ISBL Asshat of the Week: Georgia GOP Representative Betty Price

Look, I know it’s Georgia, but still ... Georgia State Representative Betty Price, a Republican ... because of course ... has suggested that we quarantine people living with HIV.

Yes, she did. Price—a medical doctor who should have her license revoked, and the wife of Tom Price, the former Secretary of Health & Human Services—actually asked about quarantining people with HIV because of the burden it puts on the state. She also said:

“My thinking sometimes goes in strange directions, but before you proceed if you wouldn’t mind commenting on the surveillance of partners, tracking of contacts, that sort of thing. What are we legally able to do."

Surveillance of partners? Tracking? It seems as if this “doctor” who apparently knows next to nothing about HIV is suggesting some kind of Big Brother government to monitor people with HIV and anyone with whom they come in contact.

"And I don’t want to say the quarantine word, but I guess I just said it. Is there an ability, since I would guess that public dollars are expended heavily in prophylaxis and treatment of this condition. So we have a public interest in curtailing the spread. What would you advise or are there any methods legally that we could do that would curtail the spread.”

Price was told that state healthcare officials already work with people newly diagnosed with HIV to identify sex partners so they can be notified, as well as link people with HIV to care. Her question about a quarantine went unanswered, as most idiotic questions often do. And yet, if you think the idea of surveilling people with HIV, and tracking their partners, and quarantining them, is abhorrent, wait until you hear what she said next:

“It seems to me it’s almost frightening the number of people who are living that are potentially carriers, well they are carriers, with the potential to spread, whereas in the past they died more readily and then at that point they are not posing a risk. So we’ve got a huge population posing a risk if they are not in treatment.”

Well, gosh darn it; if the medical field, and researchers, didn’t find a way to help people with HIV stay alive! They have ruined the world for all of us.

It’s a shame they didn’t suggest finding a way to quarantine the stupid, because Betty Price needs to be kept away from society.

Asshat ... of the Week.

Project Q