AIDS ADVANCEMENT

The discovery of a somewhat effective vaccine against the AIDS virus is certainly welcome news. It could lead to the defeat of this horrible disease.

I do have some questions about the process that helped to develop the new vaccine and the probable follow up efforts.

1) It was stated that the discovery was conducted by the US Army. What kind of funding and need promotes the US Army to conduct such research? It seems to me that such investigations would be better performed by a civilian (even for profit) organization. That approach would show a reasonable justification for the expenditures of funds.

2) The study and experimentation was conducted by the US Military in Thailand! This makes very little sense to me. There should be plenty of candidates in the US for evaluation of the vaccine and the costs for the Army to conduct the research would be (should be) less. What am I missing here?

The research could even be made the subject of some very negative propaganda relating to the experimentation of an untried and potentially dangerous procedure on non US subjects. Sorta like the experiments that were conducted during WWII by Germany and Japan using foreign peoples (Koreans and Gypsies).

Could it be that other reasons may underly this testing in Thailand such as potential public criticism that the US experienced during the Atomic tests? Or does the experimenting in Thailand allow using potentially dangerous shortcuts that are not allowed in the US? Finally, how much of the DOD budget has been (and in the future will be) siphoned into this effort?