Out British singer Elton John has
condemned a Republican lawmaker's remarks on quarantining
HIV-positive individuals.
Georgia state Representative Betty
Price made her remarks Tuesday during a House committee hearing on
lowering barriers to health care.
Price, a medical doctor and the wife of
Dr. Tom Price, the former Secretary of Health and Human Services who
was forced to resign earlier this year amid a travel scandal, asked
an HIV specialist whether the state can quarantine HIV-positive
individuals.
John, an outspoken AIDS activist who
raises millions of dollars for research and awareness through his
Elton John AIDS Foundation, called Price's comments “horrific,
discriminatory and astonishingly ill-informed.”
“As a doctor and elected official
from a state where people are still contracting HIV at an alarming
rate, Mrs. Price should know better than to demonize people and
perpetuate myths that stigmatize people living with HIV," John
said in a statement released Monday.
Price has since walked back her
comments, saying that she does not support quarantining HIV-positive
individuals.
“I do not support a quarantine in
this public health challenge and dilemma of undertreated HIV
patients,” Price told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on
Saturday. “I do, however, wish to light a fire under all of us
with responsibility in the public health arena.”