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Denying AIDS: Conspiracy Theories, Pseudoscience, and Human Tragedy

Seeking Stories of AIDS Denialism

Have you or someone you know been harmed by AIDS Denialism? If you, or someone you care about, have been advised to stop taking HIV meds, ignore HIV test results, purchase a 'natural' cure etc., please email me.

aidsandbehavior@yahoo.com

All information will be kept confidential.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Gary Null is still off the air

Vitamin entrepreneur, snake oil salesman, and AIDS Denialist Gary Null is void one media outlet. Thanks to the initiative of just a few people, Gary Null may not be broadcasting on New York’s WBAI radio again. Null has had access to a broad audience in the past and this effort helps constrict his reach. It is a great example of how informing reasonable people about the destructiveness of AIDS denialism can help rein them in.

Read below Null’s empty response. Plus an extra bonus – David Crowe’s attempt to rescue him.

For Moron Gary Null visit Quackwatch.com.

UPDATE 6/17/2009: “Gary Null Calling”: That’s right, Gary Null is calling AIDS scientists asking for a debate on whether HIV causes AIDS. This is yet more evidence that toxic hair dyes cause D-SBD (denialism-specific brain damage).
___________________________________________________


Dear Distinguished Professors and Health Practitioners,

We are in receipt of correspondence sent to you by Dr. Seth Goldberg, a board member of WBAI in New York City, with respect to my return to that station. In response to the accusations raised by Aaron Boyle at Act UP and Dr. Goldberg, I am including at the end of this message a statement of referral for my return to WBAI by David Crowe, President of Rethinking AIDS in Canada, who eloquently outlines the scientific HIV/AIDS controversy.

My radio broadcasts, as well as my many award-winning documentary films, have strived to be open forums for constructive dialogue on the critical issues that affect our lives. To support my sincerity, on May 8, 2009, both Drs. Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier appeared together as guests on my program. The questions prepared were not my own but were submitted by leading scientists and dedicated scholars who you perhaps agree with Dr. Goldberg should be labeled as “Denialists.” In my opinion, and in the tradition of true scientific integrity, it is more accurate to perceive them as the “Denied.” They have been denied publication of their work in peer-reviewed medical journals. They have been denied participatory attendance at major scientific AIDS conferences. They have been consistently denied funding for their research. Some have been forced out of their teaching positions at their respective educational institutions or have been demoted to lesser roles within their departments, such as was the case with Prof. Peter Duesberg at University of California, Berkeley. Yet this is the very man who Dr. Gallo has publicly stated “knows more about retroviruses than any man alive” (Spin Magazine, 1992).

The huge amount of funding that goes into the pro-HIV/AIDS medical industry and research has, in my opinion, led to the creation of a rigid scientific arrogance now too self-righteous to accommodate dissenting opinions. During my interview with Dr. Gallo, he remarkably characterized this arrogance that now pervades many levels of the pro-HIV/AIDS community along with its strategy to simply remain silent and avoid those unanswered medical questions that challenge their pet views and personal agendas. Nevertheless, the sole purpose for inviting Drs. Gallo and Montagnier was to hear their responses to those same questions that a growing number of scientists find perplexing and unsatisfactorily answered. (You can listen to this interview under the May 8 date on our archives at http://garynull.org).

As physicians and researchers who signed Dr. Goldberg’s petition, I would like to invite you to be guests on one of my forthcoming broadcasts to address some of the questions about HIV and AIDS that have remained with us for a couple decades. Since Drs. Gallo and Montagnier generally avoided our questions, I would like to offer you the opportunity to share your insights and expertise about the same for my international audience without debate or interruption. Some of you do not list HIV/AIDS issues in your professional backgrounds that we have reviewed. Nevertheless, if you have solid scientific evidence, this will offer you an opportunity to share it with my audience. I host one of the few radio programs in America that accommodates leading scientists and researchers to present their points irrespective of how controversial they may be. Mainstream media has not been open to educating the public and allowing these types of debates and discussions to take place.

I wish for nothing more than to accommodate constructive scientific dialogue between the opposing views about whether or not HIV is the primary cause of AIDS and whether or not the dominant pharmaceutical drug protocol is the most advantageous means for tackling the problem if it is. I would also be pleased to forward you a copy of my award-winning documentary AIDS Inc. It will introduce you to the concerns being expressed by those who are “Denied” in addition to how they are being attacked by the inquisition of the AIDS industry. Yet these are but a sampling; since the documentary’s release I have heard many similar stories from other professors and scientists.

