Subscribe to this blog's feedAs an activist and person with AIDS, I am vexed by the folks I call ‘denialists.’ These are people who believe- for various and disparate reasons- that HIV is not the cause of AIDS. They vex me because 1) they run in some of my circles, 2) they are dead wrong and 3) I want very badly to shut them up.
HIV denialism comes in a few flavors. There are the folks who see conspiracies lurking behind every bush. There are the bigots like Duesberg, who literally hate folks with HIV/AIDS and bend over backwards to pin our disease on our apparently aberrant behaviors- like having sex and getting high.
And then there are the instinctively oppositional folks, the molecular level rebels. These are the folks that run in my activist and, to an extent punk rock circles. A few years back, while attending an Anarchist conference in Toronto, some of them held a denialist workshop. It was disgustingly well received, in spite of my persistent debunking.
These are folks- like me- who seek to overthrow nothing less than the whole world. We stand in opposition to the powers that be, pretty much no matter who they are. Most of the time that puts us on the right track. Examples of enlightened governance are few and far between. Sometimes it turns in to knee jerk oppositionalism- poorly thought out, reactive anti-establishment thinking.
Now, I will put my anti-establishment credentials up against almost any one. As much of a revolutionary that I might be, I am also a skeptic. I am deeply mistrustful of dogma and group-think. These kind of denialists see themselves as challenging mainstream medical dogma, but aren’t. They are engaging in a mishmash of pseudoscience and conspiracy theory that is frankly unseemly for people who purport to fight on the side of the downtrodden.
I am generally opposed to shutting down people’s ability to express themselves. But just as I protested the notorious Holocaust denier David Irving’s speech at UC Berkeley years ago, I protest these folks. Recently Duesberg and his press lackey Celia Farber were given awards as ‘whistleblowers.’ What a crock! They are no more whistleblowers than the folks on school boards around the country who are trying to have creationism taught as science- but to much worse effect.
Sometimes denial dies harder than denialists. Here in San Francisco a gaggle of denialists took over ACT UP SF, and turned it into a denialist group. Most of their leadership is now dead of AIDS. Worse still is the impact this has on people with HIV, who fall prey to the all-too-attractive message that HIV is harmless.
One of the worst cases of this involves the well known denialist Christine Maggiore, who wrote ‘What if Everything You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?.’ Her daughter, Eliza Jane was never tested or received care for HIV. She died of AIDS. She was 3.
Denial=Death.
Fight for the Truth.
Fight AIDS.
Comments (3)
Are you absolutely sure Christine Maggiores daughter died of Viral HIV induced AIDS -or are you hedging your bets based on the ever changing CDC definition of AIDS (as opposed to HIV) - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome we are now told is not necessarily caused by a viral pathogen HIV. From what I understand Christine Maggiore has argued her daughters case with compelling medical evidence ( censored by the likes of you). Her daughter died of complications from a severe allergic reaction that came on very suddenly as a result of Penicillen. I sympathise with her as I was allergic to Penicillen and almost died as a
child also . Look at the figures for allergic reactions on this antibiotic.Your ''go for the jugular''approach to a mother who clearly loved her children and did what she believed was best is shameful hate mongoring and bullying. You define the concerns of so called denialists far too narrowly . I believe 'they' refer to it as Rethinking. Given how much HIV mainstream has 'revised' their findings about hiv and aids over 25 years - and been freely allowed to do so , why the histrionics and censorship about rethinking the viral theory...? THey did it with Cancer - I dont see mainstream kicking up about this..
Most serious academic rethinkers believe HIV is not an external virus but endogenous and wish to see monies allocated to researching why they believe this is so, not shut down the whole shebang and leave people dying in their AIDS hell as you would have everyone believe.They theorise that HIV is a by product of other cellular endogenous processes not a virus . They are concerned that the HIV tests are non specific, that they cross react with too many other conditions as has been well documented. They look at the historical facts and question the interpretation of those at the outset and
while there are always going to be anti establishment types attracted to opposition thinking and muddying the waters with extremist accusations, there are a good number of professionals with unquestionable academic learning and experience in agreeance with rethinking HIV and AIDs.
As patients required to take toxic meds for life we should all be striving to explore every avenue open - every one..not just the party line as defined by the pharma giants, government and those trying to hang on to their new careers in viral pathology.
You read like a mutinous child who wants to have his candy and eat it. It is time for a very different retrospective on AIDS and HIV and I think even Gallo has alluded to this if you read between the lines.And in addition
Modern medicine is getting out of control in terms of the scale and potency of pharmaceuticals across a whole range of
conditions . Treatments for depression that cause psychosis , Treatments for arthritis that cause kidney failure, treatments for ADHD ( another DUBIOUS pharma dreamed up clinical condition being rolled out to all those punk generation kids we cant give better options to - and in HIV ..well the list is long. Patient Safety
is being compromised for some dubious sciences and not just in HIV.
There should be no 'us' and 'them' - Science is
an organic process and we have very very few real answers to HIV. Most of what we are told contradicts logic for researchers paying attention. But it is emotive when we see friends die.We want them not to suffer and many of those people you refer to as dying of AIDS died of meds related side effects or non viral AIDS - drug use can kill too.
Keep the traffic flowing both ways - we have a jigsaw to complete and we need dissident thinkers whether you realise it or not.
The comparisons with the Holocaust are misdirected also. You are irresponsible .
Posted by julianna | June 1, 2008 3:51 PM
Posted on June 1, 2008 15:51
Hi Paul.I am from Spain, I like read your blog so much, everyone of us, positive or negative, should be activist, try to educate people and try to speak clear and loud about the vih...Vih is just a virus, but with a social load too high, and that is the principal problem.
Sorry for my english
Posted by Inma | June 1, 2008 5:53 PM
Posted on June 1, 2008 17:53
Paul. I support you 100% in this article. I don't know why many people still think that HIV infected people are not eventually dying of AIDS but AIDS drugs???? They are dead wrong, yes. Look at people in developing world, they all died shorty because of no treatment or lack of treatment.
Posted by alex | July 6, 2008 7:22 PM
Posted on July 6, 2008 19:22