AIDS Inc. [2 ed.] 0954659015, 9780954659011

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Scandal of the Century

by Jon Rappoport with foreword by Laurence E. Badgley, M.D.

AIDS INC Scandal of the

Century by Jon Rappoport

First Edition

HUMAN ENERGY

PRESS

Suite 205

1020 Foster City Boulevard Foster City, California 94404

This book is a critical review of the scientific and social responses to AIDS. As such, it makes no recommendations about medical care, and no statement herein should be taken as medical advice. If people reading this book, or hearing about it, make decisions about their health or medical care which they believe are based on ideas contained in AIDS INC., that is their constitutional right; the author and publisher assume no responsibility for such decisions or their implications.

Text is copyright reserved.

©

May, 1988 by Jon Rappoport.

Illustrations, including cover, are copyright

Human

Energy

Illustrations artist Cris

Press.

and cover

All rights are

© May,

1988 by the

All rights are reserved.

art

were done by academy award winning

Hammond.

Library of Congress: 88-080560 ISBN: 0-941523-03-9

Printed in the United States of America

u

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

1

PART ONE-THE UNPROVEN AIDS EPIDEMIC chapter 1 AIDS on TV

5

chapter 2 Dying of What? chapter 3 Can a Prison Experiment Cause AIDS? chapter 4 Chemical AIDS chapter 5 Who Popped the Poppers? chapter 6 Drugs and AIDS: An Interview with an AIDS Clinic Administrator chapter 7 Years of Antibiotics: More on Chemical AIDS chapter 8 Pesticides and Drug Dumping in the Third World: Is

AIDS? chapter chapter chapter chapter chapter chapter chapter

9

23 31

37 43 47 it

51

9 Enter

AZT

10 Malnutrition AIDS 11 A Case Study in Confusion: AIDS in Uganda 12 Does the HIV Virus Cause Disease? 13 Pneumocystis, The Primary AIDS Symptom 14 Kaposi's Sarcoma 15 An Interview with a Molecular Biologist: Does

57 65 71

83 101

109

HIV Cause

AIDS?

113

chapter 16

An

Interview with Peter Duesberg: Does

HIV Cause

AIDS?

123

chapter 17 chapter 18

AIDS Dementia and

An

the Psychiatrists

Interview with Dr. Joseph Sonnabend

135 139

PART TWO-LAMBS OF THE MEDIA AND POLITICAL SCAPEGOATS chapter chapter chapter chapter chapter chapter

19 Official, Bizarre Definitions of AIDS 20 Media and the AIDS Party-Line 21 Instead of the Evening News 22 AIDS Media on the Political Right 23 Mandatory Testing/Detainment 24 Activist Strategies

147 155 167 181

195 201

PART THREE-HIDDEN IMMUNOSUPPRESSION chapter 25 The Inner Sanctum of the Laboratory

in

209

chapter 26 Biowarfare Research chapter 27 How Much of AIDS is Syphilis?

225

An

Interview with Dr.

243

Stephen Caiazza

249 chapter 28 African Swine Fever, Fidel, and the CIA (Cytomegalovirus) 257 chapter 29 chapter 30 IV Drug Users and AIDS: A Conversation with William

CMV

Burroughs chapter 31 The Power of Suggestion and the

EPILOGUE

261

AIDS Blood

Test

265

281

APPENDICES Appendix 1 Vaccines as Immunosuppression 287 Appendix 2 The First Five AIDS Cases 301 Appendix 3 The 1987 CDC Definition of AIDS 309 Appendix 4 American Corporations and AIDS 325 Appendix 5 The Hepatitis B Vaccine 327 Appendix 6 A Note on Alternative Theories of AIDS 333 Appendix 7 A Letter to the People With AIDS Coalition, by Michael Callen

337

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

345

AUTHOR'S NOTE

No ascribes to I

person its

I

interviewed in writing this book necessarily

conclusions.

found many researchers making separate

snapshots, which

Many

I

then arranged in

thanks,

my own

research

specific

for

took their

trains,

way. assistance,

Carla

to

Valentine, Deborah Widel, Stace Aspey, Robin Babou, and Cheri

Woods. Thanks and

to

Tamma Adamek

for assisting in the design of the book.

There are a hundred or so other people

who

contributed

commented on AIDS

information, helped decipher journal articles, research at the federal level, provided all

manuscript

for typing drafts of the

names and

My

leads.

thanks to

of them.

Many books on animal-experiments. literature, that

with your

own

It

scientific subjects illustrate their points

you can often take the animal research which agrees conclusions and then just throw out the equally large

stack of dissenting opinion.

So when

researchers do.

book,

I

do so

with

doesn't take long to realize, reading medical

for

I

one reason:

In

that

fact,

is

what some AIDS

mention specific animal research to illustrate that

experiments that don't prove the party

in this

very process, in which

line

are

elbowed

into

oblivion.

There are several researchers

HIV

virus as the cause of

free-for-all sex,

and death

who

AIDS amounts for millions.

traditional sexually transmitted diseases,

state that questioning the to

advocating promiscuity,

This

is

absurd.

The

and the massive

dosing that goes with repeated incidents of these diseases,

immunosuppressive. current

AIDS

So one doesn't have

research to favor safer sex.

to

fact

is,

antibioticis

very

swear allegiance

to

I went back to my doctor and told him that I was better. Tests showed my T-cell count was improving. I had more energy. He said I probably had AIDS dementia, and that's why I imagined I was getting well. An AIDS patient, Los Angeles, 1988

The following is a brief exchange between a law professor and a physician. It concerns a volunteer subject in an experimental drug study of behavioral control, being conducted at a Maryland prison.

Law

Professor:

Does he

(the volunteer)

understand the

effects

of the drug?

don't

Physician: Yes, we explained the whole thing to him. want any misunderstanding. Law Professor: Well, what are the effects? Physician: We don't know. That's what we're trying to

We find

out.

Recounted (Alfred

A

in

Kind and Usual Punishment, by

Knopf, 1974).

VI

I

Jessica Mitford

FOREWORD Science-media myths shattered;

Hope

AIDS INC.

revealed!

is

a

powerful statement about the true cause of AIDS. The "cure" follows naturally.

Jon Rappoport has studied the

scientific, political,

and media

responses to AIDS, and he provides an explanation which differs

A

from what you have heard heretofore. does not

model

of causation

Rather, multifactorial influences are

the scientific facts.

fit

The

the sine qua non of AIDS.

virus

multifactorial

model

is

a threat to the

well-being of the international pharmaceutical giants, megalithic

Most

national research institutions, and aspirant Nobel Laureates. devastatingly, this cure.

model does not extrapolate

Rappoport suggests

both socially and

epidemic

is

From

"a heresy"

and

the scientists

authority for is

Rappoport

that

and "an

halls of science,

and to

it

tells is

bullet

direction

AIDS

not pleasant, and initially

aberration."

But,

it is

Rappoport has done

of sleuthing about the

He

has told his story with enough

be heard within these very halls of science.

money and power

is

it

sure to be

he has discovered the Achilles heels of

their theories.

sometimes neither popular nor pretty. In

for

magic

wrong

the ivory towers of science

Through countless hours

homework.

libraries

headed

in the

a harbinger of future disaster.

The story

his

are

to a single

Like the cancer epidemic, the

scientifically.

will not be popular.

proclaimed

we

that

revealed.

An

Truth

AIDS INC, human

"old boys"

greed

network abounds

within our federally regulated research institutions, and our leaders bear the shame.

The concept

that

AIDS

represents the confluence of

different factors within the "modern" lifestyle

That a disease syndrome emerges

is

many

easy to understand.

in the latter part of the twentieth

century as the result of historically unprecedented sexual promiscuity,

drug abuse, promiscuous use of pharmaceuticals, rampant sexually transmitted diseases, widespread malnutrition (even in the U.S.,

common), and massive vaccination

where processed foods

are

campaigns

The multifactorial explanation

is

plausible.

buttressed by the evidence that

AIDS

i

x

is

is

further

occurring in those subsets of

which participate

the population

is

in these

injurious negative co-

AIDS

Finally, the death knell of the virus-causation theory of

factors.

heralded by the identification of a few different viruses related to

Never has there been one disease caused by

the cause.

different

germs. Truth a

realm

is

Yet the

usually simple.

AIDS

Our

of scientific obfuscation.

provides us with faulty information about for

humans, who

entire

virus theory has entered

addiction to animal research

AIDS and drugs intended

from other species.

differ physiologically

world today there are only approximately 200

In the

scientists

who

understand the inner-circle language and symbols of esoteric virology.

From

sterile

have handed down

and isolated sancta, these

own

their

Knowledge" of Nature. disease called AIDS.

They have dazzled us with

breakdown

precisely the

"how things

tools of their "Laboratories!"

us to the nourishing environments is

of

"Higher

the

These few Priests have informed the

millions of doctors of the world as to

and the relinquary

"Priests of Virology"

interpretations

in the

we

are

are" with this

their exotic

symbols

They have blinded

immersed

dynamic balance

in daily.

Yet

it

of our sustaining

environments which causes primary immune system weakness. Critical

mass has been reached

for

AIDS.

Rappoport has chronicled

these events.

By the time you have finished

why

the

interloper,

AIDS

virus

is

a

AIDS

relatively

INC., you will understand

non-virulent opportunistic

which takes advantage of a man-made

situation.

You

will

us all. immune system insults which You will understand why the AIDS epidemic, and other epidemics which are sure to follow, will not abate until man changes his learn the true nature of

situation.

you

You

will learn the truth,

afflict

you

will

change your mind, and

will set yourself free.

Laurence

E.

Badgley, M.D. July, 1988

AIDS INC

XI

INTRODUCTION

In the course of writing this book,

wouldn't talk on the record.

would be jeopardized

if

They

they backed

serious grievances about the

found many

I

jobs or grant

felt their

up

their

way AIDS

is

scientists

who

monies

grievances-and they had

being researched and ex-

plained to Americans. Is

the machinery in place to stop "the plague" called

AIDS?

I

believe, confirming these scientists' worst fears, that every major as-

sumption about

this

syndrome,

this disease, is

wrong

or in serious

trouble.

Among

patients there are massive desertions in the ranks.

own

People with AIDS are searching out their

own

their

money

studies,

and

in

doing

it,

they're

remedies, organizing

by and large spending

One

Meanwhile, medical powers-that-be are redefining AIDS. virus,

less

than they would on orthodox care.

HIV,

is

now

being asked to explain a huge, discordant series of

physical symptoms.

Failure in this

a certainty.

is

It is

the

most em-

barrassing example of second-rate science in decades. Set one undergraduate biology major loose in a library for a

week, and he would be able that

AIDS has

to

uncover legitimate journal-evidence

from the one painted by

a clinical face different

NIH

(National Institutes of Health). In other words, with a shift in personnel at the top of the re-

we would observe a considerably different one we are now being presented. Science... not a sim-

search ladder, overnight

AIDS than

the

ple matter of truth, but a personnel problem.

AIDS come

is

not the

the most

first

instance of this, but

damaging scandal

has yet seen-while people

the

AIDS

will

die.

The organization responsible

for finding

an AIDS cure, NIH,

operates in certain respects like any large corporation. acters

is

probably be-

American medical orthodoxy

production-oriented, competitive.

Its

cast of char-

Top-flight players try to

establish domination, cut divergent thinkers out of the budget.

players of course also advertise their

own

stories of success.

These If

that

AIDS INC.

means

talking half-truths, spreading glitz to cover a lack of substance-

there are

PR people

to

handle

that.

The above paragraph was spring of 1987, reason to reject

when

I

a basic

assumption

started researching AIDS.

I

I've

made

in the

never found

this picture.

These days,

at

NIH, and

at the

Centers for Disease Control

(CDC), the glossy advertisments are beginning justing their toupees in the mirror.

machinations, the charade

is

coming

to peel.

Beyond

Leaders are ad-

the scope of their

to a close.

Jon Rappoport

Los Angeles

PART ONE

THE UNPROVEN AIDS EPIDEMIC

CHAPTER ONE

ON TV

AIDS

Face

what most

it,

hard that

to

We

be selective.

what we

are seeing

aren't doctors.

and hearing

Unfortunately, that

AIDS

is

Therefore,

is

scientific,

we have

it's

to trust

true.

is

a mistake.

word which, through

a

is

know about AIDS comes through our

of us

But because information on AIDS

television sets.

repetition, has

become

a

sword,

a piece of hypnotic death-dealing.

Suppose

sit

I

you down

TV

in front of a

tures I've strung together of black Africans,

ing slowly, the

most

along a dirt road.

stiffly,

"Now

mation.

tional

ad

Save your

They

all

have

I

have large red

letters be-

blind.

The crudest

killer of all.

like this:

Get infor-

life."

it's

like this

skin and bones, walk-

The voiceover gives us something

AIDS.

making people

Of course,

pic-

movements.

tentative

it's

and show you

Holding hands.

Slowly, at the bottom of the screen, gin to emerge:

all

set

river blindness, not

But you watch a

AIDS.

fic-

over the course of a month and what will you be-

lieve?

When you have death and dying to work with in picture-form, PR people who can get a chilling message across are a dime a dozen. Any death can be linked with any reason. But how about this? A man stands against a black backdrop, holding a small bottle the

"See this?" he says. "Isobutyl nitrite.

of liquid.

heard of

People

it.

three years.

arms. legal,

The

I

first

except in

call

it

poppers.

have AIDS. 50

AIDS

New

I

Under

patients

all

I

know, you've never

sniffed this four times a this shirt,

I

sniffed this.

week

have lesions on

Of course,

York, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts.

it

for

my

isn't

Your

il-

fed-

AIDS IXC.

eral

to take action against poppers.

government refuses

them over

the counter.

I

wouldn't advise

it,

You can buy

though."

eing that on TV. s

:

Their

most of us

know about

paid to

and

skills

people

realize, the

their jobs

who

PR

fashion ads and

what they are promoting.

the quality of

have to do with building convincing im-

ages, period.

we

Suppose, in the case of AIDS, which, originally,

is

based on inaccurate science, which

from sou: eria

are being fed "knowledge

coming

is

overlooked very significant facts about the

we

are calling AIDS.

In that case,

we would

amount

have, by now, a truly massive

of distortion goir^:

e

speculation parading as

fact,

and

ould have omissions on a grand scale. This

is,

in fact,

what we have.

ortunatc

D cover in

not analysts of science.

Even m

America, though

e

a

more

media are

detail later, the

riters for the

major newspapers

These

the press representatives at major federal health agencies. -

people are hardworking and helpful folks, but they are merely

fed informati on.

in

from

doctors, take their information direct

oervisors

who run

labs

where research

is

carried

The press people make no judgments on the accuracy of what

they pass on to repor: Just in case

So

it

i

you

didn't

really isn't

know.

hard to imagine

starts at the top of the waterfall,

livingroom through the tube,

by the time

it is

the ring of casual authority the

that, if it

wrong information

cascades out into

a disaster. But by that point,

media know how

to impart.

it

has

That

is

their business

other example.

HIV virus, immune s

the purported ell,

You know

AIDS

those

virus,

TV

most people believe

show

the

T-cells of

our

pictures that

chewing up the

that those pictures are

photos, or at least computer simulations made, dot by dot, of something that has defir I

curred and been observed inside the body.

asked an eminent molecular biologist

said, "No.

It's

a

corny'.-::-:

simulation.

if

that

was

I'm not saying the

true.

TV

He

depic-

CHAPTER ONE tion

intentionally phony, but

is

vention.

your

In fact, there

is

they're

that

HIV

showing you

is

an

in-

viruses are doing that to

cells." I

believe the truth about AIDS, once

than what you've been hearing. after

what

no proof

you read

this

book.

You'll

it is

have

dug to

is

better

news

be the judge of that

But on the whole, behind the media glaze,

behind the hysteria, behind labs and researchers their theories,

out,

beyond even

the illness

who

are

and the dying there

wedded to some re-

is

lief. I

would summarize

the

media position on AIDS

contagious. The virus has spread over

1.

It is

2.

known world. AIDS is invariably fatal. It may well become another grand

3.

as follows:

much

of the

plague.

I'm going to offer evidence that none of these positions

is

true.

CHAPTER TWO

DYING OF WHAT? In a

house on Vermont Avenue,

man

year-old

with a chalky face

is

Los Angeles, a twenty-five-

in

He

dying of AIDS.

propped up by pillows, covered with

a blanket,

sits in a

and watches

chair

televi-

sion.

Outside, in the back yard,

Sacramento,

I

talk

with his parents. The husband,

man who has spent most me somehing is wrong.

a short stocky

of his

life

tending bar in

tells

Wrong?

Everyone knows the son

is

What could be

dying.

wrong, outside of that?

The mother nods

don't think this

"I

nosed him, but

this

agreement with her husband.

in

is

AIDS," the father says.

whole thing has

"They've diag-

to do with drugs he had in Viet-

nam." I

home.

She says, "He was

look at the wife. I

mean, before he went

all

off to fight there

right until he

with him. After the war, he began losing weight.

He came

back

for awhile, got himself a job,

came

was nothing wrong

He was

miserable.

but then he began to fade

again."

"What about the AIDS His father looks

at

me.

damn

pesticides, or heroin."

like a

man

The conviction

virus,"

I

say.

"This isn't viruses.

in his voice is absolute,

Besides, the conversation isn't the

There was a ing away. His

I

and

it

doesn't he?"

It's

one of those

and he doesn't sound

man

in

San Francisco

sister, a teacher,

time

make

who was

was taking

I've

been through

sense."

dying, too.

care of him.

"I've talked to his

don't think this physician just doesn't

first

like this.

supper, she said to me,

and

it,

trying to pretend his son isn't homosexual.

something strange

ter

"He has

One

Wast-

night, af-

doctor for over an hour,

knows what AIDS

is.

He

explains

it,

AIDS INC.

She drags out

shows me passages

number

a

from medical journals and

She builds a case

off.

which has shown up over the centuries

then hands

me

a

list

for

in

many

guises.

of street drugs with an "adverse effects"

next to each one. The

AIDS

as

Syphilis, the disease called the great pre-

a mistaken label for syphilis.

tender,

of articles

checked

that are

symptoms do remind me

She

column

of AIDS.

man who had just He called me through a mutual me information for the book I was

Then, in Venice, California, there was a

been diagnosed as having AIDS. friend, told

me

he wanted to give

writing.

have no symptoms," he

"I

HIV

virus

and

my

said.

"I

just tested positive for the

me

doctor wants to give

the drug,

AZT. He says

I

have AIDS." This sounds preposterous. I

you

"How

ask,

can he diagnose

AIDS with only

a blood test?

Are

me

had

feeling sick?" "I

man

feel fine!" the

"My

says.

headaches recently, the AIDS virus laughs.

"It's

is

tells

probably in

because

my

I

brain."

He

insane."

That night, four people

doctor

we meet

for dinner.

whose doctors have

He

started

tells

me

he knows three or

them on AZT,

treatment, just because they tested positive for the

AIDS

AIDS

the

virus.

No

symptoms.

AZT

is

a highly toxic

who

causes anemia. People

drug that damages bone marrow and

take

it

become so anemic they

blood replacement by transfusion. So

son

who

in the

world should

a per-

has no symptoms be taking such a drug?

Several reporters in ple with

why

often need

New

no symptoms who

York had already told

tested positive

me

on AIDS blood

about peotests -

they

were also being given AZT.

Then

there

was

agnosed with AIDS.

a

woman

in

San Diego

I

met. She had been di-

She was an IV drug user

who had

recently

stopped dealing and using heroin. In a ridiculous setting, riding the elevated rail

huge San Diego Zoo, she turned

to

me and

thing you read in the papers about AIDS."

10

through the

said, "Don't believe every-

CHAPTER TWO "Did you share needles?"

She shook her head.

asked her.

I

"I'm not stupid.

Do

doctors in hospitals

shoot two or three patients with the same needle, without cleaning it?

AIDS

Forget this thing about the

What

needles.

gets passed

around

is

virus getting passed around on

drugs.

Why

don't they find out

what's in the drugs?"

"Such as?"

She looked

"Keep

me.

at

trying," she said.

"You'll figure

it

out." All of the above conversations took place in the spring of 1987, just as

I

was beginning

In July,

York.

him

at

I

met

this

book.

who was

a physician

seeing

AIDS

patients in

New

He was out in Los Angeles on vacation, and I was introduced to an AIDS conference. He started asking me questions about my book, about the artibeen publishing on possible origins of AIDS.

cles I'd just

After lunch, in the lobby of the hotel where the conference

being held, he handed

"Check out the

He

your book."

me

a folder.

citations,"

didn't

want

It

was

contained a computer printout.

he said.

"It'll

to talk further.

make With

a

good

a quick

start for

wave, he

walked out the door. In the parking

out was a long

As

testing.

it

list

lot,

I

opened up the folder and found the

of journal citations for articles about

AIDS

print-

blood-

turned out, a number of them referred to the unreliabil-

ity of those tests. I

blood

found studies on

tests

At AIDS.

I

were

my own

which also rejected the idea

that the

useful.

this point,

I

decided to retreat to orthodox information on

read a number of pamphlets and brochures put out by the

National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control

(CDC), the two health agencies responsible for much of the

search and statistics-keeping on AIDS.

From

from several conversations with middle-of-the road researchers,

sembled a sample dialogue, questions and answers on AIDS. thing in black and white. discussion of

AIDS

It is

meant

in this book.

11

to

form the background

re-

and

these info sheets, I

as-

Everyfor the

AIDS INC.

AIDS Of

patients are dying, but of

and

infections

illnesses.

what?

Various kinds.

For instance?

Pneumocystis pneumonia. What's new about that?

The reason these people come down with Pneumocystis new. The reason

is

a virus.

is

HIV?

Human

Yes.

What does

spond

immunodeficiency

virus, the

AIDS

do?

it

immune

It

damages

to

germs and destroy them.

the

system, which would ordinarily re-

So now the immune system can't defeat ordinary

Now

virus.

illness.

harmless or mild germs like Pneumocystis become very

dangerous, even

lethal.

And

that's

AIDS.

What part

of the

Yes.

The the

T-cells.

immune system

They

are called

does the

T because

HIV

they're

virus damage?

manufactured

in

thymus gland. Is

AIDS

It

seems

Is

so.

way

there a

We called

invariably fatal?

have

a

to

drug

slow to

it

down?

keep the HIV virus from spreading.

It's

AZT. Does

HIV

any other part of the immune system? The macrophages. They are cells which are the first line of deattack

fense against illness.

They move around the body eating up foreign

germs.

HIV from

also attacks the spine

this brain infection often

They actually

act

and the

is

People

who

suffer

develop what's called AIDS dementia.

demented?

Eventually.

What

brain.

ARC?

12

CHAPTER TWO AIDS-Related Complex.

toms include night sweats,

It's

pre-AIDS condition. The symp-

a

swollen glands, and gen-

fever, diarrhea,

eral malaise.

Do most

who

people

ARC

get

AIDS?

then get

Many

do, yes. Perhaps 50%, perhaps more.

What

are the

symptoms

AIDS

of

The early symptoms

dementia?

are mental disorientation, forgetting

names or appointments, perhaps leg weakness. This eventually comes full-blown mental incompetence and confusion. I've heard of a

Slim and

World

AIDS

in general,

are the

same

AIDS.

still

slim.

and chronic

are chronic diarrhea it's

in Africa called slim disease.

In Africa

thing.

and the Third

one of the major symptoms of AIDS

Hence the name

weight-loss.

But

AIDS

form of

The

be-

is

severe

The other major symptoms there

fever.

HIV

virus

is

weakening the immune

system, allowing the fever and weight-loss and diarrhea to occur and persist.

Yes. In the United States,

We

Definitely.

call

amount.

a considerable

slim part of

is it

AIDS?

the wasting syndrome.

Wasting

is

on the

list

You

lose weight,

of infections

and

dis-

eases which are unmistakably bold signs of AIDS.

So slim, AIDS, pre-AIDS, these are

all

in

one way or another

part of the same disease-picture.

That's right. //

you

test positive

AIDS

blood

test,

does that

mean you

AIDS?

have

No. virus.

It

means you have

Some people

cally incorrect.

may

on an

But

call this

later on,

contacted, been exposed to the

being infected by HIV, which

perhaps

many

is

HIV

techni-

years in the future, you

very well contract AIDS.

What

are the exact

symptoms

of full-blown

AIDS,

the fatal dis-

ease? Until recently,

and you list,

also

had

to

you had

to test positive for the presence of

HIV

have one or more infections or diseases from a

which are called AIDS indicator 13

diseases.

The two most preva-

AIDS INC.

Pneumocystis

lent of these are

coma, which

is

AIDS

But there are other

Many. About

Do you

have

still

show

Six

to

test positive

months

As

after

of September, 1987,

HIV

had put together

I

of

me on

virus.

on KPFK,

dialogue,

LA s

I

Pacifica

Happening

of the Something's

and four hours

for three

AIDS

at a crack,

and the

response was very good.

call-in

Once

the station used a brief

morning news, and

a

dav

later

heard that broadcast and wanted cisco, the

gay bathhouse scene

went with

two-minute comment oi mine got a

I

to tell

me

from

a

for

man who had

about AIDS

in

San Fran-

and the drugs

there, in the 1970s,

His point meshed with one

cause symptoms

that

we

I

was already finding

research.

I

central to a

drugs, alone, adulterated, or in combinations, can call

AIDS.

No

virus necessarv.

His information, and other info like

my

call

it.

discussion oi AIDS:

on

virus in order to

you can have one

this little

as a late-night guest

Roy Tuckman, host

radio station.

HIV

the

for

a definite, positive test for the

show, was having

the

indicator diseases?

and be diagnosed with AIDS, even though you

was appearing regularlv

FM

sar-

AIDS 7

necessarily.

the indicator diseases

don't

pneumonia and Kaposi's

thirty.

be diagnosed as having

Not

carinii

a cancer of the blood vessels.

was

it,

eventually put the cap

able to collect a response to the official position

on AIDS. It is:

•There

AIDS

is

no disease-entity which ought

is

to

be called AIDS.

not one thing.

•The HIV virus has never been proved

to cause

any disease of

any kind.

•The treatment

•No

for

AIDS

patients,

conclusive proof exists that

demic caused by

.

14

AZT, can be dangerous.

we have

a

contagious epi-

CHAPTER TWO •The AIDS blood

tests

which have existed up

And, of course, they are

unreliable.

which has not been proven the cause •Efforts to develop an

of

AIDS

to

May, 1988, are

testing for exposure to a virus

any

illness.

aimed

vaccine, likewise, are

at

preventing infection by HIV, which has not been proved to be harmful to

anybody.

•The various definitions

AIDS, used

of

to

make diagnoses

around the world, are useless and vague. They allow almost anyone to

be pinned with the

people.

They

numbers

of

AIDS

AIDS. They actually function

label,

to terrorize

by semantic juggling, promote vastly increased

also,

cases,

which naturally leads

to the

wide marketing

of highly profitable pharmaceuticals as treatments.

symptoms of pre-AIDS, AIDS, dementia, slim - whatyou use - can all be accounted for by the effects of medical

•Official

ever

and

title

street-drugs, or

•There

is

•Many like

by older forms of

no proof

that

illness.

one malady called AIDS

exists.

episodes of traditional sexually transmitted diseases,

gonorrhea and syphilis, along with massive amounts of

otics,

antibi-

HIV

can cause a great deal of immunosuppression. Rejecting

as

the cause of disease therefore does not imply an endorsement of freefor-all sex.

•The impact.

On

synonym

to

label

AIDS has

a devastating psychological

close inspection, it

is

it

and emotional

means almost nothing.

Human Immune

The

closest

Suppression, which of course has

hundreds of causes. Naturally, in coming to these positions about AIDS,

with a number of scientists and physicians.

many who

disagreed with the

official

Surprisingly,

them

my own

I

found

I

way

in

held with

are reprinted in later chapters.

What

I'm going to

tions I've just stated.

What bel?

Several of the interviews

thoughts.

spoke

scenario on AIDS.

There were also people whose conclusions went a long

shaping

I

As

I

is

say,

AIDS it is

do

Make

in this

is

give evidence for the posi-

new map, one I believe is overdue. when you strip away the terroristic laIt is any form of severe immunothing.

a

actually,

not one

book

15

AIDS INC. suppression, from any source, which then gives rise to opportunistic infections.

These infections are sometimes unusual, because the microor-

ganisms that cause them are benign under ordinary circumstances. But with the

immune response

the fore and behave virulently.

immune

suppression.

It

lowered, the microorganisms come to This

is

the pattern for

always has been.

reduced immune response.

First,

Then, infections.

on the globe where AIDS

In every spot

forms of

all

nothing new.

It is

is

we

said to occur,

find

researchers have avoided a thorough study, a ground-level examination of ingrained

immunosuppressive

For example, in the

factors that already exist.

US gay communities

of Los Angeles,

New

York, and San Francisco, most attempts to understand the so-called

bathhouse

lifestyle

have been half-hearted. They have

ine at close range the incredible parade of

exam-

failed to

immunosuppressive drugs,

both medical and street-type, which have paraded through that scene in historically

unprecedented quantities and combinations.

