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newest compounds. In a recent interview, Dr Saag said: "Perhaps paying public are systematically denied knowledge of its exis- the biggest difference between the cure paradigm and whatever tence and substance. Not only is there is a total absence anywhere paradigm we're in now is, we now should expect failure with of a disinterested, adjudicated debate, but individuals, whose only whatever [HAART cocktails] we first use. We should plan on it. motivation is to contribute to solving a disease claimed to afflict We should prepare for it. Clinicians should expect failure." Saag millions of people, find themselves censored. For example, Sir warns the HAART "'dam' is already leaking and there's high dan- John Maddox, former editor of the world's most prestigious sci- ger of it collapsing altogether. Failures are occuring right and ence journal, Nature, denied Duesberg the right of reply on issues left.". Speaking about his dying patients: "They aren't dying of he raised because his views give "many infected people the belief traditionally defined AIDS illness... I don't know what they're that HIV infection is not in itself the calamity it is likely to dying of, but they are dying. They're just wasting and dying... It prove". Yet, in a recent edition of the same journal, but in anoth- is sobering...while we are making good er context, there is a claim that "the voice guesses, they are just guesses. We don't of sceptics may grow tiresome, but the know what we are doing."'* mainstream is in trouble if it cannot win a Given the toxicity of these drugs, itis | w A Fi public debate with them". unlikely anyone can tolerate taking them Trying to rid the body of a Officials at the Berlin 10th International for more than a few years. If this outlook virus whose genome 1s AIDS Conference confiscated Dutch is gloomy for HIV/AIDS sufferers, it is . . AIDS analyst Robert Laarhoven's press even worse considering there is no sub- incorporated into the host pass and threatened him with expulsion stantial, alternative therapeutic strategy genome may be impossible." from Germany for "criminal trespass" anywhere on the horizon. because he placed copies of the dissident The futility of all "anti-HIV" drugs, Dr Harold Varmus § journal Rethinking AIDS on an "unautho- past, present and future, is best highlighted Director, National Institutes of Health ff rised" table. in a June 1998 interview by Dr Harold Varmus, Nobel Laureate retrovirologist paper and letter submitted by Eleopulos and Director of the National Institutes of and her colleagues since 1986, without Health: "Trying to rid the body of a virus whose genome is incor- providing a single scientific reason and invariably citing space porated into the host genome may be impossible."!* constraints in the journal. Not even the profound implications of the Tahi/Montagnier interview are of any apparent concern to Nature has repeatedly rejected every THE DEMISE OF SCIENTIFIC DEMOCRACY Nature. Professor John Kaldor, one of Australia's foremost The longevity of the HIV theory has been considerably boosted "established experts" on AIDS, admits that dissidents "intersperse by the virtual refusal of editors of leading medical journals to their cases with grains of fact"." However, because of Kaldor publish any material which takes HIV to task. Without these data, and colleagues’ "strong instinct not to dignify the sceptics’ argu- and the stamp of approval engendered by such publication, it is ments by attempting to refute them", arguments based on these almost impossible for the debate to reach the ears of those who "grains of fact" and many other data remain unanswered and unre- matter the most: clinicians and their patients. Like generals solved. THE DEMISE OF SCIENTIFIC DEMOCRACY The longevity of the HIV theory has been considerably boosted by the virtual refusal of editors of leading medical journals to publish any material which takes HIV to task. Without these data, and the stamp of approval engendered by such publication, it is almost impossible for the debate to reach the ears of those who matter the most: clinicians and their patients. Like generals directing wars, the remoteness of editors begets an objectivity which, while essential to clear thinking, militates against an appreciation of the profound responsibilities editors hold at the bedside. Ultimately, although the HIV theory is manifoldly problematic, physicians, patients, relatives, politicians, journalists and the tax- Editor's