Do you want a murderer next door? The truth about AIDS denialists

http://theconversation.com/how-aids-denialism-spreads-in-russia-through-online-social-networks-73875

I really can not believe this. Some people out there, the so-called ‘Denialists,’ are absolutely convinced that HIV does not cause AIDS. And you can’t sway them from their beliefs either, regardless of how many of them perish because of their refusal to take antiretroviral drugs and perhaps just because of utter stupidity. I am going to go as far as to say, “Well, survival of the fittest… I suppose,” without any regret or concern about how offensive that may be.

Some ideas, despite being heretic or perhaps because of it, are revolutionary but in this age or any other, must be founded on sound empirical data and NOT as a result of some arguably senile, egotistical, arrogant ’scientist’ (no, I’m not talking about Al Davis) spreading his misconceptions to naive and ill informed people. Naivity is excusable, misunderstanding is perhaps forgivable, but to be a promulgator of such garbage is neither excusable nor forgivable but, in my opinion, punishable because people like Peter Duesberg (appropriately named) are akin to the worst criminals who should be charged with genocide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfOSKP5zPXs

So, who is Peter Duesberg? To give him justice, he was one of the most influential scientists in the 60s and 70s because of his work on cancer. In fact, he discovered the first oncogene src in 1970, a significant feat. Later on, he received tenure at University of California, Berkeley and received a multitude of awards for his advancements in cancer. But all his work on cancer is completely overshadowed by his paper published in 1987 on AIDS, in which he claimed that rather than HIV, it is the use of recreational and pharmaceutical drugs that causes of AIDS. His report was based on erroneous and selective data collection and has since been shown to be inconsistent with only, you know, about a quarter of a century’s worth of research that has been dedicated towards the deadliest disease in human history.

Why do I bring all this up? Because there are dire consequences to influential knuckleheads like him. The most obvious case that comes to mind is the AIDS epidemic in South Africa during Thabo Mbeki’s government. Mbeki bit into Duesberg’s trickery, or whatever you will have, and actually claimed in a speech at International AIDS Conference held at Durban that it was poverty, not HIV, that was the cause for AIDS in South Africa. Results: 330,000 people dead between 2000 and 2005. Genocide? I think so.

Christine Maggiore died at the age of 52 on December 27, 2008. She had been tested positive for HIV, along with her ex-boyfriend; found Duesberg the savior and became probably the most fervent supporter of AIDS denialism. She was also the founder of Alive and Well AIDS Alternatives, wrote a book and was interviewed by several magazines like Mothering and others (to tell you the truth, I would rather not know what else). Knowing that she was HIV positive, she refused to take antiretroviral medications, didn’t attend the hospital during labor for fear of being coerced into taking the medications, and delivered her daughter, Eliza Jane Scovill, at her home with the help of a midwife. She breast fed her baby fully aware that breast feeding increases the risk of HIV transmission by 15%. Consequently, Eliza Jane died at the age of 3 in 2005 because of AIDS related pneumonia. Obviously that wasn’t enough and Christine maintained that Eliza died of a reaction to amoxicillin, not pneumonia. She, of course most likely herself died of pneumonia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNJzeEgTqLc

What do YOU think? Did Eliza Jane deserve to die because of her mother’s irrational beliefs? Isn’t that kinda like those Christians that don’t get treatment because they think they will be cured by praying? What about those 300,000 people because of a white guy who didn’t know what he was talking about and is too arrogant otherwise to accept that he is wrong? Reminds me of the song Misunderstood by Lil Wayne:
“…don’t get scared
I know you saw one them sex offenders papers
don’t trip he live right on the end of yo block…
you know what, I have a fking daughter
you understand me and why the fk would you bring my neighbor to jail
just because the reason why he live next door to me,
ain’t the reason why I live next door to him
Meaning he didn’t rap his way to my fking neighborhood
he sold crack cocaine to get to my neighborhood
you move him out bring him to jail for life
and then you move in with a sex offender…
I guess it’s all just a big misunderstanding…”

https://www.enca.com/cartoon/rico-hivaids-denialism-last-decade

My point: Scientists have a responsibility to their children, to the people, to the society, and to the world, which they can not just abandon when convenient. Peter Duesberg and others like him are not Galileos of our time as some Denialists would have. In fact, far from it. They are criminals, and mass murderers and should be appropriately judged and punished.

More information and resources used

http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jun/15-aids-dissident-seeks-redemption-and-a-cure-for-cancer

https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/hivaids

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100504/full/news.2010.210.html

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-christine-maggiore30-2008dec30-story.html