If it looks like a Nut and smells like a Nut, it's probably a Nut

Why do so many Tea Party people sound like AIDS Denialists? I previously posted on libertarian/Tea Party US Senator Rand Paul's membership in The American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, an ultraconservative group that endorses pseudoscience and AIDS denialism. In addition, Celia Farber,  a vocal AIDS Denier, is aligned with the Tea Party movement. Several AIDS Deniers have posted their nutty views on the libertarian Lew Rockwell website. So it should not be surprising that leaders in the Tea Party can look a lot like AIDS Denialists. 


Case in point: The Huffington Post has collected "The craziest things Michele Bachmann has ever said".  Congresswoman (and potential Presidential Candiate) Bachmann has weighed in on intelligent design, germ conspiracies, vaccine hazards, and homophobic paranoia. It is just a matter of time before she claims that HIV does not cause AIDS. Here are some favorite Bachmann quotes from the Huffington Post article. If you have a couple minutes, visit the article and watch some of her videos. 


"And what a bizarre time we're in, when a judge will say to little children that you can't say the pledge of allegiance, but you must learn that homosexuality is normal and you should try it."

Denying AIDS is Turning Japanese

Denying AIDS has been published in Japanese. This translation was in the works for more than two years. 
AIDS Denialism has a foothold in every region of the world. There are AIDS Denialism websites throughout Asia. The Japanese have a strong interest in Denying AIDS. Sadly, it is hard to see the book finally finished at this dark hour. 
The horror of Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami has gripped the world's attention. To receive my copies of the Japanese translation at this moment leaves me speechless. My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Japan.

Seeing is believing: Oxford University Students Learn about AIDS Denialism

Seeing is believing

by Abu Abioye | 11:26 GMT, Tue 01 March 2011

Cherwell.org - Student news and reviews at Oxford University

It seems almost absurd to me that “sensible” people are able to deny evidence that AIDS is caused by HIV. Without trying to sound flippant, I would invite these people to voluntarily infect themselves with HIV and see how they fare. From the holocaust to smoking causing cancer, denialism appears to be rife – posing as skepticism. One might argue that we cannot deny freedom of expression. Indeed, revolutionaries such as Copernicus and Galileo held ideas that contradicted the scientific dogma of their time, and some doctrines that were once accepted by the scientific community have turned out to be false. However, it is important that we stick to the scientific method and provide valid proof for whatever theory or claim we may have, be it in line with or against the scientific consensus.

How AIDS Denialism Can Kill You Part VII: Nadezhda

David Crowe AIDS Denialist

A Russian woman has posted her story at David Crowe's Alberta Reappraising AIDS website. It illustrates how the AIDS Denialism movement attracts people who are unable to cope with their HIV diagnosis. Her T-cells are dropping and she believes it is nothing to worry about. Nothing to with AIDS. Rather than correcting her misinformed beliefs, Crowe is happy to confirm them. He is a primary vector for the spread medical misinformation. If you have read the tragic story of Emery Taylor below, Nadezhda's post will sound very familiar. Here are some excerpts. I encourage you to visit Crowe's website, if you can stomach it. 

My name is Nadezhda. I am 31 years old. I tested HIV-positive 2 years ago, I am asymptomatic and healthy and never have been sick since my “diagnosis”. I didn’t ask for this testing, it was mandatory testing for official purposes.

Prior to my test I already had seen sites online saying that “HIV=AIDS” is a myth. One of them is run by a doctor who writes about healthy lifestyle and natural ways of healings. He also writes against HIV=AIDS and vaccinations and other medical dogmas and since he was a doctor himself I trusted his opinion. When I read that HIV doesn’t cause AIDS, I just knew that he was right deep in my heart. But I didn’t know any details.

Denial Desperation

Guest Posting by Concerned Observant Citizen

The death of Emery Taylor has set off a disturbing action in the “dissident” (denialist) community.  They have taken this death as a Publicity Opportunity to “Circle the Wagons”.  Mr. Taylor’s death has become a call to arms to batten down the hatches and decide if you are a true “dissident” or a “denialist”.  This has started because Mr. Taylor’s death was a “classic AIDS Death” according to Gos, an AIDS dissident blogger, who is also afraid this fact “will prove to be a massive crisis of faith for many who currently call themselves ‘AIDS dissidents’”.  Gos goes on to conjecture that the truth of Mr. Taylor’s death “will make or break us.”

