Document:Gardiner reviews Adams
From AIDS Wiki
NOTWITHSTANDING ANY OTHER NOTICE ON THIS PAGE, the material on this page is NOT available under the GNU Free Documentation License; in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, it is posted in the manner of bulletin boards in schools and workplaces, to encourage public education and citizen awareness, without profit or payment, for persons and entities engaging in non-profit research and educational activities and purposes only.
Ben Gardiner's AIDS Info BBS Database
22 January 1990
In an age and in a society where intellect is often denigrated and where truth is frequently put in low priority, it should not be surprising that a book like this is both rare and necessary. Here we sit, in the middle of the ninth year of a seemingly endless succession of deaths of relatively young men and there is still no clear definition of what is happening, let alone why.
No one needs to be told that a lot of people have died and are still dying. People have indeed been told that these illnesses and deaths have been and still are, often, extremely painful, and even devastating to the survivors.
It is very understandable that people with AIDS and those who are helping them often do not want to hear any controversy about what causes AIDS. It is more than most of us can bear to see our friends die this way. But in the pain surrounding AIDS, it must occur to us that there is a wider picture, that a great many people who do not now have AIDS are being affected by it, and their future is heavily involved in what is now being done about it.
Anyone who has taken part in actions to protest the inactivity of the U.S. government even in conveying information about AIDS to the American public may also have been discouraged to learn that much of the funding finally wrested from the U.S. treasury (read taxpayers) is being spent on permanent installations for research that will be ready in ten years or so, or in the pursuit of information through lab tests that are not very accurate and that may be measuring a factor that is not vitally important. In other words, in terms of present threat, wasted.
The present book is perhaps the most readable to date of a small series of written pieces that question the basic and popular theory that the virus known as HIV causes AIDS. The background in cancer research (which has not yet produced a cure) is briefly described to show how, inevitably, the energies and resources available were turned into "AIDS research" and how success was precipitously declared without proof, and how a kind of "press-conference validation" has been accepted. One might add that this was done to the terrible disadvantage of the whole general public and particulary the segments of society that have been hardest hit by AIDS.
In other words, if you think we got screwed around about drugs, just take a look at the larger picture of what the drugs are supposed to deal with, and it may seem that the most important issue has been almost totally ignored.
The book deals with a number of phases of the AIDS story that have already been written about. In many of these there are slight differences from the previously-published versions. Some are already out of date (1987 figures in 1990) and some appear never to have been noticed.
Among these latter are the statements about Dr. Koch's postulates, found here on page 87, which define an infectious agent and none of which are satisfied by the observed actions and state of HIV. There are also the numbers of units of penicillin recommended by the CDC in Atlanta, (2.8 million) and the numbers found effective by Dr. Stephen Caiazza, (40 million) to treat those PWA who are considered to have syphilis. It may surprise some readers to link this discrepancy with the claim that it is of no use to treat syphilis in PWA, as it has long been established that "teasing" syphilis is far worse than doing nothing because it simply goes in hiding, only to return later perhaps in another disguise.
The book also suggests some configurations of problems that might be the root causes of AIDS rather than a single virus. Among these are the excessive use of drugs, either as recreation or in drastic cures for some stubborn disease conditions, extensive malnutrition (possible even among rich people) and undue and repetitive conditions of stress, strain and anxiety. On this debilitated launching pad, suggests the author, are then piled a number of otherwise-nonfatal maladies. To this add an extraordinary appetite – satisfaction in sexual activity hitherto not even achieved by animals kept for sexual purposes on stud farms. Overstimulation, plus an under-acceptance of social responsibility in a period of material prosperity and in locations where an unusual concentration of sexual partners live, if that's the right word for it.
All this happened at a time in history when the media reporting news and feature stories was refining an industry skill for exaggeration and for overemphasis on startling and not-always-relevevant details. So, as in the story of "the AIDS plague in Africa", a few facts can be easily turned into "proof" by extrapolation (take pictures in two days of 1.5% of the population in a country where you don't know the language and never saw any of the people before) whether the facts are really there or not. Relying on inference, lies, distortion of unproved "facts" and the quite natural desire to get the job done and get home. This tells a lot about what we have heard about Africa, and omits a great deal of what we might not easily understand about that vast and far-from-homogeneous continent, perhaps the longest-settled area on earth and certainly tremendously different from middle-class white America.
Seen this way, is it any wonder we are confused about AIDS? Is it not, rather, a miracle that we can agree on anything about AIDS? And, as if that weren't enough, we have had major controversies on the medical scene (Gallo-Montagnier) and on the political scene (Reagan "vs." PWA) where the disputants/contestants often do not even speak to each other. One of these non-communications is the "debate" between Robert Gallo and Peter Duesberg on the cause of AIDS.
Very few people seem to have read what Duesberg wrote, and this book quotes some of the significant statements. Few people have read what Gallo has written on the subject, though many have read his sarcastic and haughty comments about the character and abilities of his critics.
In the introduction to this book, Duesberg explains some of this weirdness. He says: "I am often asked why it is just myself, Harry Rubin, Joseph Sonnabend and a handful of others who question the virus-AIDS hypothesis... The answer lies in the strong conformist pressures on scientists... A dissenter would have to be truly independent and prepared for a variety of sanctions."
This bulletin board has made it a policy to display both sides of every controversy important to AIDS work and to PWA. In my opinion, this book is fair, is truthful and is important. It is also very readable. My hope is that people will read it and decide for themselves whether the story we have been hearing from 90% of the sources on AIDS is true, or if there have been some lies and some distortions. Then maybe we can proceed to a better understanding of what confronts us and of what we can do about it.
If a book is published to refute, debate or answer any of the allegations made in AIDS: the HIV Myth, this BBS will be glad to review it here. Don't hold your breath waiting.
© 1990 by Ben Gardiner
Originally published at Ben Gardiner's AIDS Info BBS Database