In Africa, a

whole different

immunosuppressive

set of traditional,

have been

factors

at

and more recent

work, and one of the crimes

of second-rate medical research there has been the failure to really

comb

areas of the

Central African republics and learn what

going

is

on.

As you are the

will see,

symptoms

many

of the

symptoms

of

what

is

AIDS known

called

of toxic reactions to chemicals, or of already

illnesses.

But people insist on believing that

AIDS

is

everywhere one

condition caused by one thing, a virus.

Meanwhile, the death-sentence, You have AIDS, has the impact of a Medieval priest preparing a lapsed believer for Hell. the

hype about AIDS, the severe psychosomatic

sentence

is

We

In

all

death

underplayed. also have hysteria about the possibility of contracting an

invariably fatal disease.

proved, really proved,

demic on our hands.

many

effect of that

This might be understandable that,

But

with AIDS,

we have

that is not the case.

if it

had been

a single-source epi-

From

reports,

many,

people diagnosed with AIDS were already suffering from con16

CHAPTER TWO siderable immunosuppression which had nothing to It

had

do with exposure

to

to drugs, to already

do with

known

a virus.

diseases.

There are several types of "synthetic AIDS" among heavy IV

drug

and none of them would require

users,

a virus to cause severe

immune damage. Everything debilitating could be caused by chemicals. One striking example, documented, involves a ten-year period between 1973 and 1983, during which PharmChem Laboratories, in Menlo Park,

California, analyzed samples of street drugs

Among

the world.

MPPP,

called

many

their

findings

was

from

all

over

the discovery that a

drug

a synthetic substitute sold as heroin, contained

a

byproduct called MPTP.

MPTP San

can cause a virtual case of Parkinson's disease from one

In fact, in 1985, the Santa Clara Valley

injection.

Jose, California, set

up an MPTP/Parkinson's

were seeing increasing numbers of people I

weight.

Medical Center,

afflicted

"Oh

yes," a clinic

spokesperson told me.

fifty pounds." 2

AIDS

"It

up

loss

called the wasting syndrome. By the present

AIDS,

to forty or

it is

toms of

they

this drug. 1

asked whether these patients have been known to lose

matic, is

clinic, since

by

in

sufficient

MPTP

grounds

In

can be very dra-

literature,

CDC

definition of

Other symp-

AIDS.

for a diagnosis of

such weight-

include muscle ache and fatigue, associated with Pre-

AIDS. It is

clear that an ordinary

examining physician would com-

pletely miss the fact that his IV drug-using patient

weight-loss from a chemical. He would have stitution, first, of that

MPPP

for street heroin,

was suffering

understand the sub-

to

and then the adulteration of

with MPTP. Not easy knowledge to come by.

Why

have

we

not heard

much about MPTP and

other chemi-

cals?

The medical research-machine

is

geared

to collect

symptoms,

put them under umbrellas, uncover causative germs, and find drugs to treat those germs.

It is

not geared to analyze deeply the deleterious

Conservative estimates by PharmChem indicate that 500 people were exposed to MPTP. 2 A part of the weight-loss is due to treatment for Parkinson's.

California

in

Central

AIDS INC.

drugs which,

effects of

Which

cal preparations.

Two summers

many

in

some

in

ago

cases, are not so different

in

cases, are medical preparations.

New

been diagnosed with AIDS. The

from medi-

York,

met

I

had used

of drugs he

list

man who had

a

He was

had been prescribed was several pages long.

just

in his life or

terribly fright-

ened, but not of the cumulative effect of these drugs on his health.

He was he had

afraid of a virus; of, to be just

He

more

exact, the

AIDS death sentence

been delivered.

told

me

pneumonia, he

although he had just had one mild episode of

that,

The die had been

he had no chance to recover.

felt

cast.

He knew

mune

system, but he was going to take

AIDS

the

AZT, was very bad

treatment,

it

anyway.

for his im-

"What

else can

I

do?" he said. Since the diagnosis of AIDS, he

He was

afraid to

tell

as dead," he said.

thanasia

is

"I

in

after

feel like

in a hospital

I

saw

the

some hospice where

man, he wrote

been taking drugs

my

life.

I

me

Holland. Eu-

a letter:

see myself ending

I

me and

they're very nice to

make all

easy.

it

my

life.

doctors give them to me. That's unless

trip to

an institutionalized case, even though once in

about dying, trying to I've

should think about a

legal there."

A week been

I

sleeping.

he was "terminal." "I'm as good

his friends that

"Maybe

was having trouble

take another drug?

all

I've

I

I

I

only

I've

up

in one, or

me

whisper to

say 'institutionalized' because

my

buy them from dealers and

know.

How

else can

I

cure

AIDS

always relied on one kind of chemi-

cal or another."

Just in case

give you

some

anyone thinks I'm an anti-drug moralist,

idea,

some

partial idea, of the

drugs

this

me

let

man had

reg-

ularly taken over a ten year period.

Starting in 1972, he

halant nitrite compounds.

had begun

to use poppers,

Serious drugs.

which are

in-

They are snorted as both

an orgasm-enhancer and a muscle relaxant, and were widely used in the gay bathhouse scene starting in about 1972.

One

me

a million times that

the carcinogenic potential of these nitrites

of the nitrites in bacon.

poppers on the average

is

researcher told

This man, for seven years, did huge doses of of three times a week.

18

The

levels at

which he

CHAPTER TWO was taking

the

drug

will

humans, because they

never be replicated in

are

inhumanly

scientific studies, in

unethical.

For two years, he was supplied with poppers by his physician, not for any condition he was suffering, but as a recreational "favor."

Then he went

to the adulterated street versions,

which are even more

was giving him.

toxic than the pharmaceutical-grade stuff his doctor

Ordinarily, during a

weekend

at the

concert with poppers, massive amounts of

type drug with a sensual component

MDA

two or

(a

bathhouse, he also did, in

MDA, which

a speed-

is

He

sexual stimulant).

did

on Fridays and Saturdays, and once

three times a night

or twice on Sundays.

He

also,

on an average weekend, steadily ingested quaaludes

(which, in 1980, began to be contaminated with a

compound

called or-

tho-toluidine, a brain toxin); did four or five valium; ten to twenty lines of cocaine; acid; ten to fifteen joints of

marijuana (occasionally

laced with the dangerous pesticide, paraquat); antibiotics, just in case

he ran across sexually transmitted bacteria; and a quart or two of scotch.

This regimen went on for almost nine years.

During the week, he used heroin,

When

day.

about two grains a

heroin was in short supply, or he didn't feel safe about

the possible contaminants in

it,

he chewed percodans

also used pharmaceutical grade

from

at a rate of

his doctor,

like

candy.

He

amphetamines which he obtained

and during four or

five periods

favored this drug

over heroin or percodans, suffering subsequent speed burnouts, physical

and emotional depletions of considerable magnitude. Meanwhile, because of

his large

numbers

of sexually transmit-

ted diseases, he kept on steadily with antibiotics, whether or not at

any given moment he had an tion

from

ity that

his doctor, he

he might get

infection.

was popping

sick.

In other words,

The problems with

this

approach

cation are spelled out in a later chapter - but suffice

throw in

off

on prescrip-

tetracycline against the possibil-

it

to say,

to

medi-

you can

completely the balance of friendly and unfriendly bacteria

your body with such a regimen, and you can also create large num-

bers of antibiotic-resistant germs.

19

AIDS INC. Because he often suffered from inflammatory infections, he

was

also prescribed corticosteroids,

which

in

one study 3 has been

found, in concert with other compounds, to be very immunosuppressive, leading in fact to

AIDS

of

Pneumocystis pneumonia, the major symptom

(32,000 cases of

pneumocustis since 1980).

Then, to build muscle, he took several steroids on and off for six years.

There

is

more, but you get the idea.

man wrote me

In early 1988, this

know, to

me

do

I

find

my

about

it

past drug use, none of

my

could be responsible for I

a letter in

which he

said,

"You

curious that although several doctors have spoken

them has seriously suggested

AIDS, or whatever the

it

hell this illness is

have."

same

In the

AIDS

off the

letter,

the

man remarked

that he

had been taken

AZT, because he needed too many

treatment,

blood

transfusions.

Of

ity of getting

any number of germs placed directly into your blood-

stream, without

mune

course, blood transfusions also

open up the

possibil-

passing through the ordinary portals of the im-

first

system.

As

will be discussed later,

AZT,

in attacking the

bone marrow,

immune system

has a severe, negative effect on the very

the

AIDS

pa-

having problems with.

tient is

About

three

months ago,

I

received another letter from this

man. He said he had had another episode of Pneumocystis pneumonia.

He now had two might want sible -

to consider

although he

doctors,

and one

of

them was suggesting he

going to Holland, where euthanasia was pos-

still

wasn't bedridden, and was working a half-

time job.

A

"specialist in

beginning just

go

sounds,

much 3

to get

off it

and is

earlier.

death and dying" was counseling him.

annoyed with these ministrations, and wrote, try to get

healthy on

my

even more ridiculous that

Maybe

it's

I

own.

20

Ridiculous as this

didn't consider this

too late for me, but

Journal of Immunology, vol. 133, 1984, p. 2502.

He was "I may

I'd like to

much,

find out.

Ev-

CHAPTER TWO eryone here

so geared to fatalism about AIDS.

is

hypnotism. The expectation

The

date, exact date,

is

that I'm

going

a kind of

It's

massive

and pretty soon.

to die,

the only piece in the puzzle that's missing.

is

I'm

being lulled by well-meaning people into a death dance. They want

make

want

I

you about

begin to

tell

being done.

tough

waking up years and I

AIDS

part,

to the

I

don't

me

Something inside

it.

I've participated in

me

everybody wants

but

it,

is

can't

I

screaming.

now

to give up.

I

that we're

tell

even

An indown

last ten

down knew in New York who was treating same man who had put information in my hands

want

patients, the

I

feel like I'm just

consequences of what happened over these

approached

about AIDS

I'm really so pissed-off

to fight this thing.

justice is

to the

when

non-painful for me, but they become irritated

it

them

to

."

to lie

.

a physician

testing.

I

.

I

set in front of

scribed here, of the drugs this

him

man had

the

list,

only partially de-

taken during a ten-year pe-

riod.

Then

I

included a

of his

list

symptoms.

pre-AIDS

First, the

diarrhea, swollen glands, night sweats, intermittent fevers, de-

ones:

Next,

pression.

I

infection), staph, I

added the

infections

which had brought on

Pneumocystis pneumonia, oral candidiasis

nosis of AIDS:

a diag-

(a

fungal

various skin rashes and inflammatory problems.

asked the doctor whether these symptoms could have been

caused, in

He

full,

by

this

man's ingestion of drugs over ten years.

said, "I'm not

going

to

go on the record with

this,

but you

can find out by looking carefully through ordinary drug referencetexts

and talking with people who take these

ing this

man

street-drugs.

I

see noth-

has suffered which couldn't have been brought on by

the drugs, plus his history of sexually transmitted diseases." "In other words,"

I

The doctor stared

at

said, "no virus,

no HIV virus was neces-

sary."

even the sound of

me and nodded

his voice to

somehow

heresy.

21

yes, as

if

implicate

he didn't want

him

in

medical

CHAPTER THREE

CAN A PRISON EXPERIMENT CAUSE AIDS?

Ken has kept his doctor

and began

"Tell

time

we

among

your readers I'm black," he said

blacks

to

me

pointedly the

them the

tell

twice as high, per capita, as

is

pneumonia, he

of Pneumocystis carinii

among

rate of

my

try to detoxify "the poisons in

first

AIDS

whites." 1

Ken decided he would begin using herbs

and he would

left

treating himself.

spoke, over a year ago, "and

In 1983, tion,

two bouts

After

in 1983.

him he had AIDS

a journal since his doctor told

for his condi-

system."

many avenues of alternative treatment, and, like a number of other people with AIDS I've spoken to, he has refused to accept a permanent protocol for treatment from any MD, even a holistic one. In fact, among the AIDS survivors I've met, this This led

him

into

independence of mind and self-doctoring seem

mon

in 1984,

six

be the one com-

denominator. Ken, 27, was working

ture,

to

he was too weak

show

"in

to continue.

business" in Los Angeles, until,

He began

a course of acupunc-

experimented with herbs from the Southwestern US, and

He

months, started a high-dose course of vitamin C.

taken the lecithin compound, He'll take baths in

AL

which he adds

after

has also

721 (not approved by the FDA).

a very diluted

amount

of

hydrogen

peroxide.

His journal

He now

illness.

He no time

longer works in

tells

them

a record of

what appears

to

be a comeback from

show

business, but holds

down

another

golf. full-

job.

know

"I

he

is

runs a mile a day, swims twice a week and plays

these treatments I've dosed myself with

me, "but

for anyone.

lr

rhe same

is

all I I

care

is

they

work

for

can't tell what'll benefit

true for Hispanics.

23

me.

I

sound

don't

crazy,"

recommend

another person.

But

I

do

AIDS INC. was

feel

very strongly that whatever

that

AIDS isn't fatal. Doesn't have to be." One of the entries in Ken's journal

I

suffering from,

the

HIV

tested positive for

Track them over a few

People with no symptoms.

virus.

years and see what happens

gone, and

interested me:

who have

"Try to find one study of people

it's

they change their habits."

if

The habits he meant were monumental drug-taking and having hundreds (or thousands) of sexual partners, thereby increasing

tremendously the I

risk of

have looked

like the

exposure

to traditional sexual diseases.

and have found no major study

in the literature,

one he envisions.

It is

surprising

when you

think about

it,

because: a)

AIDS

supposed

is

to

be a disease that causes severe immune-

suppression; b) so

from

if

people

der whether

who

are supposedly at risk for

immunosuppressive

their lives,

they'll

habits,

AIDS

cut out,

reasonable to won-

it's

enjoy better health and avoid debilitating

illness.

No mainstream study of any proportions has been done on Much of the doom and gloom about AIDS stems from a

subject.

ferent sort of

ongoing study

years long at this point.

San Francisco City

at the

The two groups

of

men who

study-samples are very specialized.

They

original Hepatitis B vaccine trials in

San Frar

had been showing up

for diagnosis

group stood

from

a

good chance

their sexual infections

constitute the

either participated in the

sco in 1980; or they

and treatment

of already being

and

of sexually trans-

modest amount

This

lat-

immune-compromised

a great deal of antibiotic-taking.

Reading through Ken's journal, history of his drug-use.

dif-

Clinic, several

mitted diseases at clinics in San Francisco, in the late 1970s. ter

this

I

put together an interesting

Interesting because

it

was

relatively minor.

of cocaine in the late 1960s, pain pills for a

A

bad back

during the same period. Social booze. But

I

found

this cryptic reference:

treatment."

No

generous

opening up

in

date,

no name.

I

his journal to

about his past anymore, and that

"Year and a half, facility

asked him about

I

me,

He had been

could read through

point of his incarceration, though, he was evasive.

24

it.

saying he didn't really care it.

On

the

CHAPTER THREE Finally, he said, "Look,

On some

did experiments.

was

I

and

in a joint,

Does

of the inmates.

in this place

that

tell

they

you some-

thing?"

He would

say no more.

But then a week or so

later,

he gave a

home with me. One was

stack of articles and books to take

Jessica

Mitford's Kind and Usual Punishmemt (Alfred A. Knopf, 1974), a

well-known analysis of aspects of prison

US, including

in the

life

medical experimentation.

were also

In the stack ticle

was

entitled

articles

from several gay papers. One

The October

News made public

1970, issue of Medical World

9,

what some people have known

who

Those people

for decades.

classed as sexual deviants have been experimented ities in

ar-

"Atascadero-Dachau for Queers?" 2

on

in

mental

are

facil-

the United States.

This

article, "Scaring the Devil

Out," describes the use of a drug

called succinylcholine at Atascadero state hospital for the criminally

insane, in California, ille.

The

and

at the California

article notes that the

without informed consent,

engaged as inmates

Medical Facility

at

Vacav-

drug has been used on some patients

who have

who have who have been

not been violent,

in "deviant sexual behavior," or

unresponsive to the hospital's group therapy programs:

"More than 100 men. ..have received 20 mg.

and respiratory

arrest lasting

up

to

two minutes."

in a state of terror, feeling they

would be lectured their behavior

had

to

World News:

die, these patients tell

them

that

to change. at Vacaville, told the

"The prison grapevine works

have come

might

by prison doctors, who would

Arthur Nugent, chief psychiatrist

est

mg. of suc-

This dosage. ..is sufficient to induce general paralysis

cinylcholine.

While

to 40

to fear

and hate the drug.

fast, I

Medical

and even the tough-

don't blame them.

I

wouldn't have the treatment myself for the world."

These and other "experiments" were

later

mentioned by John

Lastala in his Advocate article, "Atascadero-Dachau for Queers?"

Based on an interview with an unnamed inmate, Lastala cryptically

2

The Advocate, April

26,

1972

25

AIDS INC.

indicates that, "under threat of lifetime incarceration, sex offenders

which leave

are being coerced into giving their consent for operations

them

of

little

anyone, least of

real value to

themselves."

all

Lastala cites the case of a 24-year-old

homosexual prisoner

at

Vacaville who, after various experiments presumably done in con-

went

junction with drug companies,

was

into a suicidal depression

and

in serious physical condition "with ulcerated legs."

According

to Lastala's

informant, a drug called prolixin had re-

This drug

placed succinylcholine at Vacaville. ministered in

Ward

caught in a homosexual their

act.

The inmate

for

they were

in

walking

restraints.

from 3-6 months.

told Lastala that prolixin also induces extreme dif-

ficulty in breathing,

and brings on

which concentrating on you you're

if

There, the story goes, they were beaten,

heads were shaved, and they were put

They were kept there

was sometimes ad-

where inmates were transferred

14,

a kind of psychedelic experience in

thought

a

is

impossible.

dying.. .You're like a vegetable.

You

"The doctors

sweat.

They

tell

tell

you

if

you're ever caught having sex in here again you won't get the antidote." It's

8%

estimated that about

been given

this sort of

of the inmates at Atascadero

had

drug, prior to 1972.

The inmate also stated that a process called "Errorless Extinction of Penile Responses"

was

Wires were attached

practiced.

inmate's penis.

He

flashed on

he got an erection, he was given

it.

If

This practice

sat in front of a screen

was confirmed

in 1970,

to the

and sexual pictures were electric shocks.

when William Chambliss,

a sociologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, visited

Atascadero, as part of a three-person committee state's

Department of Mental Health

empowered by

the

to look into the working of the

institution.

Chambliss, after his tients

and

staff are like

visit,

when

if

the patients

"I

do not know what

its

pa-

they are not in the institution, but judg-

ing from their behavior there,

about the world

wrote,

I

would

feel a

went home

locked up."

26

great deal

at night

more secure

and the

staff

stayed

CHAPTER THREE spoke with Chambliss recently, and he described a few of

I

experiences while at the

he said, "there are both violent offenders and

"First of all,"

people

who

tionism.

are there because of incidents like voyeurism

saw perhaps 50

I

his

facility.

drugs which were used

to

around

patients sitting

make people change

like

and exhibi-

zombies, from

their behavior.

"The head psychologist told me, punctuating his remarks with little

snickers

We

and chuckles, 'We have

this

program

of aversive ther-

take these people-well, they volunteer, but they

do because

they want to get out-we attach their penises to wires and

show them

apy.

pictures of their deviation.

If

become

they

erect,

we shock them

until

they don't become erect anymore."'

Chambliss added, "We wrote up a very condemnatory report,

and several people

at

ine that that puts an

other

facilities.

Atascadero were

end

fired.

But

we

to this sort of thing, or to similar practices in

These practices are institutionalized. They're part of a

system. ..they can find

new people

to continue them."

Jessica Mitford points out in Kind and Usual in 1962, a

law

The

Vacaville.

shouldn't imag-

suit

was brought over had been

plaintiff

a

Punishment

that,

drug experiment conducted

at

a subject in pain-tolerance studies; a

drug called Varidase was used. He developed

a near-fatal

muscular

His weight went from 140 to 75 pounds. Nineteen other sub-

disease.

jects in this

study suffered

chills,

sweating, sharp abdominal pains,

exhaustion, rapid weight loss, headache, weakness.

Needless to say, these are toms.

isn't

It

now

experiments which take place in

when

presented with a It

is

called

known

list

that

of

this country,

symptoms

but one has to wonder

like these.

organophosphate pesticides have also been

tested in the California prison system.

Weight-loss, the so-called

exposure

AIDS and Pre-AIDS symp-

easy to learn about the bulk of prison and military

Mitford points this out.

AIDS wasting syndrome, can occur from

to those chemicals as well.

In other prison experiments,

cardiac failure, finger-loss from decreased blood circulation, fungus infections,

and neurological damage have

27

resulted.

AIDS INC.

NIH funded

In 1973, according to Mitford,

a study at the

Mary-

land House of Correction, in which cholera, typhoid, viral respiratory

and

agents were injected in prisoners.

viral diarrhea

Ken asked me whether

enjoyed reading his literature on

I

prison medical-experiments.

"What drugs did they give you?" "Don't you want to

wasn't a violent crime.

drug-I'm not going

to

Some days

I

I

thought

know why

That's

all

I

said.

he asked.

in a facility?"

know.. .they gave

you'll get to

say the name.

was going

I

was

But

I

a little crazy.

me

a

pounds.

lost thirty-five I

"It

got sick."

"You had infections?"

"Some funguses. They took I

on the

said, "I'm sure

list

of

AIDS

a long time to

go away."

you know-today those fungus

diseases.

So

the wasting away.

is

infections are

Even forgetting

pneumonia, you could have been diagnosed with

the Pneumocystis

AIDS."

A week or so after New York.

tor-friend in

I

this talk,

told

I

spoke with

my anonymous

doc-

him about Ken's symptoms.

"They might have given him Varidase," the doctor confirmed. "That could've given him those symptoms.

Or

large exposure to

organophosphate pesticides could have been the experiment." At

this point,

it

became

me

clearer to

that

AIDS could not only be produced by

calling

need of

a virus, but that the

what people were

chemicals, without the

fundamental pattern of so-called

AIDS-

immune-suppression followed by various infections-could stem from a variety of causes.

When

told

I

my

phemy. People don't

"Why

not?"

"Well,

first

of

immune-suppression

physician friend

this,

he said, "That's blas-

like that idea."

all,

in

they want

HIV

everyone.

They want AIDS

to

be the thing that causes to

all

be one horror

story."

From my subsequent experience doctors, I've found this

"Look,"

and any one

I

of

said,

if

is

in talking to scientists

and

so.

there

is

a

list

them can land you

of diseases as long as your arm,

a diagnosis of

28

AIDS, then

how

the

CHAPTER THREE hell

can anybody be sure that the reported numbers of

mean

anything, as time passes?

and symptoms caused by many

tions

"Welcome

many

cases

to the real world,"

different things."

he told me.

"It's

not inhabited by

people." "But,"

said, "the researchers at the top of the

I

they've proved that

AIDS and

all

the

HIV

is

germ causes

responsible for

AIDS symptoms

The doctor laughed. a

AIDS

could just be a collection of condi-

It

"If

the reported cases of

in the world."

you're asking

a disease, that's a

all

heap claim

whole

me

about

different can of

how you prove worms."

"Meaning what?" "Meaning

that researchers, first of

themselves about what

And

illness.

on

a

good proof

that

have arguments among

any germ causes a particular

among

they like to keep this argument

They don't want to put

is

all,

the public to look in

good

face.

Like,

it's

on

it.

To

themselves.

the public, they

no problem, we've got

it

all

want

under

control."

"But

it's

not under control?"

"What the that

HIV So

causes I

But

hell

AIDS

do you think? Go ahead, check out or anything else.. See

what you get

did. first

I

tried to establish other situations

toms of AIDS could be produced chemically, or

HIV

virus.

the proof

into."

I

found them.

29

where the symp-

at least

without the

CHAPTER FOUR

CHEMICAL AIDS The

New

York doctor and

had another discussion of so-called

I

AIDS symptoms. "There are other drugs you should "Preludin and Atabrine, for example.

men

gay bathhouse scene.

in the

It's

know

about," he said.

Preludin was taken by a

form of speed.

If

the adverse reactions, you'll think you're reading a

some

you look

at

mish-mash of

pre-AIDS, AIDS, and slim symptoms." I

Any

did look up reactions to the drugs he mentioned.

dard drug guide

1

you Preludin can produce weakness,

will tell

stan-

fatigue,

malaise, confusion, shortness of breath, diarrhea, stomach pains, rash,

bone marrow depression (immune-system components are made the

bone marrow), excessive sweating,

chills, fever,

in

suppression of

appetite.

Atabrine, an antiparasitic drug used

began

to take a toll

also has a familiar

among gays

list

in

symptoms

of

intestinal parasites

San Francisco, it

in the mid-1970s,

can bring on: diarrhea, abdom-

inal pain, skin eruptions, hepatitis, aplastic

pressed state which gives

when

anemia (an immunosup-

rise to opportunistic infections), dermatitis.

"Look," this deep-throat doctor told me, "medical people see lots of

AIDS

patients

know

that

many, many of them develop

tory infections, they have fungal infections that don't infections.

diarrhea, shortness of breath. pains, they don't

want

to eat.

They

are fatigued.

They're weak.

And we

considering that these

^n

this

book,

I

go away, they

They have

fevers,

They have stomach

The most prevalent diseases are Pneu-

mocystis pneumonia and Kaposi's sarcoma.

over and over.

cer-

They have skin problems, rashes, inflamma-

tain types of infections.

have other bacterial

who

We

see

all

these patterns

see a wasting away. But nobody

is

seriously

symptoms could mainly be caused by various

most often used

Lippincott's

31

Drug

Facts and Comparisons (1988).

AIDS INC.

Nobody

chemicals.

is

seriously thinking that these

symptoms

could,

in different people, be caused by different combinations of chemical

by older diseases

factors, or

Well, a few people are, but

like syphilis.

the big-money boys, the people that control this

AIDS

research grants in

country - they're not interested in these avenues of research." said,

I

enues.

don't consider these chemicals just promising av-

"I

you define

If

symptoms, and

forty

who

people

syndrome

a disease or a all

forty can be

AIDS

so that

it

has

produced by drugs, then

if

the

like

are sick have been taking those drugs

.

.

.

it's

criminal to

avoid the obvious conclusion."

spoke

I

another gay

to

the 70s, he said, the

community. its

MDA

drug

man

MDA

from San Francisco.

originally

was prevalent

in parts of the

In

gay

has an amphetamine component to go along with

accent on sensuality.

"You could dance on with

it,"

word.

If

he told me.

you used

three or four times

day

night, once

it

Or you could go

night.

it all

"The only thing was, in quantity,

on Friday

it left

which many

night,

to the baths

you depleted

after-

people did, you'd take

it

and three or four times on Satur-

on Sunday night, maybe once during the week. That

could add up to a

lot of depletion.

"There was another thing.

With

this

heavy

MDA

use,

you

wouldn't get an erection, although you'd be very turned on sexually.

So

in the

bathhouse, for example, you'd go more toward being a sex-

ual "bottom." 2

you

If

you weren't already,

in that direction, aggressively.

MDA

would

definitely lead

You'd screw as many times as you

could. "Early in 1981, before there tice that the

they were

gay

MDA

Q:

the

name AIDS,

men I knew who were dying had been dealers, or friends of dealers.

of people that this

depleted.

was

was happening. Those

They wasted away and

MDA

began

using

to no-

MDA,

was obvious

or

to a lot

people had become

died."

I'm told a frequent combination of drugs, used during a

night at the bathhouse, consisted of poppers,

valium.

2

It

I

Anal-receptive partner.

32

MDA,

quaaludes and

CHAPTER FOUR Valium?

A:

We'd use

we were

that to relax after sex, after

through.

me

Q:

You

A:

People kept track of these things

told

quaaludes became contaminated about 1980.

coming back from

the reports

contained byproducts and reagents.

drug all

at

In other

who were now making them were

chemists

Yes,

70s.

where you could send drugs

labs

were not very encouraging. That was

analysis

through the

all

in 1980.

for

The quaaludes

words, the underground In purifying the

careless.

each step of the chemical process, they weren't getting rid of

the byproducts.

Q: Quaaludes were obviously a sexual drug.

bathhouse scene due

became

There was a general

Best one ever made.

A:

to the drugs.

widespread problem,

a

They were

terrible.

In the

mid

attrition

on the

70s, intestinal parasites

These were serious parasites.

too.

They were being passed around.

Q:

What drugs were you using

A:

Different ones.

for parasites?

The

Lomatil, flagyl, Atabrine, Diiodoquin.

worst effects were with flagyl and Atabrine.

A number

of people ex-

A

perienced horrible feelings of malaise and depression from them.

People stopped taking them.

what's-the-use-of-living feeling.

The action of these the least.

Flagyl

the body. sis

It

is

known

anti-parasitic to cause a

would explain some

drugs

is

very revealing, to say

sudden overgrowth of Candida

in

of the so-called mysterious candidia-

among gay men, which became

a

hallmark

for the diagnosis of

AIDS. Lomotil, used to

rhea

if

manage

may

actually aggravate diar-

patients have salmonella in their systems.

was present

in

many

disease for AIDS.

people, and later

came

to

be

In fact, this

listed as

mean heavy

confusion. reactions:

further

to

loss of electrolytes,

turn could create "AIDS dementia" symptoms:

germ

an indicator

Aggravated diarrhea would lead

dehydration, which would in

diarrhea,

and

this

disorientation,

In addition, Lomotil does cause central nervous system

malaise, depression,

numbness

33

of extremities.