I do not arrive at my conclusions arbitrarily and hastily. Instead, I have taken a concerted and measured approach in reviewing the available medical, epistemological, and therapeutic literature. As an award-winning investigative journalist, I have had the opportunity to interview hundreds of medical professionals with impeccable scientific credentials and a deep commitment to rational, sound scientific standards. There are now well over 2500 professionals who all agree that the dogma surrounding HIV/AIDS deserves a new appraisal. That I can be held liable without the opportunity to dialogue and be slandered without the benefit to defend myself does not represent any kind of professionalism and proper behavior. If an individual feels they have the truth on their side, at the very least they should be permitted to engage in an open and non-confrontational discussion. There has been no open discussion. Inflammatory organizations, such as Act Up and its many supporters, have been completely insensitive to this dialogue. This is even more insidious because they have no expertise whatsoever in the medical science at the heart of the controversy. Nevertheless, they imagine themselves as the protectors of this very science. Any dissenting opinion is met with ridicule, dehumanization and vicious slander.

In the meantime my attorneys are actively pursuing my legal options, and we are heretofore placing you on notice about that.

I look forward to hearing back from you. If you would like to receive a copy of the AIDS Inc DVD, please include your mailing address and one will be sent to you.

Sincerely,
Gary Null, PhD.
_________________________________________________

DAVID CROWE RESPONSE TO DR. SETH GOLDBERG
Dear Dr. Goldberg;

Why is it that 25 years after the world accepted that HIV was the cause of AIDS that many people, including highly credentialed scientists and academics, still question this? Why is it that those who ask questions are labelled with the hateful name "Denialist"? That scientists who question are cut off from research funding, publication and promotions? That journalists who question are banned?

When AIDS was first named (as GRID, Gay Related Immune Deficiency) at the start of the 1980s it was representatives of marginalized gay men who called for action on this new syndrome, although a syndrome can never really be new because it is just a name given to a collection of pre-existing diseases, in this case PCP pneumonia and the skin disorder Kaposi's Sarcoma. Putting these two diseases together under one umbrella only makes sense if there is a common cause. And there were two theories to explain this, use of drugs, especially "poppers" (nitrite inhalants), or a previously unknown virus. These people deserved support and action, but only support and actions that helped solve the health crisis that had been identified.

There was a lot going for the theory that AIDS could be caused by recreational drugs, as all the early cases were among poppers users -- the majority of gay men were unaffected. However, the virus theory won out and by the time Robert Gallo announced that he had discovered HTLV-III (HIV) at a press conference in 1984 (prior to any scientific publications, but after filing a patent), and called it the probable cause of AIDS, research on the drug theory by scientists like Harry Haverkos had been all but banned.

Leaders of the gay community essentially had a choice, they could recognize that some gay men, just like some heterosexuals, had a drug problem and help them deal with it. Or they could choose to believe that they were too promiscuous, and blame the problem on that. They chose the latter.

Financial considerations entered the picture early. Poppers manufacturers were big advertisers in gay publications (the drugs have long been marketed almost exclusively to gay men). The medical research establishment has always been biased towards germs (or occasionally genes) and away from chemical causes to illness, particularly in America where massive government funding allows much tighter coordination (and control) of medical research (including censorship of areas that might offend the chemical elite that is so powerful). And, finally, pharmaceutical companies, another huge source of funding, were only interested if there was a virus to kill, there was no role for them in getting people off drugs. There was an ironic twist too, because one of the big early manufacturers of amyl nitrite was Burroughs Wellcome which is now part of GlaxoSmithKline, the first and biggest AIDS drug manufacturer. They sold the compound in small glass vials that could be crushed and inhaled by angina patients to open the coronary arteries, hence the name "poppers".

Pharmaceutical companies have made it easy for AIDS organizations to secure funding. "The Body", for example, has credits at the bottom of their home page (http://thebody.com) to major AIDS drug companies. On the day I wrote this the list included GlaxoSmithKline (AZT, Combivir, etc.), Bristol-Myers Squibb (Sustiva, Serit, Videx etc.), Gilead (Atripla, Emtricitabine, Tenofovir), Merck (Crixivan, Raltegravir etc.), Abbott Virology (HIV Testing plus Lopinavir, Norvir etc.) and Roche (Saquinavir etc.). There were no other sponsors listed.

