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AIDS SUFFERERS IN AFRICA SUSPECTED OF FAKING SYMPTOMS

In the wake of the furor surrounding Michael J Fox and Rush Limbaugh, in which Mr. Limbaugh accuses Mr. Fox of faking the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease as a political ploy in his campaign ad for a democratic candidate who supports stem cell research, other stories have begun to emerge from Africa about female AIDS sufferers feigning symptoms in order to get free medical treatment, and to shill for their choice of brutal and ineffective regime that promises health care reform only to become worse than those they remove from power.

Medecines sans Frontieres spokesman, Dr. Ronald Good, says these stories are disturbing and inaccurate. “While it’s true that some people are so desperate they will do anything to have someone pay any attention to their pain at all, it’s unlikely that many women have the acting skills to believably fake the slow degeneration of their immune system, weight loss, their life as the sexual prey of men who think condoms impugn their manhood, and giving birth to children who also have AIDS. I mean think about it. Michael J Fox is an accomplished TV actor in a first world country, and even he would be hard-pressed to fake the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. I don’t think even a Brando, or an Olivier could pull that off, and as we know, Michael J Fox is no Olivier. So how can a poor woman in Africa, who can’t afford even the most basic improv classes, act like they are dying a horrible death?”
—Scot Crawford