It

exacer-

AIDS INC.

who

bates depression in patients

use barbiturates, tranquilizers, or

al-

cohol.

The above catalog

of

symptoms weaves

A

thought to be pre-AIDS or AIDS. too easy to

The other drug mentioned under

to Haitian boat

and vioform. mentions that diiodohydroxyquin

people in the

He

have parasites.

all

DNA

and

is

and there

parasitic drug, clioquinol,

nervous disorder, called

is

some suggestion

was implicated

SMON,

them were

that

it is

toxic

calls a related anti-

in a severe

and widespread

Between 1962 and 1978,

in Japan.

8000-11000 cases were diagnosed, and at least 700 people died.

symptoms included abdominal

of

The drug can cause skin

What Smith

cancer-causing.

of

drug has been

AIDS has been diagnosed,

three of these pbpulations.

rash, diarrhea, headaches, to

US when some

also indicates that the

heavily marketed in Zaire and Angola. course, in

all

for parasites, diiodoquin, has a

Researcher Roulette Smith 3

to

mistaken diagnosis would be

is

names, the most notable of which

a variety of

are diiodohydroxyquin, iodoquinol

found

with what

make.

startling history

was given

in well

Its

pain, diarrhea, paralysis, blindness,

degeneration of muscles and nerves, weakness of legs (now rated an early sign of

AIDS dementia), and

symptoms can now be considered

death.

Needless to say,

part of the

all

these

AIDS complex.

The Japanese government undertook an extensive investigation of

SMON,

to

determine

ruled that clioquinol

keting the

was

compound

its

cause,

to blame.

and

in 1978, a

Japanese court

Ciba-Geigy, which had been mar-

there under various names, in 200 different

products, paid settlements to 1500 victims and the families of those

who

died.

(In 1970,

according to reports, Ciba-Geigy withdrew

of these products from the Japanese market, less

than 40 cases of

SMON

and

all

200

in the following year

were noted.)

There has been no information released from the AIDS

re-

search establishment on these antiparasitic drugs, and unfortunately epidemiologists do not readily accept the fact that people on the scene,

3

See Annals of

NY

Academy

of Sciences, v. 437, p. 595, 1984.

34

CHAPTER FOUR man

such as the

harms

local

I

interviewed here,

In the following weeks,

AIDS."

know much more about what

people than they do.

And

found more evidence of "chemical

I

became more sure

I

that, aside

from a large group of

wide-ranging symptoms, there was no central core to AIDS, there was

no

central thing

So

for every chemical

symptom,"

I

which gave I

complained, "You're I

symptoms

special meaning.

could dig up which caused one more "AIDS

was advancing

not for AIDS,"

this list of

a valid explanation.

just finding

replied, "No,

To

scientists

who

reasons for individual symptoms,

you fellows

started

all this.

You assem-

bled the massive numbers of unrelated symptoms and called them

AIDS." That wasn't a very popular comment.

35

CHAPTER FIVE

WHO

POPPED THE POPPERS?

Shortly after our phone conversation, the

me

New

York

MD

sent

a letter. ".

.

.

They're going to try to say that chemicals can't cause

AIDS

because they aren't immunosuppressive, they're just bad for your They're going to try to say they understand exactly

health.

exactly

where HIV

attacks the

"Human immune teracting.

system

response

Immunity involves

in general.

and opened doors

Impair to

immune

more

it

isn't a

These are obvious known

AIDS

It

specialized attack

know

they

is,

CDC

on

about

a

it.

they don't know.

is

or

why

.

.

these issues,

.

it

over with accounts

amyl or isobutyl

because press representatives

don't have a great deal to say about nitrites.

HIV. So press coverage,

re-

with no answer.

for years

TV news and newspapers brim That

some AIDS

familiar to

of the latest surmises about HIV, they don't discuss

or butyl nitrites.

all

that inhalant nitrites, or poppers,

how

to one's health, but

seemed, could be debated

Although

some

The truth

came across was

I

was generally conceded

were harmful

is

immune system and

facts.

at all." 2

The next drug searchers.

in-

and the nervous

and you have lowered immune response

infections.

That's the facade they're maintaining.

They don't know

few pieces of tinkertoys

the skin, for example,

"So don't buy the idea that special piece of the

how and

system. That's baloney. 1

at

NIH and

the

stress is

on

The

too, leans in the official direction, despite the

example, "The Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome: Current Status," Yale It refers to of Biology and Medicine, 1982, p. 443, Quagliarello. immunosuppression among opiate addicts as a result of their drug intake, not AIDS.

^ee,

for

Journal

See the New York Times, Dec. 21, 1987, p. 1. Douglas Dietrich of the New York Medical Center told reporter Gina Kolata, "I've followed patients who've had T-cell counts of less than 10 for a year, and nothing happened to them." Conventional wisdom has it that such an apparent deficiency of immune cells should signal drastic ill-health and, in fact, is one of the clear symptoms of AIDS. Dieterich's findings 2

suggest the current model of

how AIDS

specifically affects

37

immunity

is

speculative.

AIDS INC.

fact that,

popper

if

you had

link or an

to

choose between evidence suggesting an AIDS-

AIDS-HIV

link,

you might well take the poppers.

Inhalant nitrites have been used widely in the gay as an

orgasm-enhancer and muscle relaxer during

They have now been banned

anal intercourse.

York, and Massachusetts.

California

community

sex, especially for

in Wisconsin,

has a law requiring warning signs to be posted at point of

sale.

The multimillion dollar popper industry has managed alive

by classifying and

selling

its

A

tracted such attention!"

Hard Ware with

IRRITANT

May, 1985, ad

WARNING: MAY BE FATAL

AND SEVERE at the

proven potential

at-

Advocate showed a

warning prominently printed on the neck

a

IF

SWALLOWED. SKIN

EYE IRRITANT. FLAMMABLE.

Dr. Harry Haverkos, a researcher

CDC, now

in the

al-

exam-

for

inducement - "Never before has an aroma

ple, this slightly off-key

of the bottle:

to stay

products as room odorizers,

though under such interesting names as Hard Ware, with,

bottle of

New

allows them to be sold but

still

National Institute on for cancer

on

nitrites,

formerly of the

Drug Abuse, remarks:

"The

causing nitrosamine in bacon, for exam-

probably one-millionth of the dose from inhalation of pop-

ple, is

pers."

A

recent

demanded

full

bill

authored by California Congressman Mel Levine

federal accounting of the dangers of poppers.

cember of 1987, eight months

late,

the report appeared.

It

policy of no-action against popper companies and offered

In De-

affirmed a

no sugges-

tions for regulating the nitrite drug-group.

Much Branch

earlier,

at the

on

May

CDC, wrote

of the

Committee

some

are quite current.

"Some

to

6,

Monitor Poppers

in

San Francisco. 3

of the studies (on nitrites)

You have

skillfully. ..It is possible that

correlated with such use,

you

cite are

outdated and

edited and amalgamated them

heavy use of

may

AIDS Hank Wilson, head

1985, Dr. James Curran, Chief of

the following letter to

nitrites, or

contribute in

some

another factor

as yet undefined

3 The letter was published in John Lauritsen and Hank Wilson's Death Rush, Poppers and AIDS, Pagan Press, New York, 1986. This book is an indispensable guide to understanding the potential harm of poppers.

38

CHAPTER way

to the

development of Kaposi's sarcoma

with (HIV) or "I

FIVE

in those already infected

who have AIDS.

agree that this information should be disseminated and

knowledge the

active role

you have played

I

On

in this effort.

ac-

the

other hand, the present data do not justify an absolute 'anti-popper'

campaign.

"We

certainly wish to point out that

that using nitrites

sider decreasing use of this substance until assess those risks that

"Thank you

no data

may

more data

con-

are available to

exist.

your interest

for

exist to indicate

Gay men should

a safe, risk-free practice.

is

in this issue."

Three years have passed since Curran wrote

this letter.

What-

ever minor funding has subsequently gone into nitrite research, none of the dissemination of information about poppers Curran paid lipservice to has taken place. level,

has been

made

to

No

warn

serious attempt, at the federal health

was

the above piece of skillful equivocation

volvement

Apparently

or advise against nitrites.

the limit of

GR

In the Sept.-Oct. 1984 issue of Pharmacotherapy,

presented in the

CDC

this interesting short history of

form of amyl

angina pectoris.

was considered

nitrite

was used

poppers:

safe.

Newell

"Volatile nitrite

for 100 years for the treatment of

In spite of recognized toxicity,

its

use in this form

During the 1960s, prescriptions were not

quired for purchase of amyl

nitrite

.

.

.

and

its

non-medicinal street variety volatile

in 1969,

made commercially

available in the

and isobutyl

some

trite.

nitrite;

when metabolized

into N-nitroso

haled volatile nitrites

4

many is

to

The quantities used per person then

amyl

and

their

byproducts

compounds have been known

to

be

Recreational use of in-

among male homosexuals and

accelerated fantastically.

39

ni-

be profoundly immuno-

in vitro,

animal species.

prevalent

re-

were

form of mixtures of impure butyl

human lymphocytes

highly carcinogenic in

nitrites

of these preparations also included

These products have been found

suppressive for

re-

use for recreational

purposes became popular. 4 With reinstatement of the prescription

quirement

in-

in the matter.

AIDS INC.

compounds have been suspected

coma

as possible co-factors in Kaposi's sar-

associated with AIDS''

Authors Lauritsen and Wilson,

AIDS,

provide further interesting

Sue Watson,

tor

Journal

of the

after

sending

Death Rush, Poppers and

in

groundwork. They report

a letter

that

Doc-

about popper-dangers to the

American Medical Association in 1982 - which was

rejected - wrote a letter to the Advocate, the largest

gay publication

in

America:

"Our studies show that amyl

segment of the immune system

strongly suppressed the

nitrite

(cellular

immunity) which normally

protects individuals against Kaposi's sarcoma, Pneumocystis pneu-

monia, herpes virus, Candida, amebiasis, and a variety of other opportunistic infections.

ing

nitrite

AIDS. ..Publication of

community see

fit

The upshot

inhalants

may

of this research

be

risk

at

that persons us-

is

development

Advocate will serve to

this letter in the

to the health risks of

for

using amyl

to include this information in the

nitrite.

news

alert the

hope you

I

of

section of the

will

Advo-

cate."

The

letter

was not answered. The Advocate did not

Hank Wilson, chairman to

print

of the San Francisco-based

Monitor Poppers, then got hold of

another

letter

it.

Committee

written to the

Advocate by Joseph Miller, president of Great Lakes Products, Great Lakes manufactures publications as

room

any action against its

nitrites

odorizers.

nitrites,

Inc.

and markets them through gay

Because the

CDC

had never taken

and had in fact exonerated them through

policy of equivocation, Miller could expansively pen the following:

Gay press, we intend to use the extensive ad space we purchase each month as the vehicle for sending a message of good health to the North American Gay communities." "As the largest advertiser in the

Wilson and Lauritsen recount

that,

on April

1,

1983, Joseph

Miller issued a press release titled, U.S. Government Studies dicate that Nitrite-Odorants

Not Related

to

AIDS!

It

Now

In-

was mentioned

in the release that the assistant director of the Center for Infectious

Diseases

(at the

to visit the

him "no

CDC

CDC), James Curran, had given in

November

of 1982

-and

Miller an invitation

that the

CDC

association exists between nitrite-based odorants

40

then told

and AIDS."

CHAPTER

"Although

Miller's press release then offered this disclaimer:

company does

his (Miller's)

WARE®

QUICKSILVER® as inhalants, Miller know that recent Government

or

that such

company

says the

studies clearly

is

show

misuse poses no health hazard."

Wilson and Laurtisen report that ber 27, 1983, James Curran of the

copy

HARD-

not advocate the misuse of

greatly relieved to

FIVE

CDC

had met with Miller

on Septem-

later,

sent a letter to Miller,

which never printed

to the Advocate,

months

six

CDC, but he was upset with

at the

and

a

Curran didn't deny he

it.

Miller's at-

tempted whitewash of popper health-dangers: "Other health hazards (than AIDS) from misuse of these drugs have been documented,"

Curran cate 5

"Your press release and advertisements in the Advo-

replied.

are misleading

implications

.

.

.

and misrepresent the

While

it is

CDC

findings and their

unlikely that nitrites will be implicated as

the primary cause of AIDS, their role as a co-factor in

some

nesses found in this syndrome has not been ruled out. that

you discontinue

the misuse

I

and misinterpretation of

of the

ill-

must

insist

CDC

find-

ings." It is

highly probable that the

hundred AIDS cases were

all

first five,

heavy inhalant

the

the

first fifty,

Like other street drugs, poppers too were adulterated.

and Lauritsen point tested

some samples

first

nitrite users. 6

Wilson

out, "In 1981, the Stanford Medical Laboratories

of different brands of poppers,

to contain kerosene, hydrochloric acid,

and found them

and sulfur dioxide, among

other impurities."

A number the

of studies 7

have shown a link between

development of Kaposi's sarcoma

in particular.

nitrites

Among

and

those di-

agnosed with AIDS as a result of contracting Kaposi, the overwhelm5

I

am

told the Advocate

no longer runs popper ads.

6

See appendix to this book, "The First Five AIDS Cases." Also see "Disseminated Kaposi's Sarcoma in Homosexual Men," Friedman-Kien et al, Annals of Internal Medicine, June, 1982, p. 693; "Disease Manifestation among Homosexual Men with AIDS," Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Oct.-Dec, 1985., Haverkos et al, p. 103; "National Case-Control Study of Kaposi's Sarcoma and Pneumocystis Carinii

Pneumonia

in

Homosexual Men:

Part One, Epidemiological Results," Annals of

Internal Medicine, August, 1983, Jaffe et al, p. 145. 7 For example, "A Case-Control Study of Risk Factors for

Andrew Moss. Presented

15 April 1985 at the

41

AIDS

in

San Francisco,"

CDC Conference on AIDS in Atlanta.

AIDS INC.

ing majority have been gay men. trite

It is

well established that heavy ni-

use has centered in pockets of the gay community, and that

use outside those

circles, in

such high dose

levels,

its

has been relatively

rare.

The question

arises,

how might

inhalant nitrites contribute to

Kaposi's sarcoma?

One answer is that exposure of the skin to nitrites produces carcinogenic compounds (called nitrosamines). Another is that Kaposi is

not really a cancer of the blood vessels at

results of blood vessels

incompetency

many

places,

is

all,

that

its

becoming weak and incompetent.

not a malignancy, but the onset of

owing

lesions are the

to the action of nitrites,

which

many

That

this

lesions in

dialate the vessels.

This repeated action, under extremely large doses, could cause

mechanical breakdown of the blood vessels, which would result in sions

le-

and bleeding.

When

patients

do die of Kaposi

itself,

which

is

usually the result of internal bleeding from the lesions.

42

not often,

it is

CHAPTER

SIX

DRUGS AND AIDS: AN INTERVIEW WITH AN AIDS CLINIC ADMINISTRATOR

Jack True

is

a hynotherapist.

about 600 people with AIDS.

worked

Since 1982, he has interviewed

For the

last

year and a half, he has

as administrator of the Natural Therapies Medical Clinic in

Santa Monica, California.

He patients'

is

one of several people with

line leave out

one or more important

Q:

What

What he

says correlates with

are the

most commonly held

factors you've found,

AIDS?

In all the people I've encountered, there's

level of stress - occupational, in relationships, in the

These are party people, by and recreational

Q:

information at

I've talked to.

since 1982, in people with

True:

have discussed AIDS

I

factors, the best

present comes from people like True. observations of others

whom

Since published studies along this

background-profiles. 1

large.

Into night

life,

been a high

way

they play.

heavy drug use,

and medical drugs, promiscuity.

What

are the percentages of gay

and

straight people you've

seen? A: About

Q:

Of the

70%

gay,

15%

bisexual,

10%

straight.

what were the most commonly held

straight people,

factors?

A: tionships.

Q:

Drug

use, medical

Not so much

and

recreational.

of the promiscuity.

Stress in family rela-

Some, but not so much.

Since you started working at the Natural Therapies Clinic,

would you say you've seen been diagnosed with AIDS?

a representative

sample of people who've

Also see Joan McKenna's comments on background profiles in AIDS and SyphilisThe Hidden Link by Harris L. Coulter, North Atlantic Books, 1987, p. 46-8. E.g., "...reports of prescribed tetracycline for 5 to 18 years, continously (among AIDS 1

patients interviewed)."

43

AIDS INC.

A:

I've

show

ple in

what

for

people

Now

have the

factor.

No.

is

1.

my

brother,

summary

of Mr. True's ten cases.

White male bisexual,

married, with children.

30's,

Very agitated, tense person.

who

tried to get

him

certified

a five-year period, in

visiting bathhouses.

a

2.

another

Can-

turned out

was known only by

his

all

the facts rele-

so secretive.

Recently

when he was

regularly

is

city,

STDs? 2

27-year-old white gay male.

bathhouse attendant in

when he was

It

and locked up. Main drugs he

vant to illness in this situation, because he

sex

This

a long period of

used were cocaine and alcohol. Difficult to unravel

No.

cries

antibiotics, another per-

Phoenix, he had a gay lover, and this

admitted

It

in different directions:

heavy

amounts over

in large

there.

is

powerful debilitating suggestion.

brief

dida, fungal infections. that, in

You go

you

ten cases I'm giving

you put the word AIDS on top of these people and you

effect of a

Here

The

.

.

that person did

pills,

son did recreational drugs time.

.

The large drug use

I've seen.

out to be ranked as the key

person did pain

of these

Engineers, accountants, psychologists, peo-

biz, restaurant

norm

are the

Most

seen very few people without education.

people are professionals.

17.

New

York

Well educated. Worked as Started hustling

for three years.

Has had Kaposi's sarcoma

for three years.

As

a

bathhouse attendant, he was usually paid in drugs for arranging

rooms

for customers.

Has done

lots of

drugs since early teens. Angel

dust, coke, grass, poppers, downers, quaaludes,

Many

of antibiotics. lifestyle

engage

on the in

MDA,

incidents of gonorrhea.

Got

M side, and because he took so many

more

brutal

games

acid, a great deal

into the S

and

M

drugs, he had to

anything because the drugs were

to feel

desensitizing his body. Steady junk food diet.

No. for a

little

freaks

him

3.

32-year-old white gay man.

over a year. out."

Has had Kaposi's sarcoma

Extremely good looking.

His main drug was steroids, which he took over a

long period to develop more bulk and muscle.

Eventually had an episode of Pneumocystis.

day

"A single blemish

for five years, consistently did

Pumped lots of iron. He smoked pot every

poppers and

Sexually transmitted diseases.

44

MDA

at

bathhouses.

CHAPTER Was

a bottom.

lactically,

him on

SIX

For twelve years, he's been taking antibiotics prophy-

A

so he won't get pimples.

doctor in

New

Jersey started

regimen, which also involved cortisone and hormone

this

creams.

No.

stressful business

does his share: pills,

mood

Was diagnosed

52-year-old white gay man.

4.

with swollen lymph nodes,

He

life.

in 1986, in

London. Leads

speed.

little

pre-AIDS

not as heavy a drug user as some, but

is

booze, grass, sleeping

elevators, a

as

a usual kind of

pills

He

on

a regular basis, pain

a top.

is

Has

a history of in-

flammatory and urethral problems. No. tis.

23-year-old white gay man.

5.

Managed

to

put

cups of coffee every day,

thorazine.

Alcohol.

No.

Has had

Never

Twenty

to

and gonorrhea, many incidents

antibiotics.

34-year-old male bisexual.

6.

Pneumocys-

a history of speed, valium, grass,

syphilis

Has taken much

of the latter.

incident of

Considerable drug-taking habits.

particularly healthy. thirty

One

18-hour work days on a regular basis.

in

Emaciated, weight-loss.

Lives on a total junk-food diet, shoots heroin, shoots cocaine, free

which has now become both

bases, has a long history of gonorrhea, front

and back, and he No.

is

frequently re-infected.

23-year-old heterosexual.

7.

tive diagnosis of

antibiotics.

Had pneumonia, but

a defini-

Pneumocystis was not made. Has also had fungal

fections, while he lived in

Long

times a week.

Much

Miami.

Has sex with new women

in-

4-5

history of antibiotics, taken for STDs, but also to

"stave off possible infections."

He

dealt drugs in

Miami and used

coke, speed, downers.

No.

44-year-old white gay

8.

promiscuous.

25-year,

history of depression.

eration

and

heavy

man from Denmark. Somewhat

alcoholic.

Recently joined AA.

Long

After an automobile accident, had a major op-

a transfusion.

Did not recover

well,

and began losing

weight.

No.

9.

54-year-old semi-retired male.

dida, other fungal infections. in bathhouses.

Bisexual.

Has had

20 years of promiscuous sex,

much

Has had immunotoxic medical drug therapy

45

Canof

it

for a

AIDS INC.

cancer, also has a history of hepatitis

maglobulin 3 No.

shots.

B and STDs. Took many gam-

5-10 years of amphetamines.

35-year-old heterosexual.

10.

and severe herpes,

hepatitis A, B, while living in Europe.

many gammaglobulin heroin regularly,

is

Has had both Pneumocystis

shots,

Has taken

had has several STD episodes.

quite promiscuous.

Has used

Shoots

alcohol every day

for six years (averages five drinks a day).

This

is

nosed AIDS, find.

not to suggest that there are no puzzling cases of diagin

factors are harder to

Those hard-to-understand situations, as well as others,

volve syphilis.

normal

and

which the immunosuppressive

in the

But again, as experience

of,

I

may

in-

mentioned, the above 10 cases are

not just Mr. True, but

many

clinicians

therapists.

The combination of many drugs and STDs

is

common.

In

other words, immunosuppression already exists from factors having

nothing to do with the

3

HIV

virus.

A blood component which contains many antibodies. 46

CHAPTER SEVEN

YEARS OF ANTIBIOTICS: MORE ON CHEMICAL AIDS Antibiotics,

by many accounts, have been overused tremen-

dously in certain pockets of the American gay community, in the fifteen years.

In this, such gays represent an extreme

From

eral overuse, particularly in hospitals.

who

cians

last

example of gen-

reports of several clini-

interview people with AIDS, there are cases where these

people have taken antibiotics for ten years, continuously. This practice started taking off in the 60s. say, Puerto Rico tibiotics,

doctor

on vacation might ask

gay man, going

to,

because he wasn't sure he could get one in Puerto Rico. His

would write one

out.

Prophylactic dosing continued

New

A

his doctor for a script, for an-

when

the

same gay man, back

York, would anticipate going to the baths on the weekend.

would load up on

tetracycline, just to

he ran into gonorrhea

some people, popping

bacteria.

And

antibiotics

make

sure he

would be okay

so on and so forth, until,

became

in

He if

among

a daily regimen, a habit, as

San Francisco physiologist Joan McKenna says, "against the

possibility

of a pimple."

Overprescription of antibiotics has two principal creates antibiotic-resistant

and

it

effects.

germs which then become harder

It

to treat,

upsets in the patient's body the balance of microbes which has

been established over the course of evolution. Physicians, then faced with antibiotics having no effect on their patients' infections -

and not

tance which has been built

some

cases

jump

the

realizing that the cause

up by those germs

gun and assume

false

diagnoses of AIDS.

47

genetic resis-

the patients are so

depressed that "drugs don't work anymore."

Leading to

is

to antibiotics

- can in

immune-

AIDS INC.

A

through overuse of antibiotics, carries around with

patient,

him an imbalance

of

germs

gained the upper hand ral

in

which harmful micro-organisms have

body

in territories of the

in

which

their natu-

competitors have been drugged out of existence.

Two

and Candida

instances of this are salmonella

albicans.

Both are specifically listed as grounds for a diagnosis of

on the September

4, 1987,

CDC

definition of

infections can clearly develop for

AIDS

AIDS, even though these

no other reason than

antibiotic-

abuse.

Other similar instances are streptococcus, Proteus and Pseu-

domonas. Any of these alone could be defined as AIDS. 1

you wish,

rely

on the wisdom of your doctor

You may,

know about

to

if

the

strange imbalancing effects of antibiotic overprescription - but the

most physicians are unaware

facts are that tially

of,

or ignore, that poten-

important element of disease in 1988. 1.

In

some

areas of the third world

ported, antibiotic use has rarely necessary.

where AIDS cases are

grown tremendously.

re-

Prescriptions are

The drugs are sold over the counter and then shot

or swallowed. 2.

use

One

of the

carefully

is

Africa,

most

monitored

toxic antibiotics, chloramphenicol, in the

US,

is

shipped to

and Mexico where, bought over the counter,

it

immune systems by harming bone marrow. 3. Some antibiotics inhibit protein-synthesis and (immunosuppressive).

The universally used

whose

Brazil, parts of

can suppress

are thus toxic

tetracycline falls into

this category. 4.

It is

probable that certain bacteria are useful to us because,

without being harmful, they "exercise" our

keep them

in

immune systems and

good scavenging shape. Antibiotic overuse can demol-

ish these useful strains. 5.

their

Beneficial skin bacteria act as a kind of

own, protecting us against Staph,

gonorrhea),

1

They

fall

Clostridium, Cornebacterium.

under the category of "other

of

Again, antibiotics can

bacterial infections.

48

immune system

Strep, Neisseria (meningitis,

CHAPTER SEVEN sweep

the deck clean

and

"immunizing" helpful bacte-

rid us of these

ria.

As previously mentioned, several

6.

McKenna, of gay

a

and Joan

clinicians

San Francisco physiologist, report, from many interviews

AIDS

STD

One can

continuous usage.

long-term

extensive

patients,

(prophylactic) for possible

men's bodies are

infer that these

with antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.

around

bacteria are being passed

use of antibiotics

infections - 10-15 years of more or less

in

dense quantities in areas of the gay

community. Doctors are naturally baffled by the

failure of

many

to

begins:

Bacterial infections

and

their

types

An AIDS

of antibiotics to put a dent in these bacterial infections.

myth

filled

Also that these resistant

unmanageability are said

be entirely the result of underlying immune-suppression from the

HIV

virus.

Some

7.

British strains of staph bacteria (called "80")

more powerfully

infecting than previous staph types.

There

tibiotic-resistant.

the

is

possibility

that

seem

80s are

some

to

all

be

an-

bacteria

strengthen because of antibiotic treatment, beyond the fact that they

become harder

to

subdue with treatment.

Hemophilus

8.

b, a

microbe involved

other illness (pneumonitis, by

CDC

nosis of AIDS), has increasingly

in

definition,

grown

pneumonia

is

as well as

sufficient for a diag-

resistant to antibiotics.

This

process probably began in the 1950s and has continued to the present. 2 I

believe that a physician

and continously,

ally

criminal charges.

good deed

If

who

writes scripts for antibiotics casu-

as "prevention,"

should be

liable for serious

the Centers for Disease Control want to perform a

that will indeed control disease, the drafting of such a bill

for Congressional approval

immediate upsurge

in

would be

in order,

and would cause an

medical knowledge to course through the

professional community. It's

the

CDC, was

faith

2

worth adding a

at this

Mormon

which professes

a strong belief in

See the excellent When Antibiotics

1986.

Some

point that Dr. James O. Mason, head of

bishop, a quite high-ranking official in a

Fail,

preventive medicine.

In fact,

by Marc Lappe, North Atlantic Books,

of the basics of antibiotic-abuse recounted here are derived from Lappe's

account.

49

AIDS INC.

the church's foreign medical missionary program, once

Mason, stressed preventive-health advice It's

in the

headed by Dr.

Third World.

surprising that the scandalous role of antibiotic overpre-

scription in both causing disease to appear

and

to resist treatment has

not been handled with more firmness by Dr. Mason.

What happens when

a person ingests antibiotics

never envisioned, inhales enough amyl and butyl

dozen times

continent,

and

strains of

gonorrhea or syphilis?

mune system his body,

is

infected a

in

on

a scale

nitrite to float a

two years with various

The answer may well

be, his im-

dives into oblivion, and otherwise benign microbes in

such as Pneumocystis protozoa, begin to erupt in virulent

ways, ways

we have come

to call, irrelevantly,

50

AIDS.

CHAPTER EIGHT

PESTICIDES

AND DRUG DUMPING

THE THIRD WORLD:

for

by Nazi

first

nor alteration, times

more

it

scientists as a

became

toxic to

in their

landmark book,

Food and Development

among

Francisco, 1981), parathion, a major killer

veloped

AIDS?

IS IT

As David Weir and Mark Shapiro note Circle of Poison (Institute

Policy,

pesticides,

weapon during WWII.

a pesticide; in

humans than DDT.

present form,

its

IN

it

San

was

de-

After miis still

60

widely distributed in the

It is

Third World.

was marketed

Phosvel, a pesticide outlawed in the U.S.,

Third World in the 1970s, and Its

may

still

be trading in Latin America.

They

victims are called "zombies."

die slowly

with paralysis and asphyxiation coming

who

suffer weight loss

in the

and agonizingly,

at the end. 1

and an increasing

inability to

Field workers

move should

not be assumed, by researchers a continent away, to be suffering from a virus.