This has created a massive conflict of interest for AIDS organizations. Life is comfortable if you promote drugs as the main solution for AIDS, but gets very lonely and unfunded if you decide that HIV is not the cause of AIDS, or even simply that AIDS drugs are too toxic or that alternative health remedies are safer and more effective than the high tech products of modern pharmacology.

All that is allowed is faux-criticism of the drug companies for not producing drugs cheaply enough. This promotes drugs as "life-saving" but too expensive, and suppresses criticism of the drugs as unsafe and ineffective.

The major questions about the HIV=AIDS theory are whether HIV is the only cause of AIDS, whether HIV infection always leads to AIDS and AIDS to death, whether HIV tests are unambiguous, whether CD4 counts and Viral Load are accurate indicators of future health, whether HIV can be transferred sexually and whether the AIDS drugs are truly "life-saving", as so often repeated.

I could go into a detailed analysis of why each of these points can legitimately be questioned, complete with citations from the mainstream literature (see http://aras.ab.ca/test.html for the level of detailed analysis that is possible) however that would be a book, rather than a short message.

Perhaps a shortcut is to realize that there are thousands of scientists, MDs, academics, journalist, lawyers and other educated and accomplished people who question the HIV=AIDS=Death dogma, see:
http://www.rethinkingaids.com/quotes/rethinkers.htm

In closing I would like to address one specific point that ACT/UP made in their email, that rethinkers of the AIDS theory are genocidal, and have been the cause of hundreds of thousands of deaths. This claim published in JAIDS in October 2008, despite coming from Harvard, is absurd. The study is based on assumptions that, not surprisingly, tautologically support the beliefs of the authors. It is not based on real deaths, and the mathematical model that it used to produce the numbers does not include a single death from adverse events associated with the use of AIDS drugs despite the scientific literature being replete with such reports, and despite the fact that the leading cause of death among people with AIDS in America is now reported to be liver disease, a common side effect of AIDS drugs, but something that has never been added to the list of AIDS defining diseases.

What we need now is more discussion, not less. I hope WBAI puts Gary Null back on the air.

Regards,
David Crowe
President, Rethinking AIDS

19 comments:

  1. My two favorite bits:

    "I have taken a concerted and measured approach in reviewing the available medical, epistemological, and therapeutic literature.

    Epistemological literature? WTF? Does Gary see himself as an expert on the theory of knowledge too? Or did he, ummm… actually mean “epidemiological literature”? Never mind, they’re both big words starting with “e”.

    "In the meantime my attorneys are actively pursuing my legal options, and we are heretofore placing you on notice about that."

    Translation: I’m threatening you with legal action, and totally misusing impressive-sounding archaic English adverbs in the process. Just so you know I’m really serious.

    Canceling Gary Null’s radio show just increased the average IQ of the American airwaves by several points.

    What a wanker.

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  2. "Life is comfortable if you promote drugs as the main solution for AIDS, but gets very lonely and unfunded if you decide that HIV is not the cause of AIDS, or even simply that AIDS drugs are too toxic or that alternative health remedies are safer and more effective than the high tech products of modern pharmacology."

    Cry me a freakin' river, Davey. Life is pretty lonely when you are trying to secure funding to prove the Earth is really flat or that the holocaust never happened, too. Who knows, maybe one should actually go out and get, gee I dunno, an education in the field of study first rather than try to promote alternative remedies [sic] which are shown to do nothing but line your wallet and let the patient die. Tool.

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  3. Gary Null is a great example of taking the lazy way. His education is dubious at best, as well as his career. Quackwatch is a great source of just how far people like this will go to skirt the system for appearances that they have the education and experience that in reality, they do not have.
    http://www.quackwatch.com/04ConsumerEducation/null.html
    It gives me hope when people like this get taken down a notch. Unfortuanetely, those who have been taken in by this scammer will more aggressively support him, much the same way that Re~Thinkers redoubled their denialist efforts in the face of Maggiore's obvious AIDS related death.
    JTD

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  4. Null is scum floating on the cesspool of AIDS denial.

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  5. We have a guy called Holford in the UK who is skeptical about the benefits of HIV drugs and thinks vitamin C might be the answer to the global epidemic. Thankfully he's getting a lot less time on the media these days though sadly he's published over ten books on 'nutrition' (that reject mainstream science in favour of a home grown system).