How AIDS Denialism Can Kill You Part VI: Emery Taylor Dies at age 28

The Rethinking AIDS Website predominantly displays Emery Taylor as one of many people  living just fine without HIV medications. The Home Page at Rethinking AIDS says…

.

“HIV+ for over 10 years, no meds, healthy”

Emery Taylor was interviewed at the RA2009 Conference:"According to the numbers I have AIDS, but when you look at me you see a healthy 28-year old ... I don't spell AIDS at all ... I work 70 hours a week ... It's just not consistent with what my doctor said would happen eleven years ago when I tested positive."

Emery Taylor has died. The following Facebook page announces his memorial service.

"It's with heartfelt sympathy that Rehoboth Temple communicates the passing of one of its members, Emery Taylor. 
Our condolences and prayers are with his family, friends and the many whose lives were touched by him.


See past stories on How AIDS Denialism Can Kill You
Part V: Karri Stokely 
Part IV: One Too Many Coincidences 
Part III: Lambros Papantoniou
Kim Bannon
Part II: Henry Bauer
Part I: AIDS Myths Exposed

Goodbye to another reckless source of AIDS Denialism

Mothering Magazine Ceases Publication

 BY SIERRA ON FEBRUARY 15TH, 2011 @  http://blogs.babble.com

After over 30 years of publication, Mothering Magazine is leaving the shelves. Mothering will continue as a web-only organization, but the magazine has printed its last issue.

Mothering has long catered to hippie mamas, featuring stories on attachment parenting, cosleeping, natural foods and creative play. The magazine, and more recently the message boards, have been a home base for parents with an alternative viewpoint for generations.

The magazine announced the change on Facebook today, surprising their thousands of readers, many of whom hold subscriptions to the print magazine.

The January/February and March/April issues of Mothering will still be published, but in web-only form. After that the magazine will cease publication altogether, though Mothering will continue its message boards and other online activities.

Montreal Gets a Crash Course in AIDS Denialism

HIV denialism has taken too many lives  

Beware the medical myth that HIV is harmless or doesn't even exist  

By KEN WITWER AND SETH KALICHMAN, Montreal Gazette February 11, 2011

What if most everything you think you know about HIV and AIDS is wrong?" This, according to Terry Michael in his opinion piece "Junk science and AIDS" (Gazette, Feb. 5) is the question that HIV-positive boxer Tommy Morrison is asking Canadian officials in his plea to fight in Quebec on Feb. 25. Morrison has repeatedly tested positive for HIV and refuses to take an HIV test that is mandatory if he is to take part in the fight. The authorities require the test because, fairly or not, they do not want to risk Morrison's infecting his opponent or anyone else who comes into contact with his blood.

Rather than encourage Morrison to take the simple, routine HIV test, ending the speculation about his HIV status and clearing his way into the ring, Michael astonishingly states that HIV tests are not accurate and that HIV, the cause of AIDS, does not even exist.

The science is indisputable. HIV tests are among the most accurate tests for any medical condition. HIV/AIDS has caused tens of millions of deaths: men and women, old and young, gay and straight.

UPDATE: The Kansas City Star has printed a very sad account of Tommy Morrison's life in AIDS denial. Click here for that story.

HIV denial is fatal

The most convincing argument that the virus causes AIDS is that anti-retroviral medications are prolonging the lives of millions

Montreal Gazette Feb 10, 2011

How I wish that the opinion article "Junk science and AIDS" by Terry Michael (Gazette, Feb. 5) had begun: "Once upon a time there was a wicked journalist preying on sick and dying people ..." Instead, the article brought us a seemingly reputable journalist publishing a vitriolic and prejudiced rant exhorting Canadians to know that "there is not now and there never was a human immunodeficiency virus.".

Michael is wrong - as are the arguments he uses to deny that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can cause the fatal destruction of the immune system that we call AIDS. Were his article to have been government-sponsored, people would in all likelihood be crying propaganda! It is incongruous and inexplicable that the executive director of what is claimed to be a prestigious and responsible U.S. journalism foundation could write such a misleading and harmful article.