A

Nairobi professor visited a pesticide plant in Kenya in the

The product

late 1970s.

workers

BHC was

against its toxic effects

sunken," the professor reported, TB." 2

When When

World

is

being

was

nil.

made

there,

and protection of

"The workers' eyes were

"and they

all

looked

like

all

they had

these workers get sick they are fired. selling

dangerous pesticides from the West

frowned on or outlawed by

their

to the

Third

own governments, West-

ern corporations sometimes circumvent these regulations by setting

up

so-called formulator plants in Third

for the

banned pesticides

combined

there,

^Circle of Poison. 2 Forms are

of

TB

World

listed as

Ingredients

are shipped separately to these plants

usually under no rules of

now

countries.

AIDS

safety.

indicator-diseases.

51

and

The worst of these

AIDS INC.

plants are small local operations, run like "whiskey

In Brazil,

stills."

there are perhaps 8000 such backyard chemists.

With

from a large upswing

Brazil suffering

tional diseases, as well as

in various tradi-

from endemic malnutrition, a chemical

in-

fusion of 8000 unshielded toxic pollutors could easily create pockets of

new wasting-away

With actual causes overlooked and

diseases.

ig-

nored, the faddish medical pronouncement could certainly be AIDS.

The United Nations

Prospects for the future of pesticides?

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicts

67%

2000,

"improved." tion,

This

means they

more

in fact,

Therefore, they will

through buy-outs, starting to corner the market

on global seed businesses; the creation of seeds which ers

and pesticides

is

will be

Weir and Shapiro indicate that pesticide

pesticides.

companies are

by the year

more produc-

will be altered to yield

but will also be more vulnerable to pests.

require

that

underdeveloped countries

of the seeds used in

the

work

require fertiliz-

of these parent companies.

Weir and Shapiro's Table of "Recent North American Seed

Company ing

Acquisitions"

the

is

leaves no doubt that chemistry for better liv-

operating motto of some very major corporations.

Prominent pharmaceutical names on the seed companies

list

of those taking over

Upjohn, Sandoz, Pfizer, Monsanto, and Ciba-

are:

Geigy.

you add

If

the

US

in the fact that

in

goes to the livestock industry to be included automatically in

commercial feeds, you begin that runs very deep: It is

to see

an obvious community of interest

pesticides, pharmaceuticals, agriculture.

difficult to trace specific pesticides

rope through to use rule of

roughly 40% of the antibiotics sold

thumb

is,

in, say,

the most

from the U.S. and Eu-

African countries or Brazil.

The general

toxic pesticides are used in the Third

World, and there they are used (and formulated) with frightening disregard for safety- This

is

that label-warnings printed

ing for most of the people In

books such

due

to a lack of laws,

on containers

who

in English

to the fact

have no mean-

handle these poisons.

as Circle of Poison,

workers suffering extreme

and also

effects

we

get glimpses of field

from casual contact with these sub-

stances.

52

CHAPTER EIGHT

A tion

on

worker

amounts

in

Guatemala might use old Coke

No

of parathion for local farmers.

the bottles,

no

labels,

bottles to appor-

protection,

no

seals

no warnings.

Consider the case of Phosvel, recounted

in Circle.

In 1976, the

Texas plant which manufactured the pesticide had to close because

workers there were developing central nervous system problems. "Fellow workers dubbed them 'Phosvel Zombies' because they lost

and

their coordination,

A

in the

work, talk and think

Workers

scandal developed.

Third World.

manufac-

to sell the

This, despite the fact that in 1971, in

Egypt, "a widely publicized Phosvel epidemic ter buffalo

clearly."

filed suit against the

company continued

Nevertheless, the

turer, Velsicol.

product

their ability to

.

.

.

killed

over 1,000 wa-

and an unknown number of peasants. The victims died

slow and agonizing death, gradually paralyzed

a

until they asphyxi-

ated."

Phosvel belongs to the class of pesticides called organophos-

Here

phates.

a list 3

is

organophosphates:

of

symptoms which can be caused by

headache, dizziness, flu-like symptoms, excessive

sweating, difficulties walking, diarrhea,

many

skin problems, delayed

nerve disease.

Headache significant

that

HIV

is

now

symptom

listed

of "early

causes a mild

by

the

HIV

World Health Organization

disease." 4

flu-like episode

sweats are taken as a sign of Pre-AIDS.

symptom

early

and

of

also a major

soon

Many

after exposure.

Leg weakness

as a

researchers state

is

Night

considered an

AIDS dementia. Diarrhea can be a sign of pre-AIDS symptom of AIDS in the Third World. AIDS pa-

tients

often present numerous skin rashes and skin problems. Nerve

disease

is

said to be the reason for

In other words, the

AIDS dementia.

symptoms

of exposure to organophos-

phates read like listed symptoms for AIDS.

and the following lists of symptoms are taken from Fruits of Your Labor, A Guide to Pesticide Hazards for California Field Workers, by Sidney Weinstein, Labor Occupational Health Program, University of California, Berkeley, 1984. 4 See Western Journal of Medicine, December, 1987, "AIDS, A Global Perspective," for 3 This list

a definition of early

HIV

disease.

53

AIDS INC.

at least three other

There are

major classes of pesticides:

organochlorines; nitrophenols; and chlorophenoxy herbicides.

As

AIDS and

Pre-

you can

symptoms

see, their

likewise are mirrors of

AIDS symptoms. skin irritation, rash, nervous system disor-

Organochlorines:

and weight

ders, weakness, appetite

Nitrophenols:

loss.

sweating, headache, fever, skin rash, weight

loss.

Chlorophenoxy herbicides:

Some

nerve disease. dioxin, one of the

most

of these herbicides are contaminated with toxic substances yet encountered.

The pesticides aldrin and are

dumped

DDT;

dieldrin, both restricted in the U.S.,

and Latin America, along with lindane and

into Africa

WHO

skin rash, muscular weakness,

estimates 5000 deaths occur per year and 500,000 people

are poisoned in those areas of the

world from contact with the

pesti-

cides.

DDT, acccording

to Circle of Poison,

U.S. in 1972, continued to be turned out

which, ten years

Agency

that

DDT

it

later,

malaria has

had sold the pesticide

strains of

be a boon, because

it

greatly re-

But now, internationally,

a vengeance, despite an assault with

DDT

and other preparations. The new

mosquitos are resistant to several pesticides simultaneously

and are causing, At one

a year.

by Montrose Chemical,

to 21 foreign sources in 1980.

to

killing mosquitos.

come back with

and larger amounts of

larger

for crops in the

informed the Environmental Protection

had once been thought

duced malaria by

banned

for

example,

in Sri

earlier point, the

Lanka, 2 million cases of malaria

count had shrunk to 23 cases a year

there.

But now, with the mosquitos having developed resistances, there

is

the double

use, without success, to

methods

wipe out these

are being introduced

the

AIDS blood

on the

insects.

(e.g., sterile

manufacturers haven't by any means

5 Malaria is generally

and highly

problem of malaria 5

rise in the

let

54

Although non-toxic

male mosquitos), pesticide

go of

Third World.

test to register falsely positive.

toxic pesticide-

this lucrative

Some

market.

researchers say

it

causes

CHAPTER EIGHT There

are, of course, also

dangerous drugs which are sold

in the

Third World by Western pharmaceutical firms. 6

These drugs can produce immunosuppression-leading-to-opportunistic-infections - the pattern ascribed to AIDS.

Yet they are

completely written out of the AIDS disease-equation by

US

federal

health agencies. Tetracycline, the antibiotic as teeth

dren,

is

World. tries like fects.

which can damage the

and bones, and should not be taken

commonly

No

at all

liver, as

well

by very young

chil-

sold over the counter throughout the Third Physician's references in coun-

prescription necessary.

Nicaragua, Brazil, and Argentina don't mention the side

ef-

An

in-

Manufacturers?

ternational cast,

which

Dow, is

Dumex,

Pfizer,

Lepatit, Lederle.

most of these drugs.

the case with

Squibb makes a vitamin preparation called Verdivitone, which is

sold in Bangladesh over the counter.

people have liver problems. not

recommended

for

In that country,

Verdivitone

is

17%

people with liver disease.

50-60% of the

alcohol, definitely

Local ads discuss

its

capacity to produce "vitality and energy."

The pharmaceutical

giant, Ciba-Geigy,

markets

a painkiller

called Cibalgin

which

Mozambique.

contains aminopyrine, banned in the U.S. and parts

of it

It

Europe because

it

is

available,

again, over the counter, in

has been linked to blood disorders. People using

have died from the opportunistic infections breaking out on top of

their

sudden anemias. 7

Cibalgin can also cause vomiting, kidney

problems, and reddish lumps on the body.

Chloramphenicol, mentioned

earlier, is

Davis, McKesson, Boehringer, and Beacon.

and very serious anemias,

it is

manufactured by Parke

Having caused

another drug which gets the

fatalities full

pro-

motional treatment by foreign subsidiaries of the drug majors in the

Third World.

6 This

information on drugs available in the Third World has been gathered from

observers, including representatives of Oxfam, a European-based hunger-relief organization. See Bitter Pills, Dianna Melrose, Oxfam publishers, 1982; and Pills,

many

Pesticides and Profits, edited by Ruth Norris, North River Press, 1982. 7 Anemia is basically an immune disorder which does what AIDS is said to do.

the outbreak of opportunistic indistinguishable from what is called AIDS.

permits

55

infections.

Its

effects

are,

It

thus,

AIDS INC.

Perhaps 20% of top pharmaceutical corporations' sales are

made

Third World. Total figure? Around $20 billion a year.

in the

Hoechst of West Germany produces dipyrone, a pain

which

sold over the counter in Brazil and throughout Africa.

is

why

banned

it is

can

It

anemia - and underlying immune suppression - and

also cause is

reliever,

that

in the U.S.

In Africa, there are 30 preparations listed in physician's guides

which contain dipyrone or aminopyrine, mentioned above. They are touted in these guides as "analgesics for minor conditions." 8

One

certainly can't ignore the infant formula deaths either, in

which diarrhea and malnutrition 9 rations manufactured

and Bristol-Meyers.

by Abbott, American

In 1980,

and the absence

it

it

is

to infant-prepa-

Products, Nestle,

that one million infant to the

baby formu-

and drug use

in the Third

of mother's milk.

In light of this sketch of pesticide

World,

Home

was estimated

World were connected

deaths per year in the Third las

have been linked

revealing to read the latest

WHO

interpretation of a

proper diagnosis of AIDS, as indicated by Drs. Piot and Colebunders, in "AIDS, a Global Perspective," released

the

Western Journal of Medicine,

by

WHO

December

1987.

and published

in

In diagnosing

AIDS, the authors celebrate "the elimination of the requirement of the absence of other causes of immunodeficiency."

no longer

it is

In plain English,

necessary to scrutinize the pati nt and see where his

immune-compromised condition comes from.

It's

SOP

to overlook a

multitude of sins and say, simply, AIDS. This amazing

WHO

human immunosuppression

No newspaper

guideline implies that from will

A UCLA

at the

door of the

on,

HIV

all

virus.

or television network has noticed this bizarre turn of

events or has chosen to pursue

8

be laid

now

it

as a

major scandal.

me that, in the mid-1970s, he personally saw, in from the West being sold in marketplaces, outdoors, in 80of the drugs had obviously spoiled, and the dosing by

political scientist told

Zaire, prescription drugs

degree weather. Many consumers followed no sensible pattern. 9 Malnutrition

is,

by

far,

the

most

common cause of immune suppression in 56

the world.

CHAPTER NINE

ENTER AZT One drug which has immunosuppressive

effects is the single

medical preparation licensed to treat people diagnosed with AIDS, so it is

an important substance: AZT.

A virus

ment.

payoff of being diagnosed as antibody-positive that a patient

is

becomes

to the

1

a candidate for treatments of the

HIV mo-

Even though he has no symptoms, doctors

that he take

AZT.

A

will begin urging York Times 2 front-page story de-

New

recent

have recently applied

tailed the perverse twist physicians

in this re-

gard.

AZT

Instead of only giving tent

when

the

FDA

upon themselves

licensed

to the desperately

doctors in large

it,

to write scripts for

AZT

ill,

as

was

the in-

numbers have taken

for their patients

it

who have

no symptoms.

At an

Institute of

Medicine AIDS conference held

in

Washing-

ton in September, 1987, William Hazeltine, chief of pharmacology

at

the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, suggested an even wider

possible use for

AZT.

AIDS even though them

Give

it

to

people considered

they don't test positive for HIV.

at high-risk for

Give the drug

to

as a preventive step.

For prevention, use a drug, AZT, which damages bone mar-

row, the place where raw material for immune-cells are turned out; a

drug which causes severe anemia. Dr. Jonathan nization,

on October

Assembly: of

AIDS

has been

Mann, AIDS Director 20, 1987,

gave

for the

World Health Orga-

a special talk to the

U.N. General

"Remarkable progress has been made towards treatment

virus infection.

shown

A

single drug, zidovudine, also called

to be effective in the treatment of

1 Simply means "tested positive for exposure to HIV." 2 Dec. 21, 1987, "Doctors Stretch Rules on AIDS Drugs,"

57

some

p. 1.

AZT,

categories of

AIDS INC.

AZT

AIDS; although

has important side effects and

($8,000-10,000 per year per patient),

with AIDS

.

.

is

quite expensive

does prolong the

it

life

Recently, important trials were started to see

.

other drugs, can block the progression to

AIDS

in healthy

of persons if

AZT,

AIDS

or

virus-

The personal and public health benefits of such pro-

infected people.

AIDS would be enormous." HIV in healthy people, which is what Mann feels may soon be possible with AZT, would in the Third World, amount to a death sentence for many who are already suffering chronic immune-suppression owing to malnutrition. Death, not tection against

"Blocking the progression" of

cure,

often the result of administering highly toxic drugs to the

is

chronically undernourished.

Drug

Lippincott's

ity,

often associated with blood toxic-

is

including severe anemia requiring transfusions.

anemia

.

.

.

may

In concert

is

observed."

with other drugs like pentamidine and acyclovir,

AIDS

AZT

AZT

opportunistic infections,

creased, Lippincott's cautions.

reports of

"Significant

require a dose interruption until evidence of (bone)

marrow recovery both used for

number

Facts and Comparisons (1988) has a

AZT. The drug

of warnings about

With

toxicity could

acyclovir, there

be

in-

have been two

profound lethargy and

induced neurotoxicity:

seizures.

who have liver or kidney problems, Lippincott's may be a "greater risk of toxicity from (AZT)." Many

For patients states that there

AIDS

patients do, in fact, have liver complications.

A

July 23rd, 1987,

New

England Journal of Medicine report in-

dicated that out of 140 patients taking .

.

AZT

required multiple red-cell transfusions."

possed

to halt temporarily the

mune-cells.

In a

spread of AIDS,

drug which

its

is

attack point

The New England Journal study goes on

"serious adverse effects, particularly

"21%

in a controlled trial,

to

.

sup-

is

im-

say that

bone marrow suppression, were

observed."

Molecular biologist Peter Duesberg remarks, destructive to healthy In the

cells.

October

Lauritsen reviewed the

No

doubt,

it's

a

trial

of

AZT

58

is

very, very

dangerous drug."

19, 1987 issue of the

FDA

"AZT

New

York Native, John

which resulted

in its early

CHAPTER NINE

59

AIDS INC.

"compassionate" release to seriously

ill

AIDS

on those

Freedom

in

San Francisco

The documents had been released by the

trials.

"The multi-center

drug licensing approval

.

.

.

AZT

are perhaps the sloppiest

ever to serve as the basis for an

trials

on a

had made the following assessment:

clinical trials of

most poorly controlled

FDA

After reviewing these records,

of Information Act request.

Project Inform's Martin Delaney

and

FDA

causes of death (among volunteers) were

Despite this and a frightening record of toxicity, the

never verified.

FDA

Lauritsen had

patients.

been sent 500 pages of material from Project Inform

AZT

approved

(recommendation)

in

in less

record

time,

granting

than five days and

full

a

treatment

pharmaceutical

li-

censing in less than six months." Lauritsen indicates that the controlled double-blind

AZT became is

"unblinded" 3 very quickly. Ellen Cooper,

FDA

trial

of

analyst,

quoted: "The fact that the treatment groups unblinded themselves

early could have resulted in bias in the

workup

of patients."

Apparently, some patients discovered whether they were taking

AZT

or a placebo

by the

taste of the capsule, or

medication to labs for analysis. placebo, because

forward

for the

all

by taking

their

The point was, no one wanted the

the volunteers

were very

study to try to save their

ill

and originally came

lives.

Some people who were on AZT shared

their medications

with

the placebo group, other placebo people were taking an antiviral called Ribavirin,

the

from Mexico - which, of course, completely changed

outcome of the study. Lauritsen discovered, from

improprieties.

Lists of patients'

FDA

analyst Ellen Cooper, other

symptoms which were kept

records, in order to determine their reactions to

in their

AZT, were some-

times reworked at a later date. Items which had been written in were crossed out or changed with no explanation. riences

were sometimes crossed out months

even though 'possibly related off originally

Cooper: "Adverse expeafter initially recorded,

to test agent (AZT)'

by the investigator or

had been checked

his designee."

3 Volunteers discovered whether they were taking

60

AZT

or a placebo.

CHAPTER NINE Cooper mentions improprieties at one ter,

FDA

that an

AZT

inspector found such drastic

test center that

recommended

she

that cen-

out of the twelve used, be "excluded from the analysis of the mul-

ticenter trial." 4

At

going on

at all 12 of the

The

AZT

tality of the

On

group.

trial

AZT

after the

study had been

to re-evaluate

what had been

months

this point, three

down, some attempt was made

closed

test-centers,

but

was

to doctors for prescribing to their

cut short

ill

AIDS

late.

showed

it

much

volunteers on placebos was

that basis, the trial

was too

it

was important because

that the

mor-

higher than the

AZT

and

AZT was

distributed

patients.

Lauritsen, however, points out that "the death rate in the

placebo group trial

lowed

go on

to

shockingly high," and

is

was

After the

over, people

AZT

openly.

it is

hard

who had been on From

to

understand why.

the placebo were al-

this point on, the

death rate of

these people began to rise from the level which had occurred during

the 17-week controlled

volunteers

ill

Also, other

trial.

done previously showed

AZT

studies which

had been

a significantly higher death rate for those

with AIDS who had taken AZT.

Harvey Chernov, an

FDA

analyst

who

looked over the phar-

macological data on AZT, recommended that the drug not be ap-

proved

for release.

was

Nevertheless, the drug scribed loosely by

many

released,

and

it is

now being prewho have no

physicians for their patients

symptoms.

AZT is

attacks the immune-cells

Although

doing damage.

viruses to healthy

AZT

where

it is

speculated that

HIV

tends slightly to favor, as a target,

cells, in practice it kills

many

healthy

immune-

cells.

This

is

the drug

which

is

currently being touted for use as a

preventive, globally, against AIDS.

A spells

front-page article in the December 21, 1987,

out

the

AZT

scandal

underway:

recommendations, a growing number of doctors

New

York Times

"Defying

who

official

treat carriers of

4 Dr. Joseph Sonnabend, former editor of AIDS Research, privately analyzed the AZT trials recently, and he also concluded that they were badly mismanaged.

61

AIDS INC.

the

AIDS

virus are prescribing a powerful, potentially toxic drug even

before patients develop serious signs of the disease.

more than

a

viewed said the practice of prescribing

toms has become widespread scarce,

became The

now

has

Every one of

.

AZT

to patients without

inter-

symp-

months, as the drug, once

in recent

readily available."

article

goes on to say some doctors are alarmed that a drug

which had been licensed ple,

.

dozen AIDS physicians and health authorities

narrow

for very

gotten out of

hand and

use, with extremely

being prescribed

is

ill

peo-

much more

casually.

Dr. Itzhak Brook,

who had

chaired the

AZT,

originally permitted the licensing of

scribing of the drug "was just

what

About 10,000 Americans tors prescribing after

making

low counts constitute

it

to patients

are

was

I

now

FDA

committee that

said the wide, careless pre-

afraid of."

taking

AZT. Some

inferences from these patients' blood tests,

But there

of T-cells.

of the doc-

with no symptoms say they are doing so

is

which show

debate over what T-cell numbers

immune problems.

Douglas Dieterich of the

New

York Medical Center told

New

York Times reporter Gina Kolata, "I've followed patients who've had T-cell counts of less than 10 for a year,

Conventional wisdom has

them."

it

and nothing happened

to

that a count less than 200 spells

serious trouble.

A

AZT if

Dr. William Siroty of

to healthy patients

they wanted the drug.

ing something about

it

New

York City told Kolata

that he

gave

who were "virus carriers" (antibody-positive) He said they "feel better knowing they're do-

(HIV)."

Indeed.

An

HIV-positive patient was told by his doctor he ought to start

on AZT; the patient wrote him the following to

letter.

A

copy was sent

me: "I

want you

not accept that

HIV

virus

my

to

know

only hope

by ingesting

my immune

that is

I

cannot accept to

somehow

this prescription.

I

do

restrict the action of the

a substance that attacks a central reservoir of

system.

62

CHAPTER NINE "I

have seen people with AIDS

from AZT, and

which

is

my

pound

own,

that

my

prove

was

is

life. If I

that

am

I

no

my

passive, that there

felt

less toxic

I

interested in the long run, however,

guerilla clinic

I

might say,

have hope, since

immunity further with

I

was nothing

might suggest

than AZT, that

state of health, then

"But since

wreck

affect.

my

to say,

experience a resurgence

won't even try to argue that some of that has to do

I

with the placebo

do on

who

have

this drug.

seems

I

'invariably fatal' tag,

more than

who

we,

tion,

just

and

my

pipe-dreams.

fatal disease.

reasons, which I

I

I

me

it,

the

A

to

drug

danger-

don't believe in that

won't go into here, are

frankly believe that, in the

are diagnosed with

want

don't

to

a perfect reflection of the medical attitude toward AIDS:

ous poison against an invariably

com-

give

a future, It

could

somehow imme the AZT.

couldn't

I

all right,

I

a helpful

AIDS equa-

are considered the expendable

ones. "I

fabled

am

fessionals

and

not expendable.

war against and

their

Maybe

a disease.

new

their line officers so

in another cause,

Rising adrenaline

but not in some

among

research pro-

grant-monies are making the medical troops

happy

..."

63

CHAPTER TEN

MALNUTRITION AIDS

continued to find chemicals that could produce AIDS symp-

I

But

toms.

I

symptoms.

HIV

came across other

also

factors

which could cause these

Like chemicals, they had nothing to do with the fabled

The most important one was starvation, long-term

virus.

chronic malnutrition. It

among junkies, it can occur on an among people of the Third World.

can occur on one level

tirely different scale

Malnutrition

mune-suppression

is

recognized as the single largest source of im-

in the world.

For example - here

New

is

have

is

protein-calorie malnutrition.

defects in macrophage 2

an increased susceptibility to

marked

volume

311,

and

These

.

lished a 1983 study (AfPH, Nov. 1983, p. 1332)

"There

is

ciency, multiple infections,

.

.

it-

is

and death."

Gray of the Johns Hopkins School

nutrition (PCM):

a similarity

of Public Health, pub-

on protein

calorie mal-

between the immune

and severe weight

loss seen in

defi-

AIDS

pa-

the association of protein calorie malnutrition with re-

tients,

and

1

immunodeficiency

2 Attack on

accompanied by

effects are particularly

Bacterial superinfection in these children

a major cause of serious disease

RH

T-cell function

infections.

1

Malnourished children

malnourished children with measles, an infection that

in

causes T-cell anergy.

T-cell

et al, writing in the

15, 1984,

"The commonest cause of T-cell immunodeficiency

worldwide

self

Maxime Seligmann

England Journal of Medicine, November

1289:

p.

en-

is

macrophages

said to be a hallmark of AIDS. is

the latest speculation on

causing harm.

65

how

the HIV virus

is

AIDS INC. duced resistance ticularly in the

"Both

to infection

observed in malnourished children, par-

Third World.

AIDS

patients

and children with

PCM

suffer

tiple opportunistic infections of viral, bacterial, parasitic

from mul-

and mycotic

AIDS patients have an increased incidence of Kaposi's sarcoma and diffuse undifferentiated B-cell lymphomas histologically These tumors are also observed similar to Burkitt's lymphoma. origin.

among

children and

common

young adults

in East Africa,

where

PCM

is

By suppressing the immune system, severe malnutrition cause

in fact,

now

a

condition."

all

of the indicator diseases

and

infections

can,

which are

thought of as AIDS-associated.

The current definitions of AIDS by and

cept,

10%

or

large, three

symptoms

in the

Third World

diarrhea,

and chronic

These are also signs of chronic malnutrition. through bringing on severe dehydration, largest killers in the world.

This

is

is

traditionally

indicators of

AIDS

do

fast,

of

AIDS

fever. 3

Diarrhea,

one of three

nothing new.

The reason these three symptoms are being used

as front-line

involves widespread lack of lab testing

Third World countries.

ac-

AIDS: weight-loss of

as central to

more (wasting away), chronic

now

facilities in

Doctors are meant to use these indicators to

on-the-spot diagnoses of AIDS. cases will skyrocket,

and

a

In such a situation,

hidden equality

will

numbers

be established

between AIDS and hunger.

A 91,

paper published in Nutrition and Cancer (1985,

Chlebowski) points out a few down-to-earth

Chlebowski indicates tries,

facts

that, "In studies of children in

vol. 7, p. 85-

about hunger.

developing coun-

mortality rates progressively increased from less than

well-nourished children to as

much

as

18%

1%

in the severely

in

mal-

nourished population, with most deaths resulting from infections." "Malnutrition-associated adverse effects on the cellular im-

mune

system," he continues, "include a decrease in the total

of T-lymphocytes

3 in

.

See Lancet October

.

.

number

demonstrating a significant reduction princi-

24, 1987, "A

Proposed

Africa."

66

Clinical

Case

Definition for

AIDS

CHAPTER TEN pally of the T-helper lymphocyte population (this is

one of

its

is

AIDS and

seen in

immunologic hallmarks - author)."

Finally, citing another researcher,

Chlebowski says, "Based on

observations of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia infections in mal-

nourished children

Gondsmit proposed

in Haiti,

with concomitant herpes virus infection could give that are indistinguishable

its

periodical,

December 1987

nations, cereal food aid needs -

yond what they grow far

symptoms

rise to

from AIDS."

UN

Africa Recovery, a in parts of Africa in

that malnutrition

and

will not be

all

examines the food situation

issue.

For the 15 sub-Saharan

15 have needs above and be-

met by outside pledges

of food so

confirmed for 1988, with only two exceptions (Swaziland and So-

malia).

The worst

and Mozambique.

situations exist in Ethiopia

In 1987, aggregate grain production in Africa as a

whole

fell

by

15%. 115,110 tons of food for refugees were there

were no pledged sources

still

as yet for this

needed

for 1988,

and

amount, as of December

1987.

Civil strife in the southern Sudan; cassava crop failure in

Malawi; drought

in pockets of

sixth consecutive year of cult situations.

Mozambique.

Zambia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe; a

drought

in

Botswana; these are the

The major problems are Another famine looms

in Ethiopia,

There

in Ethiopia.

less diffi-

Angola, and is

war

in

Angola and Mozambique. In Angola, there has ities.

A UN

been large-scale destruction of health

ational facilities are heavily taxed by the constantly

numbers

of traumatized, mutilated,

and seriously

ing numerous orphans or abandoned children." the reported "poor nutritional status of lation.

facil-

interagency mission reported, "The remaining oper-

much

ill

expanding

people, includ-

This, in addition to

of the rest of the

Increasing population densities in the

cities

popu-

combined with

inadequate water and sanitation systems, have favored the resurgence of highly infectious diarrheal

and water born diseases, such

67

as

AIDS INC.

cholera, of

and June

which there was a major outbreak

Angola now receives outside food aid

Many

Moore Lappe

farmers, Frances

In

thirty percent of the children are suffering

hundred thousand adults

are also

called chronic malnutrition.

in order to survive.

have

reports,

cause they are seeded with mines by rebels.

eral

May

in the capital last

(1987)." 4

be-

left their fields,

some

areas,

twenty

from malnutrition.

to

Sev-

on the verge of what could be

(See Betraying the National Interest,

Lappe, Schurman, and Danaher, Grove Press, 1987.)

UN

The

states that infant mortality has risen considerably.

Of 416,000 children born

ten to these figures.

about 60,000 die in their

first

in

Lis-

Angola each

year,

year and 100,000 die before the age of

five.

The World Bank world.

More than There

is

rates Zaire as the fifth poorest nation in the

a third of

its

people die of malnutrition.

a long-standing international effort

problems of crop production, on many

Over

time, despite famine, drought,

underway

to solve

levels, in African countries.

and

political struggles,

these programs are taking hold and succeeding.

One

some

question

of

what

is,

stop-gap measures can be instituted on a consistent basis, into the next

make up

century, which will guarantee food to

for shortfalls

and

will

feed starving people?

That leads to two other worn-out questions.