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  6. Anonymous

    I was recently in London and met some of your great Skeptics including Richard Wilson. Richard’s book ‘Don’t Get Fooled Again” is a real winner! I also met Neil Denny who does Little Atoms radio show. Neil has featured a number of Skeptics on Little Atoms. And I met Ben Goldacre. It was in Ben’s book “Bad Science” where I first read about Holford. You are correct is putting Holford in the same context as Gary Null. Unfortunately there are too many of these quacks running around. The good news we have more and more people like Richard, Neil and Ben who are exposing them for what they are.
    Thanks again!
    Seth

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  7. Seth,
    Did you have to look very long to find that incredibly creepy pic of Null? Or does he always have that vacuous, "I just fantasized about a 4 year old" look on his pasty, serial~killer~countenance?
    Just wondering if the denialists are all so ugly because their inside is showing on the outside?
    JTD

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  8. JTD
    I know what you mean.
    What a creep.

    How anyone could trust this guy is beyond me.
    But you know, people sure trusted Ted Bundy.

    When you look at Null and Rath, they definitely have that sociopathic edge.

    In Denying AIDS I make it clear that I generally do not hate AIDS denialists.

    But Null and Rath and the other snake oil salesmen are in a despicable class of their own.

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  9. Here is an article from ACTUP/NY which was written to the radio station WBAI which reiterates Null's pseudo~science and outright HIV/AIDS Denialism. This was written Jan of '06 when WBAI was considering bringing back this liar. I'm unclear about the history, but I guess he has been fired/re~hired more than once. Has this been the norm at other stations?
    http://www.actupny.org/reports/denialist_gary_null.html
    JTD

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  10. He is still on the Progressive Radio Network
    and other places.

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  11. I guess ol' Clarkie Baker was inspired with his "interview" on Numb~Nut Null's radio, er, uhm, "show" is it? Anyway, on Bakers most recent comments at his blog, Baker promises that he is about to start "investigating" all the HIV Meds on the market and tell us all the gory details about side effects that Big Bad Pharma hides from us!
    Oh, I cannot wait! It should be as funny as his crap blog about Sustiva being addictive and poor little Karri Stokely suffering 4 Months of debilitating withdrawals!!
    Should be a fun read!!
    JTD

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  12. Sounds like Clark is on Null-and-Void’s payroll. The Big Vita Conspiracy takes on a new dimension.
    The Big Vita Conspiracy takes on a new dimension.
    Moronic Stupidity, Psychopathy, and Big-Vita working together.

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  13. Lots of opinionated folks here, so why not take Gary Null up on his offer to put signers of Seth Goldberg's petition onto his show?

    Mitchel Cohen

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  14. It Probably Would Take More Than an a Couple of Hours possibly 3, or 4
    or 5 Hours - maybe More = But I'd like to See a Town Hall Meeting -
    Where Gary Null Would Come Forth with Radio Comments Clips (over The Years on WBAI, WNYE & even From other Media, His Related Video Work Would Be Shown & Having Seen this Gathering which Would Be Shown To ALL -
    Pro & Con ! on the Subject of HIV/AIDS !!!!!!
    Gary would Be Asked If He Had Anything to Add ???? =
    & Then Gary Null DENYers -
    Would Be Given Their Time to Develop Their Positions with ALL Means
    Possible - Speeches, Articles, Videos, Personal Appearances by
    Doctor Gallo, His Associate Dr Popenick(sp?), Fellow Doctors in Agreement with Him with Evidence !!!! Explanations from ACT-Up ! Members & WBAI 'Gay Program' & The 'Health Review' = Jon Riley, Bob Lederer, etc People to Project Before some 500 to 700 People of ALL Diversities !!! Every Bit of RELATED Material = even People, who are Surviving HIV/AIDS as Well as ALL Latest STATISTICS !!!!!

    My Recollection of Gary Null's point of View has Been That "He Didn't Care
    for The Dr Gallo 'Virus' Evidence ?,the Reliance Only on Pursuing Medicine
    (Pharmaceuticals) as a Cure - Then, That Other Factors are at Play =
    Lack of Use of Condoms as a Preventative of the Spreading Epidemic, Poor SEX Education for Both Sexes, Poor Diets, Poor Rest (Sleep) =
    ('Burning the Candle at Both Ends') !!! Poor Quality Drinking Water!!! even the State of the Political INSTABILITY !!!!! (Was Impure BLOOD in Transfusions also a Way of HIV/AIDS TRANSMISSION ???)
    The Introduction of 'POLLUTION' into Food (MEAT) By the Giving of Anti-Biotics, Biologically DNA Manipulated Food Plants (SOY), Etc
    & Insects, & Pollution in the AIR - Environment !!!!

