Durban Declaration

From AIDS Wiki

1 Gathering the flock
2 See also
3 Documents and external links
4 References

The Durban Declaration (text) was a document signed by over 5,000 scientists and physicians affirming the HIV/AIDS hypothesis. It was published in the journal Nature in July of 2000. (Durban 2000)

The Declaration was drafted in response to South African President Thabo Mbeki's decision earlier that year to include prominent AIDS dissidents among a scientific panel to debate the HIV/AIDS hypothesis. The Durban Declaration generated a great deal of media attention at the time, despite the fact that it was essentially a political rather than a scientific document.

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Gathering the flock

As the 2000 International Conference on HIV/AIDS to be held in Durban approached, the orthodoxy became increasingly anxious about the inclusion and visibility of dissenters, and in particular, about a potential debate on AIDS causality which President Mbeki was preparing to convene. The Declaration was prepared by a committee representing "181 scientists and front-line physicians" (Stewart 2000)

In fact, the Declaration was distributed in an indiscriminate fashion to attain as many signatures as possible:

Before publication in Nature, it was circulated: '[The object is] To get as many names of scientists and doctors to sign on. Names of signatories will appear on the Nature website. If you would like to sign on, we would be delighted. Send me an email confirming this. To economize space on the website, we have to name people in a single line... Many of you will say that HIV/AIDS is not your area. However, over the years you have heard enough of the arguments to understand the association. Furthermore, many of you know well infectious diseases and understand Koch's postulates. If you have colleagues in the laboratory or in the clinic who you feel would like to sign, please ask them. The more the better. However, please note that in order to be authoritative we feel it necessary to restrict the list to those with major university qualifications.' This is an extract from the circular distributed on behalf of the organizing committee which included Luc Montagnier, Catherine Wilfert, David Baltimore, Sir Aaron Klug (as President of the UK Royal Society), and many other well-known names and organizations from developing countries as well as from the West. (Stewart 2000)

This circulated solicitation makes clear that the Declaration was an attempt to consolidate orthodox consensus, regardless of whether individual signatories had actually taken the time to examine the evidence in the literature or the arguments presented by dissenters. In any case, given the indiscriminate nature of the solicitation, Nature arguably has a journalistic obligation to publish the list of more than 2,400 signatories to the original letter submitted by the Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis to Nature in 1991, the majority of which have "major university qualifications" in science or medicine, and who, due to the censorship surrounding AIDS, could not possibly have been selected in such an indiscriminate fashion.

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