Is

there a

way

of

re-channeling the distribution of the world's food to feed the starv-

And

ing?

quences?

if

contributes

grams

this

could be accomplished, what would be the conse-

The United

money

in the

to

States at present supports the it,

a fraction of

Third World.

which

is

used

if

in agriculture pro-

But what about the glut of food produced

here now, which our farmers are paid not to sell?

pen

World Bank and

our surpluses were used

in Africa

on

What would hap-

a huge scale, directly?

That question of course embroils one immediately in scenarios and a

web

political

by various nations. There

of agendas held

4

is

no

The latest rumblings are that outbreaks of cholera and TB will be co-opted as "AIDS diseases." Attributing such illness and misery to the HIV virus will accomplish only one thing: inflation of AIDS case numbers, leading to the sale of pharmaceuticals.

68

CHAPTER TEN quick answer, but one of the principle rejoinders used to argue

massive food redistribution

is

the premise:

If

down

you feed starving peo-

ple they survive, reproduce, and the population expands again, giv-

new problems

ing you

you

of hunger,

the resources of the

image:

ject this

And if you solve this new level new population increase, and so on, until world are exhausted. But a number of studies re-

they maintain that with the building up of infrastruc-

ture, the birthrate in

A

of starvation.

face yet a

an area goes down.

premise about the impossibility of feeding the world

Then some

short step from saying, die, for the sake of us

now

of the people alive

is

a

should

Nature's way; by interfering with the

all; it is

we would create a more wretched world. And by this reasoning, AIDS is seen as just another of Nature's plagues

ebbs and flows kind of

which from time

A

to time water the tree of

respected virologist told

me

life.

exactly this several

For him, there was really nothing one could do about

watch

it

decimate people and then, by

This

sumption

is

that

it is

AIDS

is

way

and

political conflict

single entity. it

what

is,

AIDS

not a single

is

It is,

ill-

in

of substituting harmful medical drugs for

With AIDS, an attempt

ing,

The truth

needed: food.

is

fering

except

one thing around the world, from one cause,

fatal result.

an international operation, a business, a bureacracy.

the Third World, a

what

AIDS

die out.

itself,

yet another thread in the logic that starts with the as-

with one invariably ness,

months ago.

is

being

and

made

starvation

Since that viral entity, HIV,

is

to reduce varieties of suf-

and chemical abuse sensational

satisfies the desire not to think, not to learn,

is

happening

It is

in a

world of

also easier to

dump

on the Third World than people. Easier to

to a

frighten-

not to find out

troubles.

corrosive medical drugs

to face

call their

and

up

to their

widening

and pesticides toxic effect

on

symptoms AIDS.

AIDS is like a horror movie made by two twenty-four-year olds who grew up in Los Angeles and learned all they know from 5000 movies they saw in Westwood. As The Andromeda Strain it was entertaining as hell, but as real life

it is

an unqualified

disaster.

69

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A CASE STUDY

IN CONFUSION: AIDS

UGANDA

IN

What happens when you to

have AIDS, and you

try to paint a portrait of

combination of drugs, pesti-

find, instead, a

cides, starvation, older diseases,

and other environmental

capable of causing immunosuppression,

symptoms

of

what

is

called

your medical peers,

satisfy

you want

you overlook the anomalies and say admit the picture

all

to

is, if

you want

to

win research grant monies,

it's all

AIDS.

You

diverse and confused.

is

factors, all

capable of producing the

AIDS? What happens

if

an area said

If

you

don't,

you

You

lose

face facts.

grants.

In Brazil, for example, a nation said to be seething with under-

reported

AIDS

cases, they are

in the northeast, a

new

now

generation

looking at studies which is

show

that

being born. These children have

smaller frames and smaller heads, because of chronic malnourish-

ment

of previous generations. In Brazil, as in Africa, sweetheart deals are cut with multina-

tionals

who come

from abroad, loggers and

in

cattle

ranchers and

The governments over there give these corpora-

agribusiness-types.

tions terrific subsidies

and tax-breaks, so

that

wood

can be cut and

food can be grown for export back to the industrialized world.

When you

This involves tearing apart rain-forests.

upper canopy

off a rain forest, the malaria

about up there come water created by big night.

down tire

to

ground.

tracks

take the

mosquitos which drone

They breed

in

and big shovels. They

new fly

standing

indoors at

Malaria then expands by a sizeable degree. Certain

flies

breed in increasing amounts in rivers which are

jammed up because

of logs from the lumber companies.

carry a parasite which causes river blindness.

71

If

These

flies

you haven't already,

AIDS INC.

^*Sii3ii|ii 1

.iMiiiii^'

72

CHAPTER ELEVEN you'll

soon be seeing photos of strings of villagers holding hands

chains being led by the only seeing

member

of the

community,

in

a

child.

Then there

them on

is

torn

human

now

down,

is

bot-fly.

When

to mosquitos.

body temperature Cattle,

the

It

lays

its

eggs by

mosquitos land on

first

passing

mammals whose

close to 98, the survival of the eggs

is

insured.

grazing in large numbers where rain-forests have been

are perfect as incubators.

Increased numbers of bot-flies then drone around and bite people,

and the larvae they deposit immediately

drill

under the skin and

excrete a poisonous waste as they grow. Very nasty.

With 2% of

Brazil's

landowners holding 60% of the arable land

in that gigantic country, there is severe dislocation of peasants

and

severe malnutrition.

The bubonic plague has been found

in 41 villages in the north-

Throughout the country, there are high

east.

VD

polio, leprosy,

positive results

and yellow

fever.

on AIDS blood

Malaria

levels of malaria, TB,

is

tests; a fact that

said to produce false-

may

explain

some

of

the hysteria about AIDS.

Then, of course, there are the thousands of backyard pesticide

Who knows

formulators, working with deadly nerve toxins. that is

what

wreaking? But as time passes,

all this

der the heading, AIDS, a blurring

disease and malnutrition

synonym

for Disease

and

comes unAll That's

Wrong with the Third World. You will find researchers who make subtle and nice distinctions concerning the three "AIDS" symptoms in the Third World, chronic diarrhea, wasting

away

(weight-loss),

and

fever.

will tell

depends on which organisms are causing the diarrhea, and

you

it

how

fast the

wasting

is

occurring, and so forth, as to whether such a

simple thing as malnutrition or traditional

AIDS

of any given diagnosable But, as

I

have pointed

fined so loosely in the

first

illness

is

really at the root

case.

out, part of the reason

place

is

AIDS

for

good

you want, but under

the

tremendous pressure of "new

is

scarce.

testing are

73

is

being de-

that medical care in the Third

Labs

World

They

even

scarcer.

Be as subtle as disease," doc-

AIDS INC. by and large take the grossest aspects of these so-called AIDS

tors will

symptoms and

AIDS.

slap a diagnosis on, bingo.

That

is

way

the

things work.

With

AIDS

mind,

all this in

This sketch

meant

is

look at

let's

to

show

diseases

what

are the causes?

to establish

one root cause,

encing, and

tempt

What

are:

Uganda.

is

In

that nation really experi-

Unlike some analyses, which this

one attempts

AIDS

the order of the day, and

versity

is

fails to

consider the complexity of what

summer

in

on thorough investigation.

are not necessarily based

Uganda, the questions

AIDS

that global assumptions about

is

to

show

which

a convenient fiction

is

really

at-

that di-

going on.

Uganda received $6 million from the World Health Organization and a number of Western nations, to In the

of 1987,

Rated as having the highest number of

launch an attack on AIDS. cases in Africa (1,136),

Uganda

is

supposed

to

use the

money

for public

education, blood-supply screening, upgrading laboratories for testing,

and epidemiological

tracking. 1

There are posters in the capital alerting citizens to the slim ease,

which

is

the local term for wasting away, and

is

dis-

synonymous

with AIDS.

According

Ugandan embassy

to the

been no widespread famine

A

drought

in

Washington, there has

which

extremely

fertile.

in a relatively small area of the northeast, in 1980,

but no

in the country,

is

widespread starvation.

A

source at the World Bank notes that in the late 1970s and

early 80s,

and then again

in 1985-6, political /military disturbances cre-

ated pockets in which agricultural production declined and transport of food

was impaired.

For

how

long at a stretch?

Perhaps a year.

How much malnutrition are we talking about? Unanswered. A Lancet article on the 19th of October, 1985, by D. Serwadda al,

announced slim as

HIV

as the cause.

and Serwadda

1

Two sources

a

new

disease in

Uganda, and associated

1982 was pinned as the year of

listed its

primary symptoms

indicate that the

$6

million

has yet

74

to

its first

in

et

with

appearance,

as weight loss

be banked

it

and

Uganda.

diar-

CHAPTER ELEVEN rhea.

His study was based on 70 people, most of

whom

were farmers

or other rural residents.

Do

not substitute "pastoral" in your

mind

Serwadda

He

ever, at least as far as

was

the disease

first

concerned.

is

for "rural,"

how-

says, "The fact that

recognized in an exceptionally squalid village

suggests that lack of hygiene

may

be important

.

But a variety of

."

.

Were

diseases can flourish in an area of poor sanitation.

traditional

causes of weight-loss and diarrhea checked and eliminated as possibilities?

Not known. Also,

A

what about

followup

Marquart

et al

lack of food in that village?

November

article in the

as having

its

with no protein malnutrition prior to onset.

major symptoms -

The

women had

known

it

is

logical to ask

^hey had become

if

and so

lost weight.

No

in

Uganda

may have

collapsed.

Doctors

left

One study

the Sudan.

at the refugee

camps

indicates that

there

Amin, the health care

the country.

disease

What

some

of the people

Uganda

in fact, that

Uganda.

two

for weight-loss in "busy clinics" if

with a

One

who

it

are suffering

that in 1985 a

whose primary symptom

is

new

time-

they have "wasting.. .the most imis

from lack of food.

parallel tracks of research

has

showing up

casually mentions

portant index of under nutrition." The picture sketched

streaming

role this

hard to say.

is

were malnourished.

saving device, which determines

into clinics

difficult

later political turmoil, fled into

Another health researcher in weighing children

Idi

new

played in the appearance of

Ugandans, during Amin's rule and

it

answer.

Meanwhile, under a decade of rule by system

from an un-

ill

cause and then, because of their symptoms, found

to take in food

been

some

experiencing, however, vomiting and abdominal pain "for

months," so

KH

confirms the existence of slim as a disease, and de-

two women from Kampala

scribes

by

23, 1985 Lancet

new

of patients It

seems,

have been going on

in

disease called slim (AIDS),

weight-loss, appeared; the other track as-

sumes in a down-to-earth manner that wasting

is

obviously the result

of undernutrition.

humans, the animal brucella germ has caused symptoms which overlap pre- AIDS symptoms. In Uganda, since the 1970s,

Now

in

75

AIDS INC. amounts

a cattle strain of brucella has, in fact, been causing increasing

of

human

study

DGK

illness.

Ndyabattinduka and IH Chu found,

Journal Zoonoses, vol. 11, p. 59) that brucella

(Int.

more widespread than we

is

much

"is

hitherto considered, particularly in the

newly established diary farms. ..recent data brucellosis

1984

in a

in

Uganda

indicate that

one of the most prevalent zoonoses (diseases of animals

that can infect

humans) incapacitating labor

tremendous economic

A

loss.

found among hospital patients treated (wrongly) for malaria

The authors

who

and resulting

number

without lab

and other chronic

in

of cases are

tests are usually

illnesses ..."

symptoms

brucellosis

list

forces

considerable

as

"malaise, fever,

sweating, headache, and muscle pains." These, in other literature, have been touted as the

Uganda

In the

EH

first

signs of

slim disease.

August 1986 Journal

of Tropical Medicine

and Hygiene,

Williams reports on an analysis of 30,129 inpatient admissions,

from July 1951

to

August

1978, at

one Ugandan hospital.

most common causes of admission, diarrhea was the

Was

tients).

Of

all

were due

"new slim disease"

that the

sixth (1041 pa-

40%

in those 30,129 patients,

kwashiorkor - which

either to

the six

starting in 1951?

which resulted

the deaths

Of

is

an immune-deficiency

syndrome caused by extreme protein deficiency - or other malnutrition.

If

you add

raise the total to It is

immune

in a third type of

59%

of

all

deaths in those hospital patients.

clear in fact that

from 1951 on, Ugandans were exhibiting

suppression in several forms,

to opportunistic infections. to

immune-suppression, anemia, you

do with any of

The AIDS

all

of

which would give

basic pattern.

rise

HIV had nothing

this.

D. Serwadda's October 1985 Lancet paper, discovering slim as a

new

disease in Uganda,

early slim onset:

makes

this

"In the first six

comment, spelling out

months

a typical

the patient experiences

general malaise and intermittent fevers for which he

may

treat

due

himself with aspirin, chloroquine, or chloramphenicol.

In

course he develops loss of appetite.

months

intermittent diarrhea starts.

There

76

is

In

the next six

gradual weight

loss."

(KH

CHAPTER ELEVEN Marquart's

November 1985

Lancet study

abdominal pain as slim symptoms, as

Drug

Lippincott's 1988

Factors and Comparisons, for the

chloramphenicol, starkly warns: (aplastic anemia, hypoplastic

severe vomiting and

lists

well.)

drug

"Serious and fatal blood dyscrasias

anemia

.

.

.)

occur after chloramphenicol

administration."

Reports on use of aplastic

anemia has

terminated in leukemia.

later

The other drug

Side effects include

Slim symptoms.

nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever.

"early slim" patients

with was chloroquine.

occurrence of

this antibiotic indicate the

were dosing themselves have occurred from

Fatalities in children

its

Side effects include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal

use.

cramps, skin pigment changes, raised fungal patches of skin, loss of appetite.

What kind of medical research are we dealing with here? A new disease is named, slim, after studying patients who have been dosing themselves with very dangerous drugs which yield the

same symptoms tinely

U.S.

as the

dumped by

and Europe,

new

disease.

Chloramphenicol has been rou-

the west in the Third World, even though in the

its

use

is

limited because of

danger.

its

There have been 1600 AIDS cases reported from Uganda since 1983.

How many Finally,

Kaposi's

have taken these drugs? Not known.

Serwadda mentions

sarcoma has been seen

doubt on the idea of posi's

a global

in

that, as early as 1962, aggressive

Uganda.

AIDS epidemic,

That further throws

in

which aggressive Ka-

sarcoma was supposedly born simultaneously,

in 1980, in

San

Francisco and Africa.

The understanding

of

what

is

being called

AIDS

very shaky at best. Yet on that foundation, the nation to the

world as the place

in Africa

where AIDS

is

is

most

in

Uganda

is

being held up virulent.

And

Health Organization, trying to navigate that continent and

the World win over governments with

its

plans and programs,

is

pointing to

Uganda as an example of a "cooperative" nation. Last year, Jonathan Mann, WHO AIDS spokesman, held a press conference to announce the $6 million assistance-package. "We all owe a debt to Uganda for its

leadership in openly confronting the

77

AIDS problem," he

said.

AIDS INC.

There

more

is

to

add

My

unreported information.

in that nation to a simple

know

claim to

all

More

medical picture in Uganda.

to the

purpose, as

I

say,

is

not to reduce disease

Those who

formula - just the opposite.

about Uganda (or quite probably any Third World

country's health situation) are exaggerating wildly. In cial, 2

I

my

discovered that HIV-test

The

poor.

most recent conversation with

test

a

facilities in

Ugandan

health offi-

the country are "very

has a false-positive rate of 17 to 40%," he said.

rate of incorrect result

would render

it

That

useless as a tool for linking in-

fections with presence of the virus.

There does definitely seem

some regions

to

be a large upsurge in illness in

of the country, according to the above source, and the

main symptoms are wasting,

fever

and pain. The

takes under five years from onset to death.

It is

illness is lethal,

and

different in appear-

ance from any other form of weight-loss he has seen, in that the wasting

is

quicker.

The disease does not seem

be affecting areas in the

to

north where they have had extreme food shortages, although

be present

On

in the east,

the whole, food

states.

But because of

broken

down

badly.

not a problem in Uganda, the source

is

government health services have

civil strife,

In

Kampala,

for

example, where 20,000 blood

transfusions are given every year, blood fected needles are used.

crobes all

may

it

another region of food-shortage.

would be passed

is

would mean

This

not being screened.

In-

that scores of various mi-

directly into recipients' bloodstreams, causing

sorts of unspecified health problems.

In

Uganda, infant mortality,

for all reasons, has

siderably, to over 120 deaths per thousand live births.

no knowledge

how many

of

ported cases of wasting are cult figure to

AIDS among

come

by.

children

is

reported

among

It is

at a

AIDS

children.

climbed con-

The

official

had

cases or current unre-

This seems to be a

diffi-

generally held that in Africa, reported

higher ratio than in the West.

2

All health people spoke with about Uganda refused to go on the record. Reason? Unclear. In some cases, may have been because being diagnosed with AIDS in Uganda seems to be a disgrace. Therefore, officials prefer to keep silent I

it

altogether about the subject.

78

CHAPTER ELEVEN This official said chloramphenicol was not available in areas

where the wasting disease

No

is

occurring.

post-mortems are being done on victims of any disease

Uganda. Therefore, there

is

no hard knowledge from that useful av-

enue on what diseases and conditions are there

If

diagnosed.

a

is

new

If it is

disease in Uganda,

more

a

in

killing people. it

has not been definitively

virulent version of an old disease, that has

not been discovered either.

Question marks. It is

not easy to find out which pesticides have been used in a 1985 report, 3

Uganda. But

least since 1970, "malpractices

unknown

pesticides of effectiveness,

found

not widely distributed, indicates that, at

have occurred. Numerous agricultural

purity, without labels

their

and largely of doubtful

way to the farmers." The report goes on Uganda to regulate safety procedures

note that no laws exist in

to in

handling, storing, using, or protecting against pesticides and their residues.

Beginning nitely

in 1985, the

been reported

in

U.S.-banned pesticide dieldrin has defi-

Uganda.

An

organochlorine,

it is

a powerful

nerve toxin whose effects are cumulative; so the immediate warning of a strong adverse physical reaction does not necessarily exist for users.

Dieldrin creeps

A

1977

FDA

up

the food chain as well.

report, "Pesticides in

Imported Coffee Beans,"

dicated that the one tested sample of beans from

No

inated by pesticides.

general

list

in-

Uganda was contam-

chemical contaminant was named, but the

of those found in bean samples from 22 countries in-

cluded DDT, Dieldrin, malathion, and Lindane,

all

highly toxic com-

pounds. Illness to

workers in pesticide plants abroad and

ers handling toxins

is

vastly underreported.

nations, this sort of illness could be,

In

to

farm work-

many Third World

and probably

is,

reported under

other names, including AIDS.

3 "Pesticide

East and Southern Africa," published in 1985 by Development, presented at the proceedings of a workshop held in Nairobi, 10-15 Mar. 1985; edited and compiled by Janice Jensen, Ann Stroud, and Joy Mukanyange. the

Management

US Agency

in

for International

79

AIDS INC. Another report on Uganda comes from

who

summer

spent part of the

at least three diseases

them

One

being widely discussed.

is

He

of 1987 there.

which are severe is

a

Western

stated that there are

and none of

in the country,

malaria,

scientist

on the

rise,

another

is

a venereal infection called ulcerating chancroid, "which has been re-

ported in perhaps one out of 10 adults," the scientists told me. "This

could tion,"

mean one out he said.

The off

of three sexually active adults have that infec-

third disease

and on undulating

is

tick-borne relapsing fever, which produces

fevers.

It is

prevalent along a 20-mile road

outside Kampala, a road which used to be well kept and travel.

Now, however,

after years of war,

That means

four-wheel vehicle to cover those 20 miles.

and

that

means exposure

AIDS, the a pariah

was easy

to

can take eight hours in a

it

lots of stops,

to the ticks.

scientist told

me, has come

to

be a label which makes

out of a person in Uganda. Therefore,

if

people with

this tick

fever are misdiagnosed as having AIDS, they are put out from their

homes, cut

off

from

their families, refused food

medication - which surely would worsen their

No still

one

roam

is

testing pigs for

freely in areas

swine fever

scientists report

illness.

Uganda, but some pigs

where people have been diagnosed with

AIDS. Swine fever has been known

and some

in

and any available

it

produce wasting-away

to

in pigs,

can infect humans.

Sanitation facilities in the country are, the scientist reported,

very poor.

Perhaps a quarter of the people have

tion, of course, creates a

breeding ground for

all

This situa-

latrines.

sorts of disease.

There are very few medical drugs available in the country. The doctors, this scientist reports,

who

are part of the socialized medical

system, are paid about $12 a month in salary.

minumum

for survival, doctors

may

sell

With $30 as the bare

drugs they receive on the

black market, then give smaller amounts to patients and stretch out the available supplies.

In 1967, doctors

try with small doses of penicillin.

were

surfaced

VD

in the

The symptoms would

though the disease was probably not wiped later,

treating

out,

they were resistant to penicillin.

80

coun-

recede,

al-

and when symptoms

CHAPTER ELEVEN saw no

This visiting scientist

pesticide plants or pesticide use,

However, he did mention

but wasn't looking for that sort of thing. that a lake in the Rakai district,

not producing

where AIDS has been diagnosed, was

anymore and no one seemed

fish

to

know why.

Malnutrition was not a problem in the country, the scientist

Land

reported.

He

same

at the

very

is

and crops almost grow by themselves.

fertile,

some

that

felt

some new

time,

was being misdiagnosed

illness

AIDS, and,

as

disease, probably contagious,

Origin unknown, but possibly tick-borne.

killing people.

toms were vomiting, diarrhea, and weight-loss.

It

was Its

seem

didn't

also

sympto

be

tick-borne relapsing fever.

Another

Kennedy

September

in the ject of

Jane Teas, sent a letter to Senator Ted

scientist,

from

after returning

30, 1985,

New

"(My

from Teas' trip to

as a civil

war

in

was reprinted Here

for the first time.

is

a

letter:

Uganda

led to) extensive inquiries;

was an ongoing epidemic

there

It

York Native, and introduced the sub-

Uganda

African Swine Fever in

brief excerpt

Uganda.

a 1985 trip to

of African

found that

I

Swine Fever Virus, as well

Uganda. Since Uganda might suffer economically

if

they formally diagnosed the disease in pigs, no one has officially

Uganda,

AIDS

in

in

May

were thought

1984, there

Kampala. Now,

just

over a year

The pigs

cases in one hospital alone.

Uganda, roam

When

Swine Fever Virus.

tested the pigs for African

in

freely in people's gardens,

to

have been

later, there are

I

was

six cases of

more than 60

Kampala, as elsewhere

and are not

in

in

restricted to pig

farms." 4

The bottom that

line

on

all

no one has the bottom

country. Those

who

these health reports about line

on what

say they do, and

ing a characterization that

fits

I

is

killing

have talked

their ideas

to

Uganda

people in that

some, are mold-

about AIDS.

Several of

these people, of course, claim special prescience, in an almost

gious way. Well, there are

many

reli-

possible payoffs in asserting there

4 African Swine Fever has reportedly been found patients.

81

in

is

the blood of

is

some AIDS

AIDS INC. one cause

for

one global epidemic that encompasses virtually

all

hu-

man immunosuppression. the truth

If

ple determined to tantly a

is

less

sell

easy to come by, that has never stopped peo-

a theory.

Unfortunately for them,

AIDS

is

bla-

hodge-podge of symptoms which can be produced from many

quarters.

It

is

also a very familiar pattern:

permitting outbreaks of opportunistic infections. ing factors can give rise to that precise pattern.

82

immune-suppression

Hundreds

of initiat-

CHAPTER TWELVE

DOES THE HIV VIRUS CAUSE DISEASE? If

the

AIDS

research establishment has a leg to stand on,

complished by claiming that the HIV virus actually causes the lapse of the

way

human immune

for all the

symptoms and

system; that

HIV

ac-

it is

col-

therefore paves the

diseases and infections that are consid-

ered AIDS-associated.

Of things,

AIDS

course, top

and so the question

researchers believe

How

is:

HIV does

do they prove

not be forgotten, the burden of proof was and

it?

exactly these

Because

on those

is

it

who

must claim

HIV

causes disease.

tion,

medical researchers invoke what are called Koch's postulates.

Traditionally, in order to establish that a

germ causes

a condi-

These postulates describe a formula: From people with a given disease,

remove

into animals

the

and

in

same germ

in every case; then inject this

every case bring about

all

the

symptoms

germ of the

disease.

Having accomplished

this,

one says that germ

A

causes disease

B.

With HIV,

this

has not been done.

study you read, you find HIV

80% a

of those people

hundred chimps

itself

First,

diagnosed with full-blown AIDS. Second, about in the U.S., held in sterile isolation

have been injected with high volumes of HIV. ately

developed infected lymph glands;

weeks and then returned

to normal.

symptoms then appeared. symptoms developed at all. It

Two chimps immedi-

In those

two chimps, no new

In all the other chimps,

injected with HIV.

83

chambers,

this condition lasted for thirty

has been over four years since

chimps have been

depending on which

has been isolated in roughly 50-

at least

some

no AIDS-like

of these 100

AIDS INC. So on the basis of Koch's postulates, there are no grounds for positively asserting that

HIV

causes AIDS.

some other

Several researchers claim that in the past

germs have been discovered without that

HIV, belonging

judged by different

fulfilling

to a special class called retroviruses, criteria

than the postulates.

have not been debated or made

disease-

Koch's postulates; and

needs

But these

to

be

criteria

They have

clear in published papers.

only been bandied about.

HIV advocates have The thinking goes

AIDS.

ground of

what

also invoked

way.

Healthy people with no back-

when

transfused with blood contain-

this

"high-risk" activity,

ing HIV, have developed full-blown AIDS.

cause was HIV, and this proves

On

the surface,

it

seems

called transfusion-

is

HIV like

Therefore, the obvious

causes AIDS.

sound reasoning. However, look-

ing over available statistics on people

who

get transfusions, a differ-

ent picture emerges.

Calculating from figures supplied by the American Association of Blood Banks, since 1978 about 29 million

blood transfusions.

In

most

donor supplied the various pints portunity to receive transfusion

As

AIDS

is

HIV

in the

injected, so there

bloodstream.

more than one

was ample op-

The average

size of a

3.5 pints.

of February 1988, the

in the

Americans have received

of these transfusions,

US

(since

about .00005 of those

CDC

AIDS was

who have

reports a total of 1466 transfusion first

This

reported).

means

that

received transfusions in the last ten

years have been diagnosed with AIDS.

5/hundred thou-

That's

sandths of one percent.

On

that basis, could

you possibly

something called AIDS? Obviously statistics don't absolutely rule out

disease, but this

AIDS

to

proof

is

HIV

is

not.

HIV

is

the cause of

One could argue

HIV Many as a

not the question.

state, as proof,

infer that

that these

sometime cause of human researchers

blood-transfusion AIDS.

on them. Their scenario doesn't hold up

who

attribute

The burden of

in this area.

In addition, several transfusion-AIDS enthusiasts say that,

since mass-screening of hospital blood-reserves for

HIV began,

trans-

fusion-AIDS has virtually been eliminated; therefore the culprit

84

"

.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Sou cauS£ Of AIDS, HIV's right ro 3£

Aa/p

t mu vrmo

me on* mp oA/iy.

85

.

AIDS INC.

CDC

HIV.

is

statistics

1144 out of the

paint an opposite picture.

total of

and 1988,

1466 transfusion-AIDS cases have been re-

In other words, since

ported.

In 1987

HIV has been

out of the na-

filtered

blood supply, reported transfusion-AIDS has risen consider-

tional ably.

The National Hemophilia Foundation reports there are about 20,000 hemophiliacs of different types in the United States.

estimates of

what percentage have simply

between 50% and 80%. As of January tal

cases of

AIDS among

CDC

HIV vary

reports 543 to-

This means 4 to

hemophiliacs.

estimated to be HIV-positive,

tested positive for

11, 1987, the

Slippery

5%

of those

between 1978 and 1987, have gone

to

be

diagnosed as having full-blown AIDS. Again, tion,

this is

no

hemophiliacs can develop other

many

HIV causes AIDS. 1 In addiimmune problems from the

basis for claiming

transfusions they receive - problems one could wrongly disg-

nose as AIDS. In a Lancet letter about hemophiliacs (February 8, 1986), KL.

Schimpf comments, "Like Hay disease

is

sive liver disease in hepatitis

et al,

we

an understated problem. Hay

38%

think that progressive liver

et al

found by biopsy, progres-

of patients with hemophilia (chronic active

26%, cirrhosis 12%). These figures are close

to ours."

Judg-

ing the varied character and seriousness of problems in hemophiliacs is

not simply a matter of slapping on an

AIDS

diagnosis.

Hemophiliacs use very large amounts of

on a continuing

basis.

(clotting) Factor VIII

These concentrates from plasma can expose a

hemophiliac to the blood of 100,000 to 300,000 donors per year.

Many

microbial toxins and chemicals can thus be passed on.

As authors Hilgartner and Aledort mention "AIDS

in

Hemophilia" (Annals, New York Academy

1984), "Treatment with concentrates (Factor VIII)

is

hepatitis."

