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

BBC Horizon "Science Under Attack" seeks to understand denialism

Science Under Attack
BBC, January 2011
BBC has produced a great episode of Horizon focusing on Denialism. They have a short segment on AIDS Denialism that features well known AIDS skeptic (I am being respectful here) Tony Lance. The show is hosted by Sir Paul Nurse, Nobel Prize winning biochemist. The focus is mostly on global warming denialism and it does a fantastic job laying out the connections that all denialists share. I was interviewed for this piece, but they ended up not using me. Oh well. No hard feelings. Tony Lance made the point far better than I ever could. The BBC showed me a wonderful time - on a charter boat along the Hudson River at sunset! Views of Manhattan that I will never forget. It was amazing to talk with Dr. Nurse. Really thought provoking piece and well worth the time. Click here to watch.

Holocaust Denialists are only asking questions to encourage debate. Sound familiar?

E-Mail About Book Questioning the Holocaust Shakes a School

By FERNANDA SANTOS

 New York Times January 25, 2011

The e-mail list of the Public School 290 PTA is a useful source on matters like fund-raising, after-school programs and the rules for the talent show coming up. It is not known to provoke strong feelings

But the message that went out at the wee time of 2:18 a.m. on Jan. 16 disturbed many of the parents who bothered to read it. “You should read this book! It is rocking my world!” read the message, floating over a book’s cover. The cover had a dark Star of David at the bottom, the Nazi flag at top and the title in between: “Debating the Holocaust: A New Look at Both Sides.”

Why we should care about AIDS Denialsm: AIDS Denialist doctors group and Senator Rand Paul call for repeal of health care reform

Vocal Physicians Group Renews Health Law Fight

Barry Meier

New York Times

Published: January 18, 2011

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons is pursuing the repeal of the health care law, but some medical groups say the association, with 3,000 dues-paying members, doesn't represent most of the nation's physicians.

A small professional group of doctors involved in the effort to repeal the new health care law has a history of opposing government involvement in medicine, including challenging President Bill Clinton's attempts to overhaul health care in the 1990s.

Rand Paul made opposition to the health law central to his successful Senate bid in Kentucky.

The group, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, has exerted vocal influence in the country's health care debate, despite having just 3,000 dues-paying members. Other medical groups assert that the association's positions are unrepresentative of most of the nation's 800,000 physicians and that its scientific views often fall outside medicine's mainstream.

Junk Science Isn't a Victimless Crime

Vaccines don't cause autism-and there was never any proof that they do. Too bad kids had to die while we figured that out. 
By PAUL A. OFFIT
The Wall Street Journal January 11, 2011

 In 1998, a British surgeon named Andrew Wakefield published a paper claiming that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine might cause autism. To support his case, Dr. Wakefield reported the stories of eight children who had developed symptoms of autism within one month of receiving MMR. He proposed that measles vaccine virus travels to the intestine, causes intestinal damage, and allows for brain-damaging proteins to enter children's blood streams.

 The problem with Dr. Wakefield's study-published in the Lancet, a leading medical journal-was that it didn't study the question. To prove his hypothesis, he should have examined the incidence of autism in hundreds of thousands of children who had or hadn't received MMR. This kind of study has now been performed 14 times on several continents by many investigators. The studies have shown that MMR doesn't cause autism.

AIDS Denialists Plan Another Conference: Are AIDS Scientists Welcome?

AIDS Denialism Comes Back to Washington DC.
The non-profit scientific organization Rethinking AIDS has set Dec 1, 2011 for a worldwide conference to challenge the mainstream paradigm that AIDS is an infectious disease. The conference location will be Washington, D.C. Presenters will discuss possible causes for a lowered immune system apart from the single virus theory currently being imposed as a dogma. Medical specialists will discuss alternative treatments for the conditions that may be considered "AIDS" in HIV-antibody-positive people. 


The conference will call for a dramatic reduction in AIDS spending. In the context of the national budget crisis, spending on AIDS is disproportionate to the number of patients who have fallen ill particularly as the spending is killing people, not curing them. $25 billion was spent on AIDS in 2010, but the 'epidemic' has never expanded beyond small groups within the gay and drug user communities. 

How the growth of denialism undermines public health

by Martin McKee, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK 
Pascal Diethelm, OxyRomandie, Geneva, Switzerland
Puiblishedmin the  British Medical Journal, 2010; 341:c6950  

Christmas is a time when many entirely rational people whose views are based solidly on empirical evidence the rest of the year suspend their critical faculties and say things they know to be untrue. Just in case any young children have picked up their parents’ copy of the BMJ, we won’t go into detail except to say that the subject of these falsehoods traditionally originates in the far north. Such stories are harmless and those telling them will, when their children reach an appropriate age, abandon the pretence. Yet other people hold views that are equally untrue and do so with an unshakeable faith, never admitting they are wrong however much contradictory evidence they are presented with.

