinical services. Administration officials said it would resist pressure from gay rights activists to include a representative of the gay community on the commission. Gary L. Bauer, the assistant to the President for policy development who would soon become head of the Family Research Council, said: "I would be very surprised if an administration opposed to making appointments on the basis of race or sex would agree to make an appointment based on bedroom habits".〔 The commission was charged with producing a preliminary report in 3 months and a final report within a year.〔 The president named the other commission members on July 23. Saying AIDS needed to go "the way of smallpox and polio", President Reagan announced the appointments at the commission's first meeting. They included: *Dr. Colleen Conway-Welch, dean of nursing at Vanderbilt University〔 *John J. Creedon, CEO of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company〔 *Dr. Theresa L. Crenshaw, a sex educator and opponent of condoms as a means of preventing the spread of HIV *Richard M. DeVos, president of Amway〔 *Dr. Burton J. Lee 3d, a physician at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center〔 *Frank Lilly, a geneticist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Lilly had served on the board of the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) from 1984 to 1986. He was "one of the first openly gay Presidential appointees". *Dr. Woodrow A. Myers Jr., an African American and the health commissioner of Indiana and president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers; named vice-chairman by Mayberry.〔 *Cardinal John O'Connor *Penny Pullen, an Illinois legislator and advocate of mandatory premarital HIV testing and later founder of the Illinois Family Institute *Corinna "Cory" SerVaas, editor of the ''Saturday Evening Post'' *Dr. William B. Walsh, president of Project HOPE, a medical relief organization〔 *James D. Watkins, a retired admiral At the commission's first meeting, Lilly and O'Connor, seated side by side, "chatted cordially", the ''New York Times'' reported. When the meeting ended, reporters and television cameras surrounded Lilly leaving him, he said, "shell-shocked" and "scared to death".〔 Senator Gordon Humphrey, a New Hampshire Republican, attacked Lilly's appointment, said the President "should strive at all costs to avoid sending the message to society—especially to impressionable youth—that homosexuality is simply an alternative lifestyle" and said the President should have named heterosexual experts to the commission.〔 The commission planned visits to review activities in several localities, beginning with a two-day visit to New York City by 5 commissioners in August/September. They visited hospitals and met with volunteers, health-care providers, and representatives of gay organizations. The commission's executive director was forced to resign in September "after a power struggle and allegations of inadequate performance," wrote the ''New York Times'', in which Mayberry yielded to the demands of some members of the commission for better staff support than they felt they were receiving. Lee said: "For whatever reason, lack of staff or whatever, things just weren't happening. With Gene Mayberry out in Rochester, Minnesota, most of the time, the commission felt we had to get a really good, high-powered, full-time person" to manage the commission staff.〔 On October 7, Mayberry and Myers quit, as did the commission's senior staff adviser for medical and research affairs, Dr. Franklin Cockerill 3d, a Mayo Clinic physician specializing in AIDS. Lilly said he was considering resigning but would wait to see who replaced the chairman and vice-chairman. The administration immediately announced the appointment of James D. Watkins, a retired admiral who had been Chief of Naval Operations. The ''New York Times'' said Mayberry had been "viewed as a moderating influence on the views of other members who are considered more ideological in their approach" and that "()y virtually all accounts, the commission has got off to a slow start in recruiting staff and organizing for its task." Myers said that "The personalities are intense" and that "I don't feel the commission as currently constituted would be effective."〔 Comments from those familiar with the commission and its responsibilities expressed dismay at the resignations. Richard Dunne, executive secretary of GMHC, said: "The AIDS epidemic is out of control, and it seems, so is the Presidential Commission on AIDS."〔 On October 9, DeVos said that the president needed to avoid naming commissioners who were "emotionally" involved in the commission's work and that, in one newspaper's account of his statement, "some homosexuals want to 'capture the agenda'". Years later, Watkins' wife reported that Watkins told Reagan "I'm a sailor and a submariner, and I know nothing about medicine", and that Regan replied: "You're exactly who we're looking for."〔 On October 11, Watkins announced plans to move quickly with reorganizing the commission staff. Noting that he was speaking to reporters on the day of a political march and rally in Washington, he said, "We have in Washington today one of the largest gay rights activist demonstrations that we have had—we are sensitive to them as human beings and to their issues". He continued: "We haven't done the job to date, I am sorry to say, but I feel comfortable and the other members of the commission feel comfortable that I can take it and mold them together and bring all of our prima donnas, including me, into a nice, neat, unified package."〔 He named a new executive director on October 13. Without Bauer's approval, Watkins later added two commission members who had track records as critics of the Reagan administration: Kristine Gebbie, Oregon public health commissioner and president of the AIDS Task Force of the American Society of State and Territorial Health Officers and Dr. Benny J. Primm, director of a New York City treatment program for addicts. Primm was the only African American on the commission and the only one with expertise on the intravenous drug use.〔 Of the challenge of heading the commission, Watkins later said: "I really wasn't sure I could pull it out of the swamp."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「President's Commission on the HIV Epidemic」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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