I will not address the prejudiced, pejorative nomenclature Michael uses -such as "lucrative profits," "incestuous urban gay enclaves," "victims of a multi-billion dollar HIV-AIDS industry." Nor will I address his distorted presentation of the science and history of HIV/ AIDS with which he justifies his denial that HIV can cause fatal illness. Science establishes its truths through reproducible and peer-reviewed evidence, not by what politicians, journalists, or even individual scientists might "declare." The quality of science that explains the cause and disease mechanisms of HIV infection that lead to AIDS, and that underlies the development of highly effective anti-HIV treatments, resulted in a 2008 Nobel Prize being awarded to the two scientists who discovered HIV.

Peter Duesberg and the Other Top 9 Most Controversial Professors in America

OnlineUniversities
Peter Duesberg. This professor was much admired and respected at his University of California-Berkeley campus, and has completed some incredibly respectable work. But a recent article in Discovermagazine brought to light some of Duesberg’s more controversial, perhaps even unsavory, beliefs to light. Since 1986, Duesberg has been an adamant AIDS denier, believing that the illness is caused by drug use rather than by the HIV virus. Despite a lack of evidence backing up his claims, as well as some concerns about ethics in regard to his published articles, Duesberg’s views have affected international AIDS policy, especially in South Africa. It is thought that the government’s refusal to provide anti-viral medications to AIDS patients, believing with Duesberg that their condition was not caused by a virus, led to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths.

Is Boxer Tommy Morrison's Cut-Man the Dumbest Guy on the Planet?

Boxer Tommy Morrison tested HIV positive in 1996. Sadly, he had to stop boxing and gave up a three fight deal worth over $38 Million.

When Earvin 'Magic' Johnson faced the same tragedy, I remember feeling great sadness for him, his sport, and his fans. I was living in Chicago in 1991 and in case you do not remember, in 1991 Chicago was focused on Michael Jordon and NBA Basketball.  Magic Johnson's announcement that he was retiring from the LA Lakers after testing HIV positive stunned the world. Perhaps outside of LA, no place could have been more devastated than Chicago.

Those of us working in AIDS research at the time knew everything in our city had changed. I remember thinking how basketball must be a pretty low-risk sport when it comes to HIV transmission. No question, B-ball is a high contact rough sport. But aside from President Obama's recent lip injury, I am not sure when the last time was that I saw a player bleed on the court much less on a fellow player.

The Anti-Science of AIDS Denialism: New Must Read Blog Post

AIDS Denialism: Deadly Ignorance Part I@ In Vivo Blog http://cwgk.blogspot.com/
Those of us in the skeptical community are no strangers to whacko medical theories. It seems every week there is another quack promoting a new "naturalistic" diet or treatment. By far, though, the brunt of a skeptic's time is dealing with denialism – groups of individuals denying that contemporary medical practices don't work or are even dangerous. In the last few years, the anti-vax denialists have been in the media spotlight due to their elaborate campaigns and the outspoken celebrities like Jenny McCarthy who have taken up the anti-vax fight. But there is another camp of deniers festering away in the underbelly of alternative medicine. These people are the AIDS deniers; people who claim that AIDS is not caused by the HIV virus, but rather that it is actually caused by drug use. Some even go so far as to claim that HIV does not exist! Given the horrifying prevalence of AIDS in third world nations and even its alarming proliferation in developed nations, increasing support for AIDS denialism is not simply worrying but outright dangerous.

AIDS denialism has been known to me for some time, having learned about it from reading about Nobel Prize winner Kary Mullis, who is one of AIDS denialism's best known proponents. Though, given Mullis' colorful personality I figured he was just a lone crank. It was not until this past week when a good friend of mine, SofiaRune, began to get comments on a Youtube video she produced about debunking the link between HIV infection rates and male circumcision. A user by the name of "mykoolaidtastesfunny" made a variety of claims about how AIDS and HIV are not linked, and how HIV has not been shown to exist. He also posted a video by a variety of AIDS "skeptics" repeating his points. Immediately we began to investigate these claims. In the following series of posts, I'll address the claims of the AIDS "skeptics". In Part I, I will focus on the video that started it all…
To read the entire post (and others), click here