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3 August 2016

On the HIV drug row, the Daily Mail inevitably decides that illness is a lifestyle choice

Forever standing up for the oppressed masses of cataract surgery patients.

By Media Mole

Another morning when you think we may have made an inch of progress, another Daily Mail frontpage. This time, the flag-waving, pearl-clutching dead tree of misinformation is lamenting a High Court decision for the NHS to fund a drug that can prevent HIV, called PrEP.

From its splash today, which screams “What a skewed sense of values: NHS told to give out £5,000-a-year lifestyle drug to prevent HIV – as vital cataract surgery is rationed”, your mole can only deduce that its concern is that cataract sufferers are being cruelly oppressed by our inherently prejudiced society:

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This irrelevant, lazy bit of whataboutery couldn’t possibly be because the Mail is peddling harmful stereotypes about promiscuity among gay men, could it? Surely we’ve moved on from the homophobia-fuelled scare campaigns of the Eighties by now? No. Your mole will give it the benefit of the doubt. It must be because of the paper’s long-running, brave commitment to the controversial cause of bringing cataract surgery into the mainstream. Forever fighting discrimination and injustice, even if it is at the sacrifice of those vulnerable to a costly chronic illness. Sorry, lifestyle choice.