Some of these views are harmless, but others cost lives. It is easy to think of contemporary examples. “HIV is not the cause of AIDS.” “The measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine cannot be considered safe.” “Second hand smoke is simply an irritant and there is no conclusive evidence that it is dangerous.”And, with potentially the greatest consequences for our species, “the evidence that the world is warming is inconclusive, and, if not, the evidence that global warming is caused by anthropogenic carbon emissions is unproven.”

Luc Montagnier: Off the Deep End?

Trial draws fire:  Nobel laureate to test link between autism and infection.

by Declan Butler
Published online 8 December 2010 | Nature 468, 743


Luc Montagnier is applying unorthodox ideas to the treatment of autism. With support from the Autism Research Institute (ARI), based in San Diego, California, the Nobel laureate is about to launch a small clinical trial of prolonged antibiotic treatment in children with autism disorders. The trial will also use techniques based on Montagnier's research into the notion that water can retain a 'memory' of long-vanished pathogens, and that DNA sequences produce water nanostructures that emit electromagnetic waves, published last year. But experts are critical and worry that the nobelist's status may lend unwarranted credibility to unconventional approaches to autism. 

"Snake Oil for Sale": Gary Null (and void) back on the air?

ACTION ALERT FROM THE COMMUNITY HIV/AIDS MOBILIZATION PROJECT

WBAI (the NYC Pacifica radio station) is putting AIDS denialist Gary Null back on the air. They plan to give him five days a week to spout misinformation like HIV is not the cause of AIDS and all AIDS treatments are poison.

Null aims to expand his lies about HIV not causing AIDS, and the marketing of his own products, to all the listener-sponsored Pacifica stations.  No matter where you live, we need your help opposing this dangerous situation.

This is unacceptable:

- There is no valid debate on HIV as the cause of AIDS, just like there is no valid debate that the Holocaust occured.

- AIDS denialism kills people. Individuals are told to reject possible treatments and government leaders are encouraged to deny access to treatment.

- Arguing with denialists takes valuable time away from efforts fighting HIV/AIDS.

TAKE ACTION TODAY!

Wrapped in Data and Diplomas, It's Still Snake Oil

New York Times book Review, By KATHERINE BOUTON Published: November 1, 2010

Ben Goldacre is exasperated. He's not exactly angry - that would be much less fun to read - except in certain circumstances. He is irked, vexed, bugged, ticked off at the sometimes inadvertent (because of stupidity) but more often deliberate deceptions perpetrated in the name of science. And he wants you, the reader, to share his feelings.

His initial targets are benign. Health spas and beauty salons offer detox footbaths for $30 and up, or you can buy your own machine online for $149.99. You put your feet in salt water through which an electrical charge runs. The water turns brown, the result of electrolysis, and you're supposedly detoxed. Dr. Goldacre describes how one could produce the same effect with a Barbie doll, two nails, salt, warm water and a car battery charger, thus apparently detoxing Barbie. The method is dangerous, however, because of the chance of getting a nasty shock, and he wisely warns readers not to try his experiment themselves. As for homeopathy, he says that it may indeed work but it's not because of the ingredients in those pills. You can pay for Valmont Cellular DNA Complex (made from "specially treated salmon roe DNA"), but Vaseline works just as well as a moisturizer.

AIDS Denialism in South Africa: An Update (and book review)

by Ashraf Grimwooda

a Kheth'Impilo, Management, Cape Town, South Africa

published in the journal AIDS Care, Oct 9, 2010

South Africa has had the largest global HIV epidemic for close to two decades. The rule of democracy since 1994 did little to slow the exponential growth of this epidemic. The new leadership focusing all attention on matters of state-like economic disparity, poverty and unemployment amongst the previously disadvantaged, ignoring the warning threats of the oncoming plague of HIV by people like Peter Doyle. This was despite the National AIDS Convention of South Africa’s resolution reached by the ‘‘government in exile’’ and other civil society leadership in 1992, Maputo, to address the epidemic in a focused and urgent manner as soon as democracy is restored. Civil society was expectant, waiting for a response.

How AIDS Denialism Can Kill You Part V: Is it too late for Karri Stokely?

For years, Christine Maggiore was the face of AIDS Denialism. When she died of AIDS in 2008, many people thought it would bring an end to the craziness. It did not.  

Just as Christine Maggiore  denied that her baby died of AIDS, her followers claimed that Christine died from the stress caused by a Law and Order SVU episode that portrayed her life.

Soon after Christine Maggiore died, there was a new face of AIDS Denialism. Karri Stokely, an HIV positive mother of two who has repeatedly shared her story of how HIV medications, not HIV, nearly killed her. Karri Stokely became seriously ill while taking anti-HIV medications and believes that her health only improved because she stopped the medications. She has appeared healthy ever since.  That is until now.