Immune

of Science,

Nov.

associated with a

high incidence of cytomegalovirus (CMV), hepatitis

non-B

in their paper,

B,

and non-A-

disorders found in hemophiliacs include

hemolytic anemia and ITP, an autoimmune blood platelet problem. 1 As with transfusion-recipients in general, counting the raw numbers of transfusions received by hemophiliacs would yield a similar microscopic percentage of those eventually diagnosed with AIDS.

86

CHAPTER TWELVE These non-viral conditions can result tic infections,

and

outbreak of opportunis-

in the

in this pattern they are virtually indistinguishable

from AIDS. In the discussion following the Hilgartner

which was

presented

initially

"The hemophiliac population

said,

and Aledort paper,

an AIDS symposium, a questioner

at

in

Germany and

Central Europe

about one-third of the same population of the United

is

These

States.

patients are treated with similar or rather slightly higher doses of concentrates.

AIDS

They

are comparable

.

.

.

and there was not

a single case of

reported."

Hilgartner replied, "That, facts that

we

have heard.

think,

I

one of the most important

is

In a population treated with

even larger

amounts of concentrate than we have used

in the

period of three to five years, there

no indication of AIDS.

had been

there

is

as yet

a contaminated lot or

transmissible agent, one

would

one case would have appeared

had been

there

if

certainly

United States for a

a virus or

have thought that

at the present

If

time in those

at least

German

hemophiliacs."

One can

on

certainly speculate

invoking hemophilia to

prove HIV

this strange fact,

causes

AIDS

but regardless,

just isn't

going to

work.

if

What would be the likelihood of scientists reversing their field HIV were somehow discredited? Realistically, about zero. In this

regard, biologist Peter Duesberg had a few interesting things to say to reporter Celia Farber for Spin magazine (January 1988): "Scientists researching

AIDS

are

much

less inclined to

tinizing questions about the etiology (cause) of

of money HIV is the AIDS example, who are two

invested huge

sums

in

AIDS when they have

companies that make money on the William Haseltine and

hypothesis that

virus.

Essex, for

of the top five

the country, have millions in stocks in a

has developed and will they be objective? rights

HIV

is

on the

virus.

sell

ask scru-

AIDS

Gallo stands to

kits that test for

make

Max

AIDS researchers in company they founded that a lot of

HIV.

How

money from

could patent

His entire reputation depends on this virus.

not the cause of AIDS, there's nothing

87

left for

Gallo."

If

AIDS INC. Farber found researchers Hazeltine and Essex upset by Dues-

added

berg's remarks, but she sex's business

HIV testing kits." man from Ohio

that sells

A number

and Es-

that Hazeltine "confirms his

arrangement with Cambridge Bio-Science, a company

gay

told

me

had vacationed

of friends

Los Angeles, the three

he and a

that, in the late 1970s,

in

New

York, San Francisco, and

where an overwhelming percentage of

cities

AIDS among gay men has been diagnosed. "We all went to the bathhouses, we returned home cities.

These

AIDS among us This

San Francisco."

as in, say,

is true.

With gay men from San Francisco, virus

New

all

over the U.S. taking vacation trips to

York, and LA, a transmissible AIDS-causing

would have been transported back

dusky, Salt Lake City, and ica.

our

to

never developed anywhere near the percentage of

cities

many

to

Des Moines, Atlanta, San-

other cities and towns across

AIDS would, by now, be showing among gays.

HIV

a very

Amer-

wide distribution across

the U.S.,

This has not happened, according to reports.

The conclusion? Perhaps

that a vacation

is

not long enough to

absorb the necessary quantity of drugs which, along with STDs, actually

comprise

On odd

much

of the

immunosuppressive

the international scene,

distribution of reported

the job.

Why

do we

no one has

AIDS

bt

en able to explain the

cases - assuming a virus

doing

why

don't

we have

cases in Europe, since that continent's connections with

Africa are traditionally so

one would

is

have a reported preponderance of heterosexual

Africans and homosexual Americans with AIDS;

many more

AIDS.

effect called

think,

if

AIDS

much

stronger than America's?

started in Africa,

it

would gain

foothold there, lots of reported cases would

would appear

in

wouldn't erupt

show

America and Europe, and begin in

Ordinarily,

a very strong

up, and then

to fan out slowly.

America simultaneously, and build up

it

It

to 40,000

cases here.

Meanwhile,

in the laboratory, researchers

time

this

have said that HIV

is

AIDS because it kills T-cells in petri dishes At the claim was made, AIDS was considered to be a damager of T-

the likely cause of

88

CHAPTER TWELVE human

cells in the

body.

position and said that the cells called the

many

cells in petri dishes.

known

is

In dishes, there

I

HIV. One of the

sibility of

HIV.

There

person to another. cause us harm.

This

to

he makes concerns the transmis-

is

no question no reason it

that

to

of

imminent disaster based

it is

think

HIV virus... this is a sucwe have a transmitted HIV

not science or anything bordering on

move

into a country

where

treating the latest horrible outbreak in the usual

immune-damage

by HIV. As proof, we

They do, and

Now

virus.

way

But instead of

The reason

it is

happening

in the bodies of these citizens.

will test

lo

example, by

(for

on the scene say, "Cholera

sanitation), researchers

opportunistic infection of AIDS. prior

it.

certain dis-

Take a Third World country where, ev-

then.

ery decade or so, they have an epidemic of cholera.

improving

germ

that because a

test positive for the

also very easy to

up now and

microbes, none of which

assume

causes disease.

make people

plague on our hands, but

eases crop

can be passed from one

it

many

true of

is

person

people

cessful strategy to

It is

at

are not functioning.

interview a molecular biologist on the sub-

Going around the world warning fact that

no immune-response

human body

vital points

is

There

moves from person on the

is

hu-

kill

to every high-school biology student.

In a later chapter, ject of

immune-

and microbial, can

things, chemical

work; the normal processes of the This fact

researchers have shifted their actually attacks the

macrophages, instead.

Regardless,

man

Now, some HIV virus

some

the

is

Damage caused

of these people."

and behold, they find antibodies

they say, "You see?

an

is

HIV.

What did we

to the

HIV

you? Aha.

tell

AIDS." Robert Gallo and Flossie Wong-Staal (Nature, 3 October, 1985) offered five reasons for 1)

CDC

HIV

being the cause of AIDS.

studies on hemophiliacs

VIII are then diagnosed with 2) In cell

AIDS

A

receive clotting Factor

patients, there are apparent defects in

populations, and 3)

who

AIDS.

HIV

immune

has been found to destroy T-cells in

virus similar to HIV, feline leukemia virus,

cause a similar disease to AIDS.

89

is

T-

vitro.

known

to

AIDS INC.

4)

similar to HIV, have

shown

immune suppression in vitro. started in Africa and Haiti, both known AIDS 5) the HTLV-I and II viruses.

the capac-

induce

ity to

for

HTLV-I and HTLV-II,

to

be endemic

In retrospect, the replies to this "evidence" are quite obvious. 1)

AIDS

At any

who

of hemophiliacs

The percentage tiny.

is

rate,

are diagnosed with

some hemophiliacs already

suffer

from

immune-deficiency indistinguishable from AIDS.

Many germs and chemicals (and malnutrition) can cause dein immune T-cell populations, and destruction of T-cells in a dish is not proof that HIV does anything in the body. 2)

fects

petri

3)

Feline leukemia virus

is

normally present in 70% of

cats.

It

has not been shown to cause leukemia. 4)

HTLV-I and HTLV-II

HIV

family to which 5)

of

AIDS

Same

cause they were, by In 1988,

we have AIDS

There

is

cracks,

found

more sober

myth

when

be so

out.

In

be on the road to AIDS be-

to

AIDS

in Haiti. 2

HIV

virus.

Similarly, in

of mil-

analysis of blood-test results falsely positive

HIV

tests. 3

knows HIV causes AIDS." Like to people, you find the myth has

that "everyone to talk

and people are often afraid this to

huge numbers

Kenya and Uganda brought predictions

Later,

when you begin

other myths,

irrelevant.

from reports, panned

overwhelming numbers of a

is

statistical projection, positive for the

cases.

there indicated

not,

were said

920 reported cases of

Africa, fast surveys in

ions of

thought to be part of the

Also, the prediction of

by now has

1985, roughly 360,000 Haitians

now

So the comparison

belongs.

objection as #4.

cases in Haiti

are not

I

to voice their real opinions.

spoke with university researchers.

appears to be true within the White House

itself,

It

I

also

and signals a proba-

ble conflict over this issue at high policy levels.

Senior White

House

public attention in a the story, "The White

policy analyst Jim

See Curran et al, Science, v. 229, and Technology, no. 4, p. 43, 1988. Schneider

et

al,

first

came

to

November article in the New York Native. House Calls the Native About Aids," publisher

2

3

Warner

In

p.

1352, 1985; Tinker, Issues

"Seroepidemiology of HIV

Journal, Sept. 27, 1986.

90

in

Africa,"

in

British

Science

Medical

CHAPTER TWELVE Chuck Ortleb

me

wrote: "Warner told

that the

White House could be

One group,

seen as divided into two groups on the issue of AIDS.

which he said

the minority, wants to adopt an 'Auschwitz

in

is

model' by quarantining

all

those infected with 'the virus.'

group,' [Warnerl said,

'is

incompetent.'"

'The other

Warner

Later,

me

told

he

wasn't suggesting there was a White House group which was favor-

ing "an Auschwitz model," but that some high-risk groups might think that

was

December

18, 1987.

WEEKLY: Native

The following interview ran

so.

Has anyone

article

WARNER:

I

White House spoken

the

at

and what you said

LA

in the

Weekly on

you about the

to

in it?

knows

don't think anyone here

was an

there

article in

that paper.

The government

really hasn't fulfilled

patient

who

has a genetic

We

may

a

just

not

syndrome, not a disease.

HIV being the all we think we do, by any means. WEEKLY: Is your research on AIDS [instead of

role in providing

know enough. With We may see a defect that's causing his immune deficiency causative agent]. I'm not satisfied we know

good information [on AIDS]. AIDS, we're dealing with

its

part

of your policy

you make recommendations based on what you find out? what's going on with

that you're absorbed in discovering

WARNER: More how

it

started.

concerning the in

AIDS.

I

of the latter than the former.

magazine

into an Atlantic I

decided

HIV

I

would then

me to look into WEEKLY: Do people

wanted

the White

answers would suggest

draft a paper

at the

not

is

House and

person here

who

has

was asked

I

it

just

to look that's

and give

it

to the

its

people

role

who

the subject.

White House get a chance

to talk to scien-

mean

really talk with

them, find out what they're doing,

There

is

AIDS?

put together a set of questions

to

over at the National Institutes of Health?

WARNER:

Or

about insects and AIDS, and

virus, so that the

asked

tists

article

Do

work?

how

I

they're thinking?

much communication [between people

the scientists at

much

interest in

NIH]. it.

This year

I

determined that

the [White House] working group on AIDS wasn't adequate.

91

at

I'm probably the only

AIDS INC.

WEEKLY: -

the record

what they

criticized

speak out against the rush

may

they

"HIV dogma."

call

judgment

HIV

for

They

off

feel if they

AIDS assumption that HIV as the cause of

Grants begin with the

money.

lose

to

have -

scientists I've spoken with

Several university

has been proven as the agent of the disease.

WARNER:

I'm of a

mind

that

if

no other lessons should be required

good survey

of any university science curriculum, there should be a

course in philosophy and a grounding in conceit

and arrogance

WEEKLY:

There has never been a perfor manace- evaluation on

results of the

worth of

all

WARNER: about

NIH

NIH.

has balked at the

20 years.

their medical research over the last

That's a very

good

I'm going to see

idea.

the

of evaluating the

idea

what

can do

I

that.

WEEKLY: an

I'm appalled at the

logic.

[of certain scientists].

Army

Native

The

researcher on

ease, that it's caused

article

mentioned that you spoke with Dr. Lo,

He

AIDS.

you had a problem getting through you'd have

to

theory about the dis-

According

him.

Native,

to the

Did they

the Surgeon

get an okay from

to

own

has his

by a different virus.

really tell

General just

you

talk to

to

Lo?

WARNER:

Yes.

You know, although

White House, I'm not impressed

an honor to work

it is

makes me

that being here

at the

special.

But pulled rank, and they put me through to Dr. Lo. WEEKLY: Suppose proof emerged that HIV is not the AIDS How difficult would it be to alter the course of research? I

WARNER:

It's

very difficult to change people's minds.

possible, but there

WEEKLY:

is

a

head of steam

What do you do

if

a

It's

virus.

not im-

built up.

government agency, as a whole, has

been derelict?

WARNER: though,

when

may end up

It

I'd like to

scientists are

WEEKLY:

as a brawl.

I'd sort

avoid a public brawl.

It

eats

of like to finesse that,

up

time.

Max Essex, people like that, NIH war on cancer in the 70 's.

Robert Gallo,

commanders on

the

It's

difficult

not open to discussing scientific issues.

AIDS

now?

war.

So

why

that

we

don't have other people running the show.

are they in charge of

92

research

were the

They It

lost

field

that

seems odd

CHAPTER TWELVE

WARNER:

ever I've been tempted to believe in socialism, science

If

me

has disabused

show. They

just

WEEKLY:

Peter

NIH

WARNER: HIV

[at

NIH] assume

that

HIV

that

what they

Yes.

I've

Have you asked

AIDS.

does not cause

arguments?

think, specifically, of his

been told that Peter Duesberg's refutation of

has been discounted by the scientific community.

I

was given no

was very offended. No evidence was

explanation as to why.

I

sented to me.

Duesberg had been 'discounted.'

surd.

It's

their

it's

it.

Duesberg, a distinguished molecular biologist at

Berkeley, has said

people at

These guys

of that.

assume

Just that

pre-

That's ab-

not a scientific response to dismiss Duesberg as a crank.

WEEKLY:

The definition

of

AIDS

has become so broad

stretching the idea of what a syndrome

is,

even

it's

never mind a singular dis-

ease.

WARNER: A

syndrome

symptoms could be

a

is

means

linked together.

sphere of hysteria, there

is

no

limit to

how

of trying to understand

But

you do

if

what you can

this in

an atmo-

attribute to a syn-

drome.

WEEKLY:

The definition

onymous with

starvation.

of

AIDS

in Africa

tainly

makes a

-

I

Weight-loss.

.

perfect smokescreen for the aspect of

just call

WARNER:

now becoming

it

syn-

They're saying the three major symptoms

are chronic diarrhea, fever, and wasting-away

political

is

It

cer-

hunger which

is

AIDS.

had not considered

that.

Africa self-sufficient by the year 2000.

There

is

a

program

to

make

This could certainly hinder that

activity.

You know,

I

was

a prisoner of

weight-loss of eighty pounds.

war

And when

in I

Vietnam.

came home,

ing from a form of dysentery that you could

number

of us were.

In

We

November

Bio/Technology,

experienced

I

I

was

suffer-

call opportunistic.

A

didn't have AIDS.

of

was going

1987, to

I

found

out

that

the

journal

hold a roundtable workshop in which

93

AIDS INC.

HIV would be searchers

addressed. Peter Duesberg and about a dozen other re-

would

The purpose of

attend.

role or non-role in I

to everyone's surprise,

his office at the

it

was on

a

month before

began appearing

about

icy

Development was not going

For a brief time,

did

call,

House against sanctioning such

in several

looked

it

The New York

Post,

a

newspapers.

like the

to host

on January

The next day, the paper did

DEBATE ON TRUE CAUSE OF

There were ob-

again, off again.

White House's Office of Polbut the Office of Science

it,

and Technology Policy was. Then the whole thing

berg.

He

sessions.

the scheduled January 19th date, sto-

ries

it

on the

suggested that the roundtable be held in

viously pressures within the White

About

in

sit

and sug-

White House.

For the next month,

meeting.

to

would show HIV's

the proposed roundtable,

gested he contact the magazine and

and

all,

AIDS.

Warner about

told Jim

would be

the roundtable

formulate experiments which, once and for

apart.

fell

7th, 1988, ran a story

a followup, headlined:

on Dues-

U.S.

AXES

AIDS. After indicating that the White

House meeting was canceled, medicine-science

editor, Joe Nicholson,

relayed a few surprising quotes from Gary Bauer, head of Reagan's Office of

Policy Development,

and Jim Warner's

boss:

"People like Dr. Duesberg need to continue to have access to research funds so that

we

if

are heading in the

wrong

direction, that can

be proved."

Bauer then said he didn't want the White House to sponsor the meeting because

it

would impart

a political tone to a scientific

event. "I

hope they have the debate elsewhere," he

bristled at the finality with

AIDS and how

it

is

is

"I've sort of

which some have made statements about

transmitted.

accepted wisdom, there

said.

When

a tendency to

findings run counter to the

muzzle or ignore rather than

have an open debate."

The average researcher

will tell

you

that there

is

an extraordi-

nary correlation which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that HIV causes AIDS:

One new

disease-condition has sprung

ously around the globe; called AIDS,

it is

94

up simultane-

everywhere accompanied by

CHAPTER TWELVE the presence of a virus, HIV, which

new

disease and

ing;

HIV must

it is

why,

This

all

is,

new

a

There

exist.

new;

world

is

but the

HIV

Hundreds

of causes for

is

mounted tainly

is If

effort against the intrusion of a

to

assume

to turn

that

is

do not

detect the virus,

to a contact

with the virus.

tests

called

germ.

Exceptions have cer-

which antibodies did not ward

in

off illness.

across the board that the generation of antibodies

in all cases, signifies future death as a result of that

around established understanding.

new

the

proof that a blood

later disease.

tempt

is

it

must be accompanied by extensive

HIV which shows

at the

men

San Francisco City

HIV

Clinic,

are being tracked, to see

eventually are diagnosed with full-blown

beled positive for

antibodies will definitely

The

This proof has not been offered.

being made,

groups of

analysis,

test for

mean

cialized

infection.

measured by the presence of immune-troops

one virus, HIV,

virus

It is

Normally, antibodies are thought to signal a successfully

been reported,

However, to

is

pattern, al-

"new disease" around the

actually correlated with

HIV blood tests. 5 These response of the immune system

That response

immune-sys-

AIDS

nothing magical about the ideas of AIDS.

is

and

causes AIDS.

infection, the so-called

positive

antibodies.

mean-

this correlation,

merely immune-collapse followed by opportunistic

What

this correlation of

disease-condition has not demonstrably

over the world. 4

tem collapse and ensuing ready

also

compelling image for researchers,

bottom, they are so sure that

But the truth

sprung up

is

virus cannot be a casual thing without

actually cause AIDS.

a

is

at

new

on blood

AIDS

largest at-

where two spe-

how many

of

them

years after being

la-

tests.

Unfortunately, these groups are very specialized, and

it

would

be foolish to imagine that information about the general population can be extracted from them.

STD

men who showed up Many of these men were at

One

5

San Francisco

certainly already

a result of successive incidents of

4

large group, for example, consists of

clinics in

See Chapter 13, Pneumocystis. See Chapter 31, which analyzes

immune-compromised,

STDs and massive

the unreliability of

95

in the late 1970s.

as

antibiotic usage.

HIV blood

tests.

AtDS INC. The other group being studied are gay men who volunteered B vaccine

early Hepatitis

A would

fall

men

The idea

that data

lives, habits,

San Francisco study

in the

under the category of "high-risk"

people whose is

trials in 1980.

large percentage of the

guidelines.

for the

for

CDC

AIDS, by the

from them could be extrapolated

to

exposures to chemicals are totally different

flawed.

Furthermore, the San Francisco study disclosure of their data, their

has not been offered.

methods

In an effort to defend a viral to

AIDS

out of this study.

fact

scenario, in

which AIDS has

IV drug users and male homosexuals in the

US, researchers have attempted to discover odd routes of

of bleeding leads to

among

sharing of needles This effort

No

is

viral trans-

Anal sex among gays,

mission which occur only in those groups:

which because

full

MDs

Nevertheless, reporters and scientists and

have jumped the gun and made indisputable

mainly been confined

not complete, and

is

of collection, their protocols

semen-blood transmission; and

junkies.

misguided

for several reasons.

virus selects lopsidedly the cultural groups

(By now, ample opportunity has been created for

it

HIV

will reside in.

to

move

gays and IV drug users into the general population, and yet

out of

this

has

causing a single disease-entity called AIDS, two

cir-

not happened.) If

HIV were

cumstances

beyond

America would have conspired

in

the current risk-groups.

1970s, bisexual

swing

clubs.

There existed

to

send AIDS widely

in

New

York, in the

These active establishments, by eyewit-

ness account, played host to every crossover sex act imaginable and a

consequent exchange of bodily fluids among fect situation for viral

men and women. A

spread into the hetero community.

It

per-

didn't

happen. In fact, today out of the 55,000 reported AIDS cases in the US, 91% are men, and 9% are women. That is not the reflection of any known virus at work. Such preference is unheard of.

During the 1970s, as already mentioned, gay men from

and towns

New

all

over America visited and vacationed

York, and LA, the centers of diagnosed

96

AIDS

in

cities

San Francisco,

cases in the US.

CHAPTER TWELVE They

HIV

the

and

gay bathhouses and had

visited

virus, they

cities of the

home with them many, many towns

Carrying

sex.

would have spread AIDS

into

US. This did not occur, according to

available re-

all

ports.

Among show has

a link

HIV

between

a positive

Comparing

failed.

was found for

IV drug users, one of the only studies that has tried to

that the

HIV

and

a white

and the sharing of needles

test

a black

group of IV drug

users,

it

group which shared more needles tested positive

frequently.

less

Likewise for anal intercourse, the attempt to show that

"homosexual sex" explains the preference of HIV

this

gays overlooks

for

the following: 1.

Heterosexuals have been practicing anal sex for centuries.

2.

Semen

to

blood transmission, which has been attributed

anal sex as the reason

Any urban his hetero

abrasions.

HIV

spreads,

gynecologist will

tell

is

you

to

also a fact in hetero vaginal sex.

that a certain small percentage of

male and female patients come

in

with penile and vaginal

That would also give blood transmission.

Nevertheless, investigators have been fixated on investigating

mind

high-risk groups with the theory already firmly in

Based on

causes AIDS.

this,

wouldn't occur in the general public. They have

HIV

causes

in culturally prejudiced fashion, through

fashion, If

question

is

HIV

ways which

the virus has been transmitted within these groups,

Trying to confirm that

that

they look for these "idiosyncratic" ways

failed.

AIDS by showing it spreads odd routes, in very limited

absurd.

HIV

has not been proven to cause AIDS, the next obvious

is, Is

AIDS

been shown

to

contagious? The answer to that

be the link that

diseases said to be

AIDS

ties

HIV

If

is:

has not

together the 30-odd infections and

related, then

what AIDS

are

you

talking about

in the first place? If

HIV

is

not locked in as disease-agent, then

opportunistic infections of

AIDS

drift apart,

no longer

all

a

the so-called

syndrome.

There are two opportunistic diseases which have been tributed to AIDS, the that

AIDS

is

two most prominent, which

a single root.

at-

are cited to indicate

These two diseases are Pneumocystis

97

AIDS INC. pneumonia and Kaposi's sarcoma. Researchers have analyzed them in

such a

way

appear

that they

credence to the existence of

to give

something called AIDS. But that analysis

superficial

is

and wrong.

up Pneumocystis and Kaposi. surprising that the AIDS research establishment

The next two chapters take It isn't

in

America

really

is

when you

arrogant,

which they have

built.

Their arrogance

brand of science, protecting Try funds and Earth,

A

this analogy.

PR

and

it

AIDS hiding an extremely weak

look at the thesis about is

against calm scrutiny.

famous researcher, backed up by ample

people, announces that a gigantic meteor

will destroy

it.

The meteor

but

invisible,

is

heading

for

we know

its

is

path because there are very slight variations which have been devel-

oping it is

heavenly bodies along a certain route. Caused,

in the orbits of

argued, by the gravity exerted by the meteor.

The meteor can't

will arrive

sometime

be sure of the time, because

the velocity erratic?

Now

it

frontiers of technology so that

and survive

is

not uniform.

Answer unknown.

the job of the scientific

is

we

can

community

somehow

In this

it

How

would they check

turns out that this

is

in various

ways

to cover

in ten years, for

it'll

example,

Aside from

it's

and blow us

That

the question.

is

it

can be stretched If

Earth doesn't

we miscalcuWhat a bas-

wait. all

that

in facts.

is tricky.

In another ten or fifty years

up."

this ridiculous elasticity, there turns

other factor which discredits this meteor theory. slight

under-

really stands

easy to say, 'Oh,

That meteor

Keeps changing speed. But

collide with Earth

way

unexpected changes

lated the velocity of the meteor. tard.

it?

scientists if it

virtually impossible, because the

theory has been formed in such an elastic

explode

advance the

divert this meteor

atmosphere of hysteria, other skeptical

to investigation.

Well,

to

as a species.

take to check this Earth-collision hypothesis, to see

up

We Why is

in the next 10-100 years.

velocity

its

changes in orbits of heavenly bodies

in the

out to be an-

There are already path of the sup-

posed, invisible meteor. These changes have been taking place for the last billion years,

we

and there are

already understand. In

five or six

fact, slight

98

good reasons why, which

variations in orbits of heavenly

CHAPTER TWELVE bodies take place

over the universe, not just

all

route of the

"in the

meteor." Therefore, imagining a meteor

was coming toward us because

was an

these bodies were fluctuating slightly in their ordinary orbits

unwarranted assumption.

The meteor theory,

Conclusion? tence of the meteor

porous

that

it

can't be checked.

from the

as concocted,

time of supposed impact,

itself to its

It's

a terrifying proposal but

exis-

so va-

is

it's

gob-

as proposed,

once

bledegook. In exactly the

same way,

AIDS

of full-blown

AIDS

the "theory" of

we

say, "The 500,000 cases

in Central Africa haven't

developed as you pre-

the smokescreen clears away,

absurd.

is

If

dicted they would," researchers blithely reply, "Wait. years.

was

It

twelve.

nothing happens that

It'll

happen

means

just

the date

Furthermore, since AIDS

is

It

was

wasn't three

And

in the year 2000." off again.

if

in

2000

Try 2020.

nothing more than a label for a

AIDS-

condition which already existed prior to the "discovery" of

namely immune-suppression and resultant infection-the whole ory collapses before

it

can be formulated. We've

known about

the-

fifteen

or twenty medical reasons and hundreds of environmental causes for

immune-deficiency, and we've

Nothing new

there.

known about them

So when some people say what's causing AIDS,"

mulated

can't be

in despair,

chapter,

first

way

"Nobody

The truth

that's misleading.

checked out one

pointed out in the

for

decades.

Nothing unique.

or another.

is,

really

knows

AIDS

as for-

Of course,

you can always use the

as

I

real fact that

down any opposition to the scenario called when you take it apart, is not only scientifi-

people are dying to shout

AIDS.

But the scenario,

cally absurd,

it

also keeps help for dying

from taking place.

AIDS

theory

As

It

and

ill

people, true help,

keeps prevention from taking place.

isn't just stupid,

it's

vicious.

you'll see in later chapters, the definitions of

AIDS which

are being used around the world will provide, by poaching

on

older diseases, the necessary case statistics to

much seem that we have ritories of

So the

the ter-

make

a global epidemic (from a single viral cause)

our hands. So the AIDS

theory,

by

99

it

on

essentially co-opting other diseases

AIDS INC. and environmentally caused conditions under its fictional umbrella, will make it seem as if all the terror being generated is justified.

100

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

PNEUMOCYSTIS, THE PRIMARY AIDS

SYMPTOM HIV

If

disease,

suspended animation, unproven as the cause of

rests in

what then?

First, it is

The only thing

now

seemed

that

and diseases under

tions

Putting aside HIV,

AIDS,

called sion,

in

most

and

ence,

to tie together the

that

title

was

the

much more

it is

to build

factors, the

HIV

many

diverse infec-

virus.

probable that what

is

being

end of an arc of immunosuppres-

cases, is the far

which takes some time

From various

AIDS.

foolish to talk about a single entity called

up

in a person.

immunosuppression gains

then, long after the person should

have reversed

in influ-

his habits,

or should have been fed, or should have been taken from a field

where he was working and

really sick,

then

in the presence of pesticides, etc.,

maybe he

The doctor looks

at his opportunistic infections, clucks, pro-

nounces AIDS, and everyone touted as invariably

fatal.

is

But

it

will

this is flim-flam, since

end of the

there.

fearful

arc of

be irreversible.

what

is

defined as

immunosuppression.

named AIDS,

It is

because the condition has been

Well, at this point in the arc, the chances

have naturally increased that

the

it is

is

is

is

precisely

focused

concealed

is

the

Prevention and reversal

easier during that earlier period.

Before dissecting the current definitions of

how

AIDS

All attention

packaged, and what

long approach that led to this moment.

would have been much

he becomes

sees a doctor.

AIDS and

seeing

they operate in a destructive way, there are one or two myths to

take care

of.

The called

first is

Pneumocystis

AIDS symptom. About

carinii

pneumonia, the primary so-

32,000 cases of AIDS, since the begin-

101

AIDS INC. ning, have been reported to the a

rough

total of 55,000

AIDS

CDC

cases.

