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Sunday, March 30, 2003
“The first commercially available antibody test for HIV (there was no DNA test at that time) was ëAmerican.’ French officials did not want to employ American tests or procedures, mainly for financial reasons, but also for nationalistic ones. The Pasteur Institute was developing its own antibody test but it was not yet commercially available. On February 11, 1985, the makers of the Abbott test formally applied for a license in France. The test did not receive authorization even though it had been approved in the United States, Germany, and Australia. French authorities demanded more proof of efficacy (the test did have a slight false-positive rate). Notes released from a May 9 meeting of the prime minister’s cabinet spelled out their concern: ëThe moment the tests are authorized the French market will largely be captured by the American test… [Therefore,] the cabinet of the prime minister requests… that the Abbott registration dossier be retained for some time by the National Public Health Laboratory.’ The Abbott test was not finally approved until June 1985 and was not put into wide ciruclation in France until August. “What prevented France from screening donors? The answer lies in the idea that the gift of blood is free, generous, and benevolent. It was impossible to question the validity of the key symbolic component of the system. To do so would have been to challenge the most ësacred’ values in French secular society. It was not done.” (Source Link)
This is the personal weblog of Grant Barrett, editor of the Double-Tongued Dictionary, a collection of words from the fringes of English. More about this site...
Recent Entries
- A hearty endorsement of shout quotes: scare quotes used for emphasis
- How to buy a dictionary
- Jinx and padiddle: games we play
- Saying it wrong on purpose
- Nicknames from the Underground: Busharraf, Chillary, and Killadelphia
- New slang unpacked
- UPDATED: Crosswords in Black and White
- Find me in American Way Magazine
- Recent catchwords: read-alike, violin hickey, throw a Porsche at someone, Q-tip cruise, 1-800 car
- The Tell-All of the Century: Snitching Slang
- Fog line, instant ancestor, trashout
- See, ya kid: saying goodbye in slang
- Interview with British slang lexicographer Jonathon Green
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Recent Catchwords
- park v. (5/16)
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- hung up adj. (5/14)
- sideways market n. (5/14)
- Bristol dust n. (5/14)
- booth turnaround n. (5/14)
- YAWN n. (5/13)
- doodlesocking n. (5/13)
- job and knock n. (5/13)
- radwaste n. (5/12)
- meat without feet n. (5/12)
- night-out money n. (5/12)
- podbusting n. (5/12)
- short-and-distort n. (5/12)
- yoging n. (5/12)
- nightstand Buddhist n. (5/9)
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