note: The second part of this article will examine the many scientific problems with the HIV theory of AIDS. Endnotes AIDS research, did not turn out to be the effective 1. Duesberg, P.H., Inventing the AIDS Virus, Regnery * US journalist Christine Johnson's interview (now models that scientists had anticipated. With no Publishing, Inc., Washington, USA, 1996. available in six languages) with the leader of the research use, the primates that are man's closest 2. Mullis, K.B., Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, Perth group was reviewed by scholar and interna- cousins are languishing in cages at an annual cost Pantheon, 1998. tional gay media personality Professor Camille of US$7.3 million. 3. Duesberg, P.H. (1987), "Retroviruses as carcinogens Paglia in her column in the US Salon magazine (28 and pathogens: Expectations and reality", Cancer Res. October 1997): "For a superb critique of the scan: *** In 1988, Eleopulos' paper that HIV does not 47:1199-1220. dalously over pliticized aciontificiracoarchton cause Kaposi's sarcoma was thrice rejected by the 4. Duesberg, P.H. (1989), Human immunodeficiency AIDS. aie tine Joh "I 5 4 ith Medical Journal of Australia on the advice of an virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome: cor- b G20 CANE connie Ushi) interview wit! “established expert". The reviewer stated: "The relation but not causation", Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. Australian biophysicist Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos author tries to argue that Kaposi's sarcoma cannot 86:755-764, USA. in the new issue of the British AIDS magazine, be caused by HIV infection, and that therefore AIDS 5. Duesberg, P.H. (1992), "AIDS acquired by drug Continuum [vol. 5, no. 1, autumn 1997]. The is not due to HIV infection. The arguments put for- consumption and other noncontagious risk factors", American major media have effectively suppressed = ward by the author are quite unsatisfactory, and are Pharmacol. Ther. 55:201-277. longstanding questions about whether the AIDS test not supported by even a desultory reading of the lit- 6. Duesberg, P.H. (1995), "Foreign-protein-mediated is reliable or whether an HIV virus in fact exists at erature quoted. In addition, the author fails to immunodeficiency in hemophiliacs with and without all. examine the body of epidemiological, immunologi- _ HIV infection", Genetica 95:51-70. . . cal and cellular literature concerning the pathology, 7. Duesberg, P. and Rasnick, D. (1997), "The ** On 5 May 1998, two US Republicans said they pathogenesis and clinical associations of this fasci- drugs-AIDS hypothesis", Continuum 4:1s-24s. were exploring ways to give a comfortable retire- nating manifestation of HIV infection." Yet this is 8. Duesberg, P.H. (1996), "Peter Duesberg responds", ment to 1,500 chimpanzees that were bred for AIDS __ the very "epidemiological, immunological and cel- Continuum 4:8-9. research. Accompanied by primate expert Jane lular literature" which eventually led the "estab- 9. Papadopulos-Eleopulos, E., Turner, V.F., Goodall, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. lished experts" to accept that "this fascinating mani- __ Papadimitriou, J.M., Hedland-Thomas, B., Causer, D., Jim Greenwood (R-Penn.) said they were working festation of HIV infection" is not caused by HIV Page, B. (1995), "A critical analysis of the HIV-T4- on a bill to set up sanctuaries for the chimps. The infection. chimps, bred in the United States specifically for Continued on page 85 *** In 1988, Eleopulos' paper that HIV does not cause Kaposi's sarcoma was thrice rejected by the Medical Journal of Australia on the advice of an "established expert". The reviewer stated: "The author tries to argue that Kaposi's sarcoma cannot be caused by HIV infection, and that therefore AIDS is not due to HIV infection. The arguments put for- ward by the author are quite unsatisfactory, and are not supported by even a desultory reading of the lit- erature quoted. In addition, the author fails to examine the body of epidemiological, immunologi- cal and cellular literature concerning the pathology, pathogenesis and clinical associations of this fasci- nating manifestation of HIV infection." Yet this is the very "epidemiological, immunological and cel- lular literature" which eventually led the "estab- lished experts” to accept that "this fascinating mani- festation of HIV infection" is not caused by HIV infection. 34 - NEXUS JUNE — JULY 1999 Continued next issue of NEXUS...