The myth of Pneumocystis AIDS, that

it

because of that symptom, out of

that

is

was almost unknown,

was extremely

it

The other myth

in fact.

two people have Pneumocystis, they both developed cause. That

is

cases,

and

to the

CDC

from Los Angeles. The

if

men had developed Pneumocystis of the literature

later

with Pneumocystis

CDC

report on these

appendix. For now,

examining doctors assumed these

sufficient to say that the

it's

men

gay

commentary, are the subject of a

a

that

is

from the same

it

preposterous.

In 1980-1, the first five cases of

were reported

rare before

for the

same reason, when

on the disease would have shown

that that

five

a search is

a very

shaky assumption.

Promoting Pneumocystis as very rare and coming from one

unknown

cause did a great deal to convince people that

disease on our hands:

A more

AIDS.

Pneumocystis would have shown that there was that could be

done

way

in the

It

causes no harm.

It is

sion becomes severe enough,

and cause virulent This

is

it

less to fear,

more

found

is

in

70-85% of healthy peo-

However, when immunosupprescan come to the fore, center in the

disease.

the starting point for understanding Pneumocystis.

1980 in a loose

way marks

awareness about AIDS, but 1977-8 for dividing

new

one of those germs which establishes an

easy relationship with the host.

lungs,

a

of prevention.

The Pneumocystis protozoa ple.

we had

thorough understanding about

the beginning of health-agency

is

usually the

more

precise period

pre-AIDS and post-AIDS time.

In 1977, doctors also

for detecting

began routinely performing a new method

Pneumocystis pneumonia

at

Memorial Hospital

in Georgia.

From January 1955

to July 1977, the hospital

of Pneumocystis.

It's

the

Eugene Talmadge

called percutaneous lung aspirate.

had observed seven cases

But from July 1977 to December 1979, "nine

episodes occurred in seven patients." 1

1

December 1980 Southern

"Pneumocystis Recognition

in

Journal, Frederick Cox et al, Outbreaks or Improved Recognition."

Medical

Hospitals:

102

CHAPTER THIRTEEN Although the study does not prove higher incidence of Pneumocystis was due to a better method of detection,

it

does give pause

for thought.

Various studies indicate that the Pneumocystis organism causes no harm until some immuno-adversity arises:

often im-

munosuppressive drug therapy or an organ transplant.

A

host of

other immunosuppressive factors can lead to Pneumocystis pneu-

monia.

In fact, researchers

seem

This

why

is

disease.

elicit this

Pneumocystis

a correct assessment of

should have been, simply: populations; what

anything which badly

to infer that

compromises an immune system may

Pneumocystis

immunosuppressive

moving

is

factors

in 1980

into different

might be involved?

Malnutrition, toxic drugs? Repeated episodes of sexual diseases?

hunt

for

one unique

The

cause was really a bizarre departure from

viral

obvious precedent. In the years 1976 to 1983, the

Pneumocystis.

were leukemia patients),

Mayo

Clinic recorded 53 cases of

The underlying conditions judged

AIDS

(15 patients), (2 patients),

lymphoma

to

(9 patients),

be responsible malignancies

inflammatory diseases treated with

(5

corti-

costerioids (16 patients).

In September, 1975, Walter Hughes, of pital,

longer

list

The

Laboratory

Clinical

in

of factors

list

tuberculosis,

Sciences.

which could predispose

He assembled a person to

to the

much

Pneumocys-

and protein-calorie malnutrition. a person led to developing Pneumocystis

because of one of the above conditions Hughes

an AIDS

a

included thymic displasia, hypoglycemia, cryptococcus,

Today

tis

Jude's Research Hos-

published a current-status paper on Pneumocystis, in Critical

Reviews

tis.

St.

patient. This

HIV

would wrongly

shift the

lists

blame

pneumonia

would be for

called

Pneumocys-

virus.

Other researchers have pointed out that severe malnutrition can underlie Pneumocystis. junkies

and

alcoholics are

As mentioned

known

chronic disinterest in food.

Pneumocystis the diagnosis

earlier,

for their inability to

some pay

full-time

for,

or their

Today were, say, an alcoholic to develop would be AIDS, HIV, and the whole ball

103

AIDS INC.

wax -

of

not (correctly) Pneumocystis stemming from alcohol and

malnutrition.

Pneumocystis pneumonia has moved into new populations since 1977, but people have been dying of

since

World War Two.

it,

because of malnutrition 2

In fact, following the

,

War, epidemics were

seen in Europe, mainly in infants.

Hughes summarizes: 1945 and 1953.

"In Leipzig, 1000 cases

During the period from 1953

were seen between

to 1957, 2000 cases

were

registered in Czechoslovakia, with 412 cases confirmed at autopsy

The

first

recognized case of

the United States

number

P. carinii

was reported

Since then, an

in 1956.

of cases have occurred from year to year."

Hughes then points out Pneumocystis

in the U.S.,

.

pneumonia (pneumocystis)

that there are

CDC

increasing

figures for

has controlled Therefore, by

the use of pentamidine, a specific pneumocystis drug.

examining records of physicians' requests

.

(Emphasis added.)

no complete

but that, since 1967, the

.

in

an estimate of

for the drug,

Pneumocystis cases can be made.

"Over a three-year period from 1967 through 1970, 194 confirmed cases were recorded. However, in the year 1973 the

first

treat

(5

years before

diagnosed case of AIDS-author), the drug was dispensed to

527 proven or suspect cases of

P. carinii

pneumonitis. This

indicate an increase in prevalence rate because of the

may

more extensive

use of immunosuppressive (drug) therapy, prolonged survival of

compromised

hosts, or greater astuteness in the recognition of the in-

fection."

There begins to be a very strange story here.

Pneumocystis

is

not a

new

populations around 1977?

2

Second,

disease.

from 1956 on. The question

is,

why

did

According

See RK Chandra

it

to

it

First,

it is

clear that

was already increasing,

begin to proliferate in

new

Walter Hughes' analysis,

J. Pediatrics, vol. 81, 1972, p. 1194 for background on and immunocompetence. See also his letter to Current Contents, vol. 30, p. 15, June 1, 1987. Researchers turned up, in the early and mid1970s, many cases of Pneumocystis among undernourished children in Vietnam and Iran. It was generally understood at the time that Pneumocystis was being overlooked internationally in the Third World, among children, and that it was mainly caused by malnutrition. See JAMA, March 1975, v. 231, p. 1190, "Mission to Saigon-An Alert for PCP (Pneumocystis)," Redman.

undernutrition

104

CHAPTER THIRTEEN number

there could be a

of factors involved.

immunosuppressive drug therapy Pneumocystis protozoa

to

come

is

Researchers concur that

causing the

a strong factor in

to the fore

and

instigate virulent dis-

But does the medical profession have a monopoly on immuno-

ease.

suppressive drugs?

How

do you have

far

trum of drugs used

to stretch to

in concert in the

conclude that a wide spec-

gay community -

speed, cocaine, ethyl chloride, heroin, poppers,

MDA,

antibiotics,

quaaludes, Val-

ium, LSD, designer compounds - could rank as "immunosuppressive

drug therapy?"

Not very

far.

Remember, Pneumocystis, by

definition,

is

sufficient for a di-

agnosis of AIDS.

The rush

to call hospitalized 1980

gay Pneumocystis patients

"previously healthy," and then to undertake a viral quest for the

cause of their immune-suppression, leaving obvious background

drug (and other) bizarre

moves

There

factors in the dust, has to rank as

one of the most

in the history of medicine.

is

other interesting commentary in the literature on

Pneumocystis. In 1971, Peter Rosen

York Pneumocystis

patients. 3

undertook a study of 20

Rosen concluded that

sentation of Pneumocystis infection

apparent pneumonia and

et al

may

may

New

"the clinical pre-

vary from fulminant to

in-

be masked by preexistent pulmonary

disease." In other words,

ing

on

if

to

it

can be hard to find. So

the disease, even in 1971,

make

it

wouldn't be surpris-

was being underreported. Rosen goes

the point that, indeed, as of 1971, there

were no methods

of testing blood for Pneumocystis or isolating the microbe

He carinii

also says, "Interest in the specific diagnosis of

pneumonia has been heightened

in recent years

itself.

Pneumocystis

by

the thera-

peutic success with pentamidine isothionate." It's

not hard to piece together a simple story here. In the 1970s,

the incidence of Pneumocystis cases began rising partly because weak-

ened cancer

3

patients,

many

treated with increasingly toxic

October, 1972, The American Journal of Medicine,

105

vol. 53. p.

immuno-

428.

AIDS INC. suppressant drugs, were ripe for infection by ordinarily benign oppor-

Pneumocystis pneumonia:

to treat this

continued for a better 80,

it

gan

way

to

that point on,

felt

Between 1977-

more

a sensitive test,

treat

cases be-

them.

doctors are not aware of this story.

spoke with a doctor

I

The search

Percutaneous lung aspi-

in hospitals:

armed with

be diagnosed. More pentamidine was used to

Many

they had a drug

pentamidine.

to diagnose Pneumocystis.

was found and took hold

From

rate.

Doctors

Like Pneumocystis.

tunistic organisms.

who was

familiar with increasing

Pneu-

mocystis cases at Georgia's Eugene Talmadge Hospital in 1977, and also Pneumocystis at

Jude's hospital.

St.

month

of Pneumocystis a

most with leukemia, some with

cer patients,

Pneumocystis seemed

were

first

five cases

They were

all

can-

solid tumors.

The

be arising both from the cancers and from

to

They were seeing some Pneumocystis when

the cancer drug-therapy. the kids

"They were seeing

in children at St. Jude's.

admitted, before any drug therapy was done," he

said.

asked

I

in

this docjor

Talmadge Pneumocystis

taneous lung aspirate. this

new

used

he would attribute the post-1977 increase to the introduction of diagnosis

"Yes,"

he

said.

He

also told

me

by percu-

that prior to

1977 method of diagnosing Pneumocystis, the only method

Talmadge was autopsy

at

done on

patients

all

who

after death.

Autopsy, of course, wasn't

died from Pneumocystis.

autopsy was the primary method of diagnosing Pneumocystis

If

at

if

Talmadge before

new

1977, then, afterward, with

diagnostic meth-

ods gradually being introduced - lung aspirate, broncheal lavage (which requires no hole made in the lung), and optic bronchoscopy - the

more

then said,

I

rise.

We is

"It

would

naturally go up.

must be hard,

if

do have a

these

complex question," the doctor

the frequency of autopsy that

Another

autopsy used

to

be a prominent

now say why Pneumocystis cases are on new sensitive diagnostic tests, after all."

of diagnosis, to

"It's

One

numbers of cases being located by these new,

sensitive techniques

method

finally, today, fiber-

is

gradually

the

new

said.

the

"There are variables.

was being done

(prior to 1977).

techniques of diagnosing Pneumocystis that have

come along

since 1977.

The other

106

is

AIDS

.

.

.

With AIDS,

CHAPTER THIRTEEN much more aware

we're

(to find).

So we're sensitive

What does It

tis

of the possibility that there to testing for

add up

it all

seems apparent

Pneumocystis

is

it."

to?

that the

numbers

of "pre-AIDS"

Pneumocys-

cases have been underestimated, both because of less reliable diag-

nostic

methods and because doctors were

less alerted

and disposed

to

look for them.

Although there c)

is

a long

which Pneumocystis

list

of a) disease, b) malnutritive and

make

chemical factors which can

the

immunosuppressive bed

will turn virulent, the

HIV

these factors, instead pushing

CDC

in

has severely ignored

into the limelight as the

"new"

agent. In particular, the extraordinary

drug-taking which,

like

People whose health

That

is

and recreational

is

is

written out of the

compromised, but

significant these

drug

AIDS

equation.

very reversible

still

factors are in their lives.

criminal.

A good

example of AIDS-related research which has not floated

to the top of the in the

how

of medical

immunosuppressive chemotherapy, could

dispose toward Pneumocystis,

are not being told

mix

NIH

research ladder

December 1984

Infection

is

a

paper by Peter Walzer

and Immunity.

et al,

Walzer explores the

possibility, in rats, that antibiotics can increase the disposition

toward

Pneumocystis.

Walzer

states, "Rats that

were administered corticosteroids, a

low-protein diet, and tetracycline spontaneously developed P. carinii

pneumonia within

ca.

8 weeks through a

mechanism

of reactivation

of latent infection." 4 In the U.S.

and

gay community, malnutrition, abuse of tetracycline

corticosteroids are frequently found as partners.

at the

In 1973, a major

symposium on Pneumocystis was undertaken

National Cancer

Institute.

Authors Hughes, Sanyal, and Price

patients with remarked on a feature of some Pneumocystis cases: ". Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia were underweight and had hy.

4

See

Author's Note, page v.

'

107

.

AIDS INC. poproteinemia (protein calorie malnutrition)

.

.

."

Malnutrition, a

frequent partner of Pneumocystis.

The bottom 1.

lines?

Pneumocystis can apparently occur from any severe form of

immunosuppression:

anemia, malnutrition, protein-calorie defi-

The history of the disease was ignored, and

ciency, toxic drugs, etc. still is,

in rendering a diagnosis of 2.

If

"AIDS due

to

the Georgian doctor learned there

mocystis a year

HIV."

were 60 cases of Pneu-

at St. Jude's hospital in the early

and mid

how

1970s,

many

cases were being seen (and missed) at hospitals

U.S.?

There have been 32,000 cases of Pneumocystis reported as AIDS

since 1978.

There

is

no

CDC

be about 3,000 cases a year. 60 cases a year, like

St.

breakdown by If

year.

all

over the

The average would

50 U.S. hospitals in the early 1970s had

Jude's, that

would equal

the current levels of

"AIDS" Pneumocystis. (The

CDC

keeps no numbers on current "non-AIDS" Pneumo-

cystis cases). 3.

Every person diagnosed with Pneumocystis should be

viewed extensively by

immunosuppression this

a

good physician

to

inter-

determine the sources of

Unfortunately, most physicians in

in his case.

country are unable to assess the results of such an interview,

since they have

no knowledge

of

immunosuppressive drugs, medical

or street-type, beyond a very parochial range.

Furthermore, they

quently, under a variety of orthodox assurances, practice toxic medicine. 4.

fre-

immuno-

Blind spot.

To point

out, in defense of

an infectious

viral theory of

AIDS, that many gay men have developed Pneumocystis since 1977, only to establish the probability

common immunosuppressive

that, in

factors

is

gay communities, certain

have been present.

Drugs,

STDs, for example.

Drugs and

like

poppers and

MDA

corticosteroids immediately

and

come

to

108

(vastly overused) antibiotics

mind. Not a virus.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

SARCOMA

KAPOSI'S

AIDS

Researchers have attempted to bolster the idea that infectious global epidemic,

main symptoms,

is

an

by linking Kaposi's sarcoma, one of

its

to both Africa and the U.S. But does the link hold?

Most researchers say Kaposi's sarcoma vessels.

It

pink, red, or violet spots, or raised marks,

purple-brown

a cancer of the blood

Beginning as

progresses to dark blue or

it

nodules or plaques.

lesions,

Perhaps 30% of the time, be

is

manifests on the skin or inside the body.

difficult to differentiate

it is

found

in the lungs,

where

from Pneumocystis pneumonia.

affects the gastrointestinal tract, the

major complication

is

it

can

When

bleeding.

At one time, about 30% of people diagnosed with AIDS America had Kaposi. That percentage has steadily diminished last

two

years, according to

The public posi.

The

is

so-called

classical

Then

and die

there

is

type

origins.

is It

found

in

people of Eastern Euro-

affects older people, is "indolent,"

isted in these regions. it

Finally there

is

This

is

seem

A

and

person

Zaire.

who

has

in certain areas of Africa, It

it

has probably always exusually suffers no

what

is

ill

ef-

referred to as aggressive or epidemic

the form found in the United States, which began to

around 1980, particularly among gay men. agreed that some immune-depression accompanies

proliferate

number

it

can suddenly flare up and become progressive.

but after years

Kaposi.

who have

of natural causes.

endemic Kaposi, found

particularly in Kenya, Tanzania,

fects,

in the

CDC reports.

as they say, has a protracted course, and the people it

in

not aware that there are at least three types of Ka-

pean and Mediterranean

to live with

it

of researchers feel that the

CMV

virus

is

It is

this

generally

form.

A

connected with ag-

gressive Kaposi - perhaps through repeated infection by sex with a

number

of partners.

And

as

mentioned

1

nq

earlier, inhalant nitrite

drugs

AIDS INC.

One

have also been proposed as a major cause.

of the principal rea-

sons black Africans and Europeans /Americans diagnosed with AIDS

were connected was because Kaposi was found But which types of Kaposi?

answer once you

Therefore, the whole Africa-U.S. Kaposi con-

scratch the surface.

nection

isn't solid.

AA

In the June 1985 Annals of Internal Medicine,

the

symptoms

mors on

of traditional Kaposi in Nigeria:

the limbs, "massive

up with amputation with

these groups.

in all

That's not easy to

this

of the feet

Otu describes

Large fungated

tu-

lymphoedema," gangrene which ends and

type of Kaposi has been

legs.

Otu

known

to

no patient

also says that

be an IV drug user, ho-

mosexual, or hemophiliac.

He show

No

a

"No increase

concludes:

been seen over the change

last

in the

prevalence of Kaposi has

decade and no epidemiological data

in the pattern of the disease

patient with the acquired

immune

exist that

during the same period.

deficiency

syndrome has been

seen here."

Otu

saying there

is

is

a fourth manifestation of Kaposi

has existed traditionally in Nigeria,

with AIDS. has

it

If

so, this

that aggressive Kaposi, as a

Africa and the U.S. Bijan Safai, a

the

is

virulent,

and has nothing

would throw cold water on

more or

less

the scenario

which to

new phenomenon, sprang up

in

simultaneously.

well-know Kaposi researcher, points out that

new epidemic form

do

which

of Kaposi in the U.S., there

is

in

resemblance to

a type of lymphadenopathy-associated Kaposi seen in African chil-

dren.

But

is

that African Kaposi

tion of children

KR

would

new? Apparently

This infec-

not.

possibly constitute a fifth type of Kaposi.

Oates, in Family Practice, June, 1986, states that in northeast

Zaire, at the Centre Medical Evangelique Hospital in

which serves

a population of 500,000,

15%

of

all

Nyankunde,

malignancies are

from Kaposi's sarcoma. This percentage has not changed years - which

would tend

to mitigate against the idea of a

demic (AIDS-associated) Kaposi

The Uganda Cancer

in thirteen

new

epi-

in that region.

Institute,

between October, 1983, and De-

cember, 1984, reported seeing only 4 Ugandans with Kaposi's sarcoma. I

haven't been able to locate published studies which cover later peri-

110

CHAPTER FOURTEEN ods, but

Uganda,

I

have been told by a Ugandan physician

that

Kaposi

is

rare in

to this day.

AIDS information from Africa is very spotty, and people with one AIDS theory or another use reports which suit their In general,

fancy. in

For example,

which

last

WHO health

May

London Times ran a piece

11 (1987) the

workers out of Geneva were predicting 75 mil-

AIDS

lion cases of full-blown

in

southern Africa, within five years.

Place next to this the official statistics on African

October, 1987, the count was about 5000

AIDS

AIDS

As

cases.

of

whole

cases on the

continent.

Renee

Sabatier, writing in the

December, 1987, Western Journal

of Medicine, points out that Fodor's Guide to Kenya, for vacationers,

some

contains the cautionary statement, "Doctors speculate that in

may

African countries the (AIDS) infection rate

30%

be

no data

Sabatier then adds, "There are

population."

to

of the total

support such

an assertion from any of the AIDS-affected African counties, all

from Kenya

Based on HIV blood testing (inaccurate to say the called

"HIV

tourists.

becomes

infection"

Popular wisdom has

it

a

weapon

You would

Back

think Africa

we have

was on Mars.

immunosuppressive drug therapy. Kaposi has

continuing that drug.

developed KS In

one

contradictory in-

America, there have been cases of Kaposi reported after

in

by the steroid prednisone, and was reversed

tients

least), this so-

of discouragement to

that African nations are dying, falling

apart from AIDS, yet here, with Sabatier, formation.

least of

..."

A

USA

been brought on

also

one instance

case has also been reported in

after long-term use of

were done,

in

after dis-

which

a

man

sulfamide drugs.

study during which 24 postmortems of Kaposi pa-

CMV

virus

was found

to

have been present

in

75%

of these people. In other words,

it is

quite possible that the

Kaposi sarcoma

in

the U.S. and African are different from one another - in the sense that they don't represent manifestations of one epidemic.

As

I

say, just trying to get a line

Kaposi in Africa

new

is difficult.

Is

aggressive form the same

on the incidence and types of

what some

clinicians there report as a

as the U.S. version?

111

Is it

widespread?

AIDS INC. an old, traditional form found

Is it really

in greater

cause of more surveillance owing to the publicity

A

to

be

is

getting?

he said,

"

In Africa,

infections together

down into separate "we need more people who are willing

splitters

break them

splitters."

In

Human

America, NIH, CDC, the whole department of Health and

Services,

tion, are

and

stirring

lumpers. They have welded together an image of a demonic,

up

is

is

the troops to

Once There

world arena, the World Health Organiza-

in the

singular entity which

The

The lumpers lump

splitters.

them AIDS), and the

diseases.

AIDS

be-

researcher recently said to me, "There are the

federal

lumpers and the (calling

numbers now

this battle

no room

threatening

do

battle

good

folk,

critics are of

The march

course ignored.

to victory

may have

poppers

and the

U.S.

fall far

who

symptom

of

an important, unexplored connection to the use of

in the U.S.;

Those

must proceed.

must be preserved.

Kaposi's sarcoma, the second most prevalent

AIDS,

and they are

with HIV.

has been enjoined,

for dissenters.

air of hysteria

all

and

efforts to tie together the disease in Africa

short of

good

try to use

science.

Kaposi as evidence for the global infec-

tiousness of HIV-caused disease are relying on oversimplified imagery.

112

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

AN INTERVIEW WITH A MOLECULAR BIOLOGIST: DOES HIV CAUSE AIDS? The following interview with

was done

in the winter of 1988.

a respected molecular biologist

As publication

book neared, he

of this

decided not to go on the record with his remarks, and so

name from

The alternative would have been

these pages.

certain parts of our conversation, It is

retract

deleted his

I

and

important to understand that

anything he said. Nor did he

to

change

refused to do that.

I

no time did

at

some months

feel,

this scientist

after

our con-

needed temper-

versation, that the considerable force of his remarks

On

ing because of recent research developments concerning AIDS.

become more convinced than ever

the contrary, he has

not been proven to cause

He had

his

whom

of

me why

are utterly convinced that

they think

In this,

men

Has

HIV

is

his peers,

the central disease-

can't figure out for the life

the quality of research deteriorated so

dormant,

Not only it

is

Yes."

HIV unproven

around without

lies

is

no evidence,

There

is

no conclusive evidence

either, that

it

virus can be found in a person (titer) is

that

it

to

can be detected

at

all.

AIDS,

it is

replicating, without spreading.

it

human

cells in the

body.

gives rise to indirect mecha-

harm

the body.

When

the actual

has been diagnosed with AIDS,

its

so low that special lab procedures have to be

grow

used to induce

who

as the cause of

destroys

in turn destroy cells or

concentration

"I

question.

There

nisms which

has

and the next conversation with Peter Duesberg, both

maintain:

latent,

so.

me answer my own

HIV

name from

personal reasons for removing his

agent of our time-though, he told me,

badly? Let

that

disease.

They concerned how he would be judged by

this interview.

most of

own

human

It

in a dish, outside the

exists in so

them, the result would be

few

cells that

"like a pinprick."

113

body, so that then

even

if it

it

did destroy

AIDS INC. important to note

is

It

way

with the

that virus

two

these

What

is

professional papers written on

their general quality?

Their general quality

A:

disease.

is

poor.

compared with Q:

Any

A:

It's

Q:

I

A:

It's

virol-

Poor

statistics.

rational thought.

speculation as to

why

that is?

a very important epidemic.

don't understand.

an easy

an easy

field to

Why

Q:

good

Poor, relative to

Poor, relative to papers with well assembled

ogy.

It's

many

You've read a great

the subject of AIDS.

HIV,

scientists characterize the personality of

unproven as the cause of

is still

Q:

whether one agrees or disagrees

that,

which

field in

publish

are so

People tend

in.

many

money

to get

to

do experiments.

to

publish hastily.

HIV

researchers convinced that

causes

AIDS? You mean people who work on HIV?

A: they think

it

causes AIDS.

dence you can use is

important,

is

to

think there's a lot of circumstantial evi-

There's a tremendous

worth doing.

so (HIV causes AIDS), so,

otherwise

When

it's

how

AIDS.

AIDS

is

everyone

of auis

easy to convince yourself that, indeed,

it

could

it's

all

is

telling

these people be working on

it?

You're told by everybody that there

now been

stopped.

That there are cohort studies

transmissible.

amount you

that this

You're a retro virologist.

transfusion-AIDS and that atric

know why

don't

convince yourself that what you're working on

thoritarianism in science.

must be

I

I

in

That there

which

it's

is

is

pedi-

known

that

You've been told that by the head of the CDC,

by the head of the Allergy and Infectious Diseases unit and you're

get-

work on

this

more grant money than you've had

ting

virus.

And

every time you find something,

publishable, in the best journals.

Why

should you pay attention

comes along and this

So to a

in.'

In fact,

about AIDS, you find that

it's all

it's

immediately

why should you not believe it? man like Peter Duesberg who

says, 'Wait a minute, hold

data that you believe

lieve

in ten years, to

on here,

when you

quite fatuous.

114

let's

relook at

all

look at what you be-

There

is

no hard

CHAPTER FIFTEEN HIV

evidence (that

But few people are going to reverse

causes AIDS).

their field.

Q:

HIV

like

We

hear that once upon a time, people used to debate issues

seriously, freely, in journals.

They didn't ignore these

is-

sues.

A:

There has never been

when medical remoney

a time before this

search and basic biological research were both connected to the

machine. The fundamental change

is

now

that

science. Yearly, the directory of biotechnology

Q:

Was

there really a period

when

biology

a for-profit

is

companies grows.

issues of biology

were de-

bated freely and openly? A: Yes.

I

grew up

were constantly debated

molecular biology at a time

in

This

in the journals.

ogy was. The debate about whether there

eral origins.

biol-

how

E-coli

DNA

proceeded from one origin or sev-

People of considerable talent debated these issues, with

good experimental lar

it

theories

in fact existed a repressor

molecule, debates about specific initiation factors, replication proceeded, whether

when

what molecular

is

oncogenes or

Whether transforming viruses had

data.

good debate.

Pretty

not.

Still

particu-

going on in one form

or another.

The argument

"Oh

my

years

that

God, what would have happened

ago when we

I

would

it

the universe" -

rather have seen

would have been

if

AIDS occurred twenty

didn't have the techniques

would have wiped out

ways

you hear from the AIDS establishment -

dealt with

I

we have

turn that around.

AIDS twenty

years ago.

today, In

it

some

When

it

by more orthodox medical practices and

would be over with. Q: People say they've proved A:

If

one

from transmissibility of the

you remove

AIDS

is

transmissible.

tries to differentiate transmissibility of the disease

virus,

it's

extraordinarily easy to do.

Once

the equation that transmission of the virus equals

transmission of the disease,

AIDS does not look

like a terribly trans-

missible disease anymore.

Q: In other words, causes AIDS,

all

you have

if

you don't make the assumption

is

that

HIV

the transmission of this interesting but

possibly harmless virus.

115

AIDS INC.

A:

That's right.

The disease

does not appear terribly

itself

when

transmissible ... the transmissibility within a cohort,

always within cohorts that are engaging so

activity,

All

you know

is

that X, Y,

in precisely the

X gave

impossible to say that

it's

Q:

A: a

And one

in, say,

And One

of

it

to Z.

and

X, Y,

was having sex with each

gay community.

were doing. They were doing

That's one of the things they

numbers

thing,

is

set of infections.

thing they were doing

the case of the

whole bunch of other things

large

same kind

Y who gave

to

and Z were doing the same

and Z came down with the same peculiar

other

it

studied,

.

.

under the umbrella of ingesting

.

of potent chemicals.

in the other (risk)

who knows what

groups,

the

AIDS

is?

looks at transfusion AIDS, and in the time between 1978 and

1983, there

were millions of transfusions

in the U.S.,

when

the blood

supply was not being screened, was not being scrutinized, and should

have contained the largest amount of epidemic's history."

And

this virus at

any time

in "the

out of those millions of transfusions, there

were 400 cases of transfusion-related AIDS.

And

of that 400, only a

small fraction of them are really described in the medical literature, as

symptoms, and

to their

none of them does one know the HIV

in

(status) of the recipient before the transfusion.

Again, these are

They could have gotten some nasty com-

whole-blood transfusions.

bination of things (other than HIV) from the blood which gave them their

AIDS.

If

you want

to

be hard core about

blood doesn't exclude anything else

it,

tranfusing whole

(as a possible cause of subsequent

disease).

Q:

I

have the picture that only

a

few people control the neces-

sary equipment to do research on HIV.

A: No. Nothing special about that at

Q: This equipment A:

Oh

yes.

is

available to lots of people.

