Tom Coburn: “In 1995, the CDC was practicing what I believe to be an unconscionable practice, and that was blindly testing newborn…”

“In 1995, the CDC was practicing what I believe to be an unconscionable practice, and that was blindly testing newborn infants' blood for the HIV virus, discovering who was positive, yet never telling the mother, never notifying the parents that in fact their children were positive for HIV, which also implied that the mother was positive for HIV. The tremendous amounts of moneys that have been spent by this country on research to treat this deadly virus have succeeded in bringing us very new, very good, very effective treatments in terms of delaying the ravages of this disease. Each day, approximately 20 infants in this country are born to HIV-positive mothers. Thanks to the new treatments and thanks to the ban that was agreed to by the CDC in terms of withdrawing this blind testing, most moms now are being identified during their pregnancy, they are being treated, and their children are not becoming infected with HIV. However, concerning to Mr. Ackerman, as well as myself, was an indication by the CDC in the last 3 months that they intended to resume blind testing.”