THE AIDS DENIALISTS

News by Simon McD on December 3, 2009 at 1:36 pm

This week The Independent ran a feature on AIDS denialists -  a small group of scientists and campaigners who believe that there’s no link between HIV and AIDS.

They say that the “myth” that HIV causes Aids is the product of conspiracies between governments and the pharmaceutical industry; that antiretroviral medication is toxic; and that one day the orthodox medical theories on HIV will crumble.

Aids charities warn that reading material which argues that HIV does not cause Aids can dissuade potential sufferers from getting tested for HIV, and even lead HIV-infected people to ignore HIV-positive results and cause them to reject antiretroviral therapies.

In South Africa, AIDS Denialists made up half a “Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel” under the former president. Partly on the advice of denialists, Mbeki’s administration did everything in its power to resist the use of ART, the antiretroviral therapy that stops HIV “replicating” – essentially producing copies of itself and spreading throughout someone’s body – and prevents Aids.

Read the full article here.

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  • Pimpernel
    Many years ago the Scientific Establishment announced that the Science of Light was complete, a closed book. And then Lasers were developed!!
    I believe that the danger here is not the so-called Denialists or the so-called Scientists but our arrogance in believing that We Know It All.
    Every angle needs to be carefully considered with an Open mind (which I believe is very difficult from Pharma funded research).
    There is a dangerous human trait of complacency, we believe the Familiar in our desperate urge to Know and have Certainty. If we can just accept that what we Know is just the current Likely Story (and the history of medicine is full of well-meant belief in a Likely Story) and that there is no such thing as Certainty, then we might really get somewhere.
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