    Monroe Litman-50 Year WBAI Listener 20/24/7/Member/Caller/Rallier & Critic ( Pro & Con )!!!! at "Listenerforums.net" WBAI Has NO Message
    Board - It Once DID ???????
    e-mail: wbaimatters2004@yahoo.com

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  15. Possibly I Should have mentioned the Word "IMMUNITY" for
    Somehow as Peoples' IMMUNITY is Compromised !!!! It Seems !!!
    People Die of other Diseases - Pneumonia ? etc
    Thus Gary's Concern for The 'Best' Diet !!!
    Next There is The Sense by Gary That Massive Moneys are
    being Wasted By the " Gates/Buffet Philanthropy" As they
    Choose to IGNORE The Possibility That Gary Null Might
    Be Right !!!! Gary Has an Entire Case Against The Seemingly
    Innocent Use of "Vaccines" !!!!!

    As I Tried to Bring Resources to Al Lewis' WBAI Program
    Regarding the Harsh Rockefeller Drug Laws Against
    Particularly Young People Who Are Caught By the Police
    & are Put into Prison, Legally & Al Lewis Seemed to Be
    Fighting to "DROP The ROCK" so as to Lessen The Long &
    Harsh Prison Terms ( for 15/ 25 Years ???) With Mayor
    Bloomberg Saying: "YOU BET I Did & I "ENJOYED" It !!!!
    Thus Marijuana Could Have Been Legalized as
    "Intoxicating Beverages" ( "Wines & Spirits' ) in Stores=
    every other Block !!! = were = from a US Constitutional
    'Prohibition ' To a REPEAL Amendment & Then
    Legalization & REGULATION & TAXATION !!!!!
    Such Could Happen with Marijuana & Other Drugs,
    Humanely Handled -for Drugs thru a
    Social Concerned Agency = Taxation, Taxation &
    Regulation !!!!!! While Gary Sided with Me WHEN I
    Appealed to Him ! He Gave Me 5 Minutes over His WBAI
    Program BUT as Gary is Against
    Cigarette Smoking & The Injury to the Lungs -He,
    I just Now Realized,
    Had Little Patience with Marijuana as It Could Be Bad
    for Your HEALTH - While I Realizing That MILLIONS
    of People Use Marijuana WorldWide &
    ALL our FEDERAL, STATE & CITY BUDGETS are
    COMPROMISED - & Rather Than
    Criminalizing = We, as Civilized People SHOULD 'OPT'
    For a Kinder & Gentler Life !!!!!
    Do We OUTLAW Fires In Fireplaces ? !!!!!
    So Gary Even I Now Realize WHYYou Had a ' CHIP ' on
    Your Shoulder in Regard to Me !!!! We MUST Have
    a PUBLIC Rapproachmont in this Regard !!!!! on
    Amy Goodman's " d' NOW'
    For Even She Has Done Me Injury, including
    My being Handcuffed by a NYCCop - from off the
    Stage of her Union Square B&N " STATIC "
    BookSigning !!!! for her "Biased LOVE & Sympathy for
    Al Lewis "Blinded Her" from Freedom of Speech's
    Necessity for being Fought For = as I Have - for the
    GOOD of WBAI/Pacifica & ALL !!!!! What a JOY-FEST
    = It Could BE for ALL* !!!!!

    "As Will Shakespeare Said:
    & He Must have 'Used Marijuana' If NOT Beer & Ale -
    "All's WELL That Ends WELL !!!! "

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  16. Gary Null has saved many from death from aids drugs

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  17. I'm new to this whole debate, but I have to admit... I don't hear any one here presenting solid, good science. Just slandering this Null guy like we're in a high school locker room isn't the way to go either guys.

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  18. I've seen a recent video of Gary Null on YouTube rambling about conspiracy BS. The guy not only sounded mentally ill (like a nutcase), but his physical appearance looked ghastly. He does not look healthy at all!

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  19. Sorry to spoil your Party but Gary Null is reaching more people then ever on PRN.com

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