Lots and lots of people are working on HIV.

companies have been founded on

1

Some

all. 1

Whole

it.

sources state that Robert Gallo has long controlled who gets the HIV and research purposes.

virus for study

116

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

A

Q:

few, but not

found more often

from low

Because the virus it

show up

in

people whose

the whole, there are

antibodies are

in so called

high

Why?

risk groups.

hard to transmit. Hard to cause even a

is

has been present in the body.

sign that

HIV

that

people with AIDS, or people

in

risk groups, than in people

A:

show

studies,

all

would be more

It

immune systems were

more people

Probably, on

shot.

high risk groups whose

in

likely to

immune

systems are already compromised.

What would have

Q:

to

be shown to say that

HIV

causes

AIDS? What would be convincing to me? A chimpanzee succumbing to AIDS. That would make me go back and look at the other arguments and say, well, there's something going on we just don't A:

convince me) a demonstration that the virus

understand.

Also

has an active

site of replication 2

cealed site that in that spot

is

(to

we don't somehow

really

human body), at some conknow about. And that its replication (in

the

destructive to T-helper

Also

cells.

(to

con-

vince me), the demonstration of a plausible mechanism to explain

la-

tency of the virus. 3

You mean

Q:

plausible genetic

don't care.

I

don't see

really well

known. There

structure).

No new

isn't a

toms.

If

is

I

slightest

think the (HIV) virus

single secret in the

genome

I

is

(genetic

gene waiting there to come out. There's hard ev-

other retrovirus, extremely cell in

And

it.

HIV only behaves

idence that says

human HIV

Anything that made the

Anything.

Something.

bit of biological sense.

the

mechanisms?

Genetic, physiological, biochemical, immunological -

A:

which

it's

latent,

in a particular

way.

extremely inactive

expressing

(its)

.

.

Like every .

not killing

genes.

in people with symptoms, and in people without symp-

there

is

a secret site

where

it

really

is

replicating,

2 Several researchers are coming to the conclusion that HIV and aggressively replicate, does not produce more and more of

it

seems

does not itself in

to

actively

the body.

3 Latency refers to the initial period of months, or years, during which HIV supposedly lives in the body without causing measurable harm, after which it is

said to

become

active

and

virulent.

117

AIDS INC.

me

one should have been able

to detect that

by now, with the kind of

scrutiny that has gone on.

Q:

How

A:

It

HIV was

could a fantasy arise that

replicating to begin

with?

when

was

just

taken as an assumption,

began

the data

show

to

that

it

when we understand more about replicating business too. that's constantly

that this

all

It

doesn't

is

the

to pass."

It's

a

myth

most complicated retrovirus

at

it

in fact

it's

in

it

behaves,

how

it

causes this disease,

out."

it

and

so good,

it

are things that

is

not a pathogen!

say, Gee, this virus

do anything. Humans make it;

come

the things that are peculiar about

would make you look sponse to

behavior, we'll understand this

"With more study we'll understand ev-

how

so peculiar,

but don't worry, we'll figure

But

its

ig-

causing the disease, and

it's

This too shall

the history of the universe. it's

along, and

being provided the world through Gallo and Fauci

and others who claim

erything,

way

the

wasn't so, that data was just

we know

People said, "Well,

nored.

all

maybe

a perfectly

that's

why

good antibody

the virus

is

re-

so latent

(harmless).

Q:

Recently, Gallo said animal models 4

for

smallpox and

tu-

berculosis never existed either, and used that as a reason for ignoring

the fact that chimps don't get AIDS.

A:

Smallpox

I'm not sure about tuberculosis.

chimpanzees. exact animal

But there

model

for

is

a very virulent

human

will not infect

monkeypox which

is

an

smallpox.

Simian viruses, though, are lousy models for

human AIDS.

They're said to be good models, but nobody really believes they're

good models, because of (monkey AIDS) keys.

It

the following reasons:

that occurs in the wild.

at a

time

when

rather poorly developed, immature. is

not a disease

only occurs in caged mon-

can only be given to these monkeys by injecting them with

high doses of the virus

ciency

It

It is

rapid, there

is

their

immune systems

are

The onset of the immunodefi-

an accompanying viremia, the opportunistic

4

Refers to the step in fulfilling Koch's postulates, in which animals are germ thought to cause a disease, to see if all the symptoms develop in them. injected with a

118

CHAPTER FIFTEEN infections are quick,

and very

Take those things and

model

is

how much

say,

the (simian) virus itself

over quickly.

AIDS? Plus

How much

model,

a terrible

It's

is

of that looks like

very unrelated to HIV.

is

human AIDS?

that for

The whole thing

lethal.

of a

in all of its as-

pects. 5

What about

Q:

latent virus that lies

brain rot that

around

you

Q:

You mean

A:

Yes.

an example

way

supposed

is

to

be a

sheep and then causes

.

.

when you have

.

for

in that respect. is

assuming

That we understand how we understand how a sheep can

understood.

is

That

happens. later,

ten years later, can develop this neuro-

slow viruses cannot be held up

field of

Some

AIDS).

the

anymore.

HIV

like

it's

The whole

encephalopathy.

They only

that, say, viruses like

Arguing about visna on behalf of AIDS

get infected and 20 years

Q:

for a long time in

can't find the virus

this (sheep disease)

how

argue

HIV? Visna

them.

kills

that the data about visna

(as

for

That's another one of those viruses

A: disease,

who

the people

sheep visna are good comparisons

exist in the journals.

of those viruses don't even exist.

Like kuru virus.

In other words, you're saying, since

It's

we

highly specious.

don't understand

visna plays a role in malignant sheep disease, then there's no to

make

A:

When

a parallel to

Yes.

Visna

is

HIV.

a case in

the animal dies,

you

To explain HIV

latency

which there

isn't (virus

can't find the virus

by visna latency

production).

anymore. is

imagining you un-

derstand visna latency. Q:

Do you

think there are researchers out there, people

are thinking, "I'd really like to say in public I

don't

want A:

to.

I

5 Also,

There must be. Duesberg

in

be fudged

will

make

in the future, to

that really doesn't exist,

and

it

that

much more

dif-

perhaps keep an epi-

to continue to use the fear

monkeys, the animals may be radiated which weaken their immune systems. further disqualify animal-model analogies to human

order to get microbes

dosed with chemical Such procedures would

or

agree with Duesberg, but

shouldn't."

ficult for figures to

demic going

I

who

to infect

toxins, both of

AIDS.

119

AIDS INC.

that

any moment now we're

people, which

Duesberg

is

I

think

right

.

.

.

is

all

going

to get

the overriding political interest, in AIDS.

can't find any-

I

on what's happened

real information

cases that were supposed to develop in Haiti

The AIDS

unbelievable, the conclusions that are

to the 200,000

by now.

literature is full of screw-ups.

Papers that are pub-

You look

lished with great authority that are baloney.

at the

data and

drawn from them: Papers

about homologies between AIDS protein and other proteins.

gene experiments with HIV, which

HIV genes

these

If

then the imagined numbers of cases will not de-

Evidently, they've not developed in Haiti.

velop.

body who has any

it's

(AIDS); to manipulate

it

tell

The

you nothing about the way

human

function in the body, in the

organism.

You're talking about a virus (HIV) that doesn't do anything, except in Gallo's H9-line (a laboratory cell-line used to culture

grow).

He

than in any ter

probably proclaims

cell-line infected

kill

known

these cells

became very fashionable

a disease

he can study

at

it's

man.

to

growing

some point

and from the patient you simply

of virus to

why

it

by HIV, making more HIV, making more of

"deadly" virus doesn't

it

bet-

Blithely overlooking the fact that he's got a

"deadly" virus than any cell-line

It

HIV and make

in this cell-line of his better

world, that that's

cell-line in the

than anyone else can.

HIV grows

in.

And

this

yet this

Bizarre.

to say that

if

you had

isolated a retrovirus (a class

which HIV belongs), the retrovirus was automatically the

cause of the disease. That set the stage for isolating a retrovirus from

AIDS

patients

Q:

and

calling

it

the cause of the disease.

Fashionable?

A: Yes.

This interview suggests one of the reasons researchers don't

want

to debate anti-HIV people in

professional journals.

any serious way, which

Their critique of

HIV

is

to say in

has roots in deeper

criti-

cisms of virology that have to do with unwarranted assumptions

move

the

debate back over twenty to thirty years of significant biological

re-

about the latency of certain animal viruses.

search and throw doubt on the value of

120

it.

That would

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

AN INTERVIEW WITH PETER DUESBERG: DOES HIV CAUSE AIDS?

Peter Duesberg, a molecular biologist at the University of California at Berkeley,

was

on sabbatical

recently

of Health in Maryland.

was

researchers of the day. Duesberg

war on top

cancer,

AIDS

Gallo

at the

National Institutes

There he resided among the leading AIDS

1

when he worked

also a key researcher during the

side by side with people

who

are

now

investigators. Including Robert Gallo, an old friend of his.

the co-discoverer of HIV.

is

Duesberg

asserts that

To understand

HIV

not the cause of AIDS.

is

the import of that conviction, one has to under-

stand that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have taken in several

hundred million

money,

the

commitment

dollars in a quest to cure AIDS.

to a cure, all

the medical research establishment claims:

AIDS

virus,

The discovery of the

HIV.

On March

1987, Cancer Research, a venerable professional

1,

journal, published Peter Duesberg's paper

Since then,

That

hang on the one breakthrough

some

on the subject of HIV.

sense of challenge has entered the scene.

not quite what they were.

proached Duesberg and

Things are

Several researchers, incognito, have ap-

privately told

him they agree with

his as-

sessment that the medical-research establishment has failed to prove

HIV

is

the

obvious:

AIDS

virus - that in fact,

Duesberg was pointing out the

the emperor had no clothes.

What

follows

is

an interview excerpted and edited from sev-

eral conversations with Professor

Duesberg, during the

summer

of

an

in-

1987 and the winter of 1988. Q:

From what

I

gather,

active virus, not aggressive at

During the

summer

you are saying all.

of 1987.

123

that

HIV

is

really

AIDS INC.

A: in

That's right.

infects a very, very small

It

low concentrations. One

class to

which

it

one

in 10,000,

percentage of

cells,

The whole

in 100,000 cells.

belongs - retroviruses - are really very poor candi-

dates for a disease like AIDS.

Certainly

Q:

know

it

too.

would know A:

mean,

I

.

.

if

what you say if

Robert Gallo and others

true,

is

ordinary information that any biologist

it's

.

You have

NIH

to be at

how

to see

they think. They're very,

very concerned with the next research step. The step that comes after

what they've

You could remind them

just discovered.

that the kind

of virus they're studying, HIV, just doesn't really qualify to cause a

disease like AIDS, and they

would understand what you were saying,

and they might even agree with you,

as far as general principles

were

But then they'd turn around and go right back to working

concerned.

on what they were doing before they talked

to you.

Do you see Robert Gallo at NIH? A: I've known him for a long time. He doesn't want to talk my paper (in Cancer Research). He says, "With friends like you, Q:

about

who needs enemies." Q: Do people ask him A: People do, yes.

debate about

it,

It

about your paper?

annoys him. He doesn't want

about HIV.

inventor of the oral polio vaccine) got

That was

nice.

Q:

Why

A:

I

He is

said

it

to get into a

did give a seminar recently.

I

up

there

and praised

Sabin (the

my

paper.

deserved attention.

Robert Gallo on top of the heap, leading the war on

AIDS? Q:

really don't

In

know.

your paper, Retroviruses

Expectation and Reality,

not sufficient to cause

you

say,

AIDS and

presence in a latent form, that

words, although the tients,

virus

is

is

it

is

Many AIDS

and Pathogens:

concluded that AIDS virus

that there

is

no evidence, besides

necessary for AIDS.'

present in a proportion of

Gallo and others have not proved that A:

is

HIV

'It

as Carcinogens

it

In other

AIDS

124

pa-

causes the disease.

patients have the herpes virus too, but

saying herpes causes AIDS.

is

its

no one

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

We

Q:

on

see,

models of HIV attacking human copies of

and

itself

what are possibly computerized

television,

and forcing them

cells

doing

in general

a great deal of

to

reproduce

damage. Are these

simulations? A:

will enter a host cell, but the devastation part -

HIV

Yes.

I'm not saying the television depiction

is

intentionally phony, but

it's

not a true picture.

Do we

Q:

know

definitely

that

AIDS

is

a viral disease?

A: No.

HIV

Q: Could

mune-system's

immune system A:

possibly be affecting the thymus, where the im-

that

way?

theoretically possible,

It's

that that's happening.

voir of

If

HIV

I

suppose, but no evidence exists

attacked the thymus, you'd see a reser-

a large concentration of

it,

Could HIV be destroying the

T-cells are generated?

it

at

some point

thymus.

in the

We

haven't seen that.

Q:

If

you were running AIDS research, what major change

would you make the cause?

It

criticisms of the Artificial

aside from rolling back the assumption that

seems

high

to

way

titers

me

HIV

is

your paper makes some very sweeping

that laboratory research, in general,

is

carried on.

make virulent human body.

being introduced, for example, to

where none would

effects

that

exist in real

life,

in the

much more into the clinical situation. See what patients are showing. What are their Our instrumentation signs. I would look at patients much more. these days is so sensitive. So we have a tendency to remove ourA:

I

would

selves from real

Q:

take

AIDS

research from the lab

life.

At the

-top of the

AIDS

research establishment, there

is

a

great deal of politics, at least in the sense that you have to claim you

have a major discovery

like

HIV and

justify millions of research dollars.

a cure

on the way,

That could warp your

in

order to

scientific at-

titude.

A:

It's

very hard to talk to a person

drug company the truth?

in his pocket.

How

Times have changed.

cially.

125

who

has a contract with a

do you know This

is

that he's telling

you

high-stakes science, finan-

AIDS INC.

Would it be correct to say that HIV is associated with AIDS? What is associated with AIDS is antibodies to HIV. Antibod-

Q: A: ies

are a sign that you've successfully dealt with a virus, not a

A

prognosis of disease.

(detectable concentration) of

titer

never been reported yet in one patient, in a paper

HIV

Levy, and Montagnier say they can't isolate

50%

HIV has

on AIDS.

Gallo,

itself in

more than

We

should go

of the cases.

We

have made up our minds much too

back and define what

we mean by

disease, a disease entity.

is the

are highly heterogeneous

It is

and have

Q: In Africa, they say

HIV

early.

We

the disease.

a combination of to

little

about

talk

as

if it

symptoms which

do with each

other.

women and men on

infects

it

an equal

basis.

So

A:

going on a

far as Africa is

few others go over there with

home nent

we

concerned,

in the U.S. Africa doesn't help

their

don't even

make

know what

things clear.

HIV antibody

test kits,

they bring

few pictures of people dying, and they say the whole

a

is

Gallo and

conti-

going under. Meanwhile, about 4000 cases of AIDS have been

is

reported in Africa.

You're saying that retroviruses like

Q:

with the hi-tech equipment

HIV

are easy to find

That,

at the disposal of virologists today.

mere discovery implies nothing about whether these

therefore, their

viruses cause disease.

There

A:

is

50 retroviruses in

cow, no

cat.

We

no mouse

him

can

in this

as latent as the

now

would amend Koch's

HIV

No

virus.

at least

chicken, no

see, in the lab, a (viral) part in a billion (of

cell-volume), or a part in ten billion. I

world that doesn't have

We

are approaching physics.

postulates to say

we have

to see

some

chemical activity out of a virus, in order to start imagining

it

So bio-

might

cause disease.

Koch and Pasteur, when they considered under what conditions a

germ could cause

disease, couldn't, of course,

about our present level of magnification. been able

to see

HIV. Koch was looking

at

with tuberculosis.

Pasteur was looking at

with rabies virus.

What

They would never have

somebody who was

loaded

somebody who was

loaded

researchers today can

126

know anything

do

is

great detective

CHAPTER SIXTEEN work

(finding retroviruses), but

they can do. That's their

it's

So they have

skill.

But

clinically absurd.

that's all

to believe they're finding

the cause of disease.

Q: So you're saying, in

must be biochemically

virus

A: Yes.

It

must be

infecting

Every month, half of your

have

amendment more

T-cells are

to infect a couple percent of

don't

become demented from

don't

become an AIDS

cells

than the host can spare.

So the HIV virus would

new.

them every day.

You You

doesn't.

It

losing .1% of your brain cells.

patient from losing .01% of your T-cells

HIV

That's like a pin prick.

100,000

to Koch's postulates, that a

active.

infects

.

.

.

one out of 10,000, one out of

cells.

One

Q:

researcher has said he admits the

unconventional pathology, but A:

we knew HIV

If

that's

no reason

HIV

virus has a very

to ignore the virus.

But that question, in

caused disease, yes.

the case of AIDS, has never been proved.

Certain researchers have used, as an anology to HIV, other

Q:

For example, bovine leukemia virus, calling

animal viruses.

BLV

cause of bovine leukemia and stating that

both leukemic and normal

only that the virus could be here.

that

It is

BLV

is

BLV

isolated.

There

good antibody responses -

If

you

inject

is

these factors describe

AZT:

sponsible

.

.

A

immune responses). New York Native, you "(To go ahead with

cumstances) ... to put .

(AZT)

is

and

what

is

com-

healthy response. a wast-

because these newborns are immune-tolerant

Q: In the July 6 the drug,

AIDS

This argues precisely

newborns (animals) with BLV, you may get

ing illness, but that

(have unformed

to

Consistently latent (dormant)

immunization or vaccination.

called

an analogy

is

there are large quantities of BLV-antibody.

monly

causes the leukemia,

consistently latent, even during leukemia,

against a viral etiology of leukemia. virus,

the

cells.

But not one reference proved the

A:

it

can be isolated from

it

AZT

said the following about

treatment under these

as kindly as possible,

hell for

cells quite, quite extensively

I

think

the bone marrow ... .

.

.

127

AZT

is

a poison.

it's

highly

It kills It is

cir-

irre-

normal

cytotoxic.

I

AIDS INC.

think that giving

drug

it

And now

That's right.

symptoms.

supposed

It's

Q: A:

chemical

show

they can

If

HIV

HIV

cells

as a latent

erupts in these few cells and the cells then .

.

?

.

opening up some cyanide capsule. Goering had

is like

that in his tooth.

You

and you're gone.

If

when

crack the capsule

the virus could

do

that

.

.

things get too difficult .

me

but just show

the

biochemically active.

There's another theory that

one molecule

some kind

to

HIV

isn't active,

just

it

sends out

You know,

of relay that explodes.

signal that goes to a nuclear device in the

thymus gland

it's

a

that explodes.

really like to see that signal.

And

HIV

if

RNA

protein

few immune

infects just a

immune system

rest of the

A: This

that

after 50 generations of carrying

HIV suddenly

screw up the

would

replicating, yet they

replicating in the first place.

is

activity.

Q:

is

people with no

to

it

What would convince you that HIV played a role in AIDS? If you could show it had some form of activity, some bio-

which then go crazy virus -

to

they are giving

prevent HIV from

HIV

can find no evidence that

I

highly irresponsible ... the

is

only going to hurt you."

is

A:

virus

AIDS

people with

to

and

ously - because

biochemically active,

is

DNA,

that's

then

what

would say

I

all

if it's

they

show me

makes

it

time to consider

other parasites have to

do

it

seri-

some-

to get

thing done.

Second,

moving

they're tion)

-

I

by

would to

like to see T-cells, or

macrophages

would have

them over it

I

five years.

to see cells If

(as the seat of

it

purported

maybe HIV infec-

is

-

being killed (by HIV), not just

you want

5000 people every day

killing

whatever

to

conquer a country, you

when

there are 100,000

.01

%

can't

new

of

do

babies

born every day.

Then

When you

the host (of

have antibodies (generated

to succeed.

The best time

you're a virgin.

HIV

HIV) would also have

doesn't

do

to

be permissive.

to HIV), the virus isn't

for all viruses to

work

is

right

Before you generate that immune-response. that.

128

going

away when But

CHAPTER SIXTEEN chimp came down with

a

If

ing injected with HIV,

Q:

I'd

want

to see

symptoms took

those

If

so-called

AIDS symptoms

after be-

what the virus was doing. three years to develop in the

chimp? Anything with a long

A: larly

if

latent period

is

Particu-

suspicious.

Of

the long latent period follows the gaining of immunity.

now with the hysdown the titers of the

course, in lab experiments with animals, especially teria

about AIDS, researchers

will forget to write

virus they injected in the animals, or the fact that the animals are

newborn and have no

solid

immune-response.

viruses can produce illnesses, yes, titers

if

Then you get acute

of a virus.

In these cases, retro-

you are using newborns and high infection,

which happens more

quickly.

Of

now

course,

missible as AIDS.

breast cancer, maybe. itive,

and you

Florida, there

was

He

the hospital with

He

check you.

I

mean,

tell

me

symptoms

this

I'm not

young Cuban boy. He forgot

couldn't

that are ad-

don't

know,

making

it

up.

In

the keys to his car

remember where they were, and came

to

some other problems. The doctor said, what are you was walking the streets. The doctor said, let's

said he

He found

the

boy was antibody-positive

nosed him as having AIDS dementia. This case goes

AIDS

I

what's not AIDS! Antibody pos-

forget the keys to your car.

several times.

doing?

they have about fifteen

Anything short of pregnancy, and

What is AIDS? worked during You Q:

statistic.

cancer project.

the

HIV and

diag-

CDC

as an

to the

where we should

think that's

I

to

war on cancer

start.

in the special viral

to being disillu-

Did you go from being converted

sioned with the process of trying to prove cancer was transmitted by viruses? A: Disillusioned

is

probably too strong a word.

ing naive to being more realistic about (viruses as agents of cancer) as

think

That

it is.

I

thought

I'm not as important as

includes a

whole number

I

It

it.

it

thought

is

was, as I

I

went from be-

not as important

many people

was. Or

still

my work

isn't.

now:

the

of leading scientists right

Baltimores, the Weinbergs, the Varmuses, and the Gallos. Temin, even. Essex. Their reputations are based essentially on this view that retroviruses

are significant candidates for carcinogens.

129

That hasn't

AIDS INC. panned the

But

out.

it

view that HIV

explains (a

why

there

generally so

is

the old veterans of the virus-cancer program.

They used

again.

to be, essentially,

on

They're

reserve.

And

sudden, here's a windmill for them again.

criticism of

little

The view pleases

AIDS.

retrovirus) causes

all

to

work on

used

be

to

old tune:

latent,

somewhere

far as

which

is

in reserve,

is

to explain

now

So

they're attacking.

ready

all

These guys that

do.

they're marching.

The

virus

is

I

mean, there are differences,

concerned, you don't see a marker in one

why

You may

active.

why one

very similar.

all

pathology

going

becomes plain

what they can

of a

all

retroviruses.

Retroviruses are

but as

That's

retroviruses.

marching

And now,

they get their boots, their uniforms, their tanks, and they're

all

it

supposedly wakes up from sleep and

see markers in the gene structure that ex-

a blonde

and one

is

But these are

a brunette.

not clinically significant factors.

Could AIDS vaccine research be dangerous

Q:

in its potential

on people?

effect

A:

Maybe

I

think the vaccine research

is

more

than dangerous.

silly

the people doing the research could be dangerous,

know. On the one hand they

say, look

how wonderful we

don't

I

are, we're

going to give you protection against HIV by producing antibodies

in

their

On the other hand, when people develop antibodies to HIV on own and that is detected in a blood test, other people burn down

their

houses and people commit suicide.

you.

Robert Gallo says people have odd

Q: the

HIV

which

virus

A:

It's

destroy the T-cells.

seem

to

happen

bodies to

know

in turn destroy their

a hypothesis.

HIV.

I

own

responses to

T-cells.

thinks antibodies to the virus

don't see the basis for the hypothesis.

to the If

He

immune

one

to

It

would doesn't

two million Americans who have

people get AIDS,

it

doesn't happen

of anything to support this hypothesis.

It's

either.

I

anti-

don't

one of the many

great ideas of Dr. Gallo.

Q:

works nity

Gallo says that even though

to cause illness

(the

HIV

is

present in low

through indirect mechanisms

immune system

attacking

130

the

like

body),

titers, it

autoimmu-

or

through

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

131

AIDS INC. suppressor proteins blocking T-cell proliferation, or HIV going to the brain.

Again, another great idea for Dr. Gallo.

A:

per from him on autoimmunity.

should only

affect risk

groups

If

thing about

going

Dr. Gallo

2 it.

very, very

1,

much

evidence for

People have looked in brain

They've found

in

it

blood

cells

HIV and but

cells in the brain,

little.

Gallo states, "Peter Duesberg doesn't understand latency.

Q:

Do you

he should publish some-

are,

Unfortunately, there's not

it.

or IV drug

The suppressor proteins - an-

girls.

knows what they

to the brain either.

haven't found

male homosexuals

like

users and not heterosexuals or other idea.

haven't seen a pa-

know why autoimmunity

don't

I

I

two weeks

think you get cancer in

the 1978 leukemia virus

we

nature .... With

in

HTLV-

discovered, you don't get cancer for

twenty years." 3

What am

A:

AIDS

Gallo?

posedly lose

is

a

I

little

T-cells.

suppose

Cancer

is

grow

Maybe

is

Dr.

sup-

the opposite - there's something grow-

diseases are easily comparable.

AZT

We

a degenerative disease.

It's

ing in you you don't want to

Q:

Good morning,

to say to that?

different.

So

there.

I

don't think the two

to Dr. Gallo, but not to me.

a very sinister aspect of

AIDS. That needs

to

be

re-

peated.

A: ness. ing.

I

think

AZT

is

the most sinister aspect of this whole busi-

They're killing growing (normal) That's very serious business.

proposed

.

.

cells.

That's

what

they're do-

Hazeltine (Harvard researcher)

to treat babies that are antibody-positive (to HIV),

with AZT, the other week with

interferon 4

one week

.

2

Duesberg often criticizes AIDS researchers for not backing up their public statements with published papers which can then be reviewed in full, replicated, or challenged by other scientists. 3 Gallo interview, Spin magazine, Feb. 1988, Anthony Liversidge. 4

See Jan

Progress in Medical Virology, vol, 30, 1984, p. 62: produced in the course of most common virus infections in man. It is likely that in many instances interferon production during an acute viral infection is beneficial as it may limit the spread of virus and promote

"Interferon

Vilcek,

is

recovery. ..On the other hand, administration of exogenous interferon to man to produce fever, fatigue, malaise, and lymphopenia, and it is almost

was shown

132

CHAPTER SIXTEEN On

Q:

February 20, 1988, you

A member

Commission on AIDS.

testified before the Presidential

of the

Commission, Frank

you made. For example, he said

criticized several points

both heterosexuals and homosexuals, both

fects

when you

look

at the global picture.

from any other

differently

Look,

A:

first

of

Therefore,

8%

AIDS

of the

Lilly,

HIV

af-

men and women,

it is

not behaving any

virus.

there are reliable statistics to be found,

all, if

CDC

they are in the U.S., not in other places. In the U.S., the

92%

that

patients in the U.S. are

men.

92%.

says that

The remaining

women and children. And then want to know, instead of women have AIDS, what is the name of what they

are

I

just saying these

had? Was

really

it

diarrhea, or dementia, or breast cancer, or did they

name of their brother-in-law's cousin, or what? want to know how many of these "AIDS" problems ex-

forget briefly the

And

then

I

sample of

isted in a

And

AIDS.

then

women

would

I

now, and we may have,

ten years before there

subtract whatever that figure

for instance, three

now who supposedly have AIDS. What am talking about here, the

about

I

over women, of.

is

was any such word,

women

that

from the 8%

is

we

are talking

men know

extreme preference for

not the epidemiology of any infectious agent

I

Microbes are not that picky.

What

is

is

a

think he means,

I

You have

the consequences.

are like, the ones

with these viruses.

powerful

in

It's

who the

shaping your

these people,

ning

You have

funny guy.

to

know

him.

He's different.

he talking about?

A:

NIH

magazine, he kept saying,

In Gallo's interview in Spin

Q:

Duesberg

it

was

say what's on

my

believe in HIV.

first

mind.

I

don't

mind

understand what these researchers

to

retroviruses.

So

symptoms seen

it's

in

at

They have grown up

thing they knew. That

later attitudes,

that they cause disease.

certain that similar

I

is

usually very

what you learn

first.

With

They were taught from the begin-

an

article of faith

many common acute

and

it

always

virus infections

production of endogenous interferon." The idea that interferon is unequivocally helpful is offset by strong dissent. In fact, the negative symptoms Vilcek mentions, which can occur from Yet there continue to be administering interferon, are Pre-AIDS symptoms. are, at least

studies

in

in part,

due

to the

which interferon

is

given to

AIDS

133

patients.

AIDS INC.

NIH

you know.

attitude.

They

look at me, I'm from Berkeley, so they think I'm different.

Free

will be.

speech,

you

all that.

start

a job.

a military place,

is like

I

work

at a university,

I

speak

In

my

its

mind.

At NIH,

if

asking questions in public about these viruses, you're out of

Retrovirology

is

also like religion.

Catholics in the world?

God, but the proof

is

They

all

There are what, 700 million

believe that Jesus

only circumstantial.

It's

the

was

the son of

same thing

at

NIH

with HIV. Q:

When

they are alone, these researchers, do you think they

express their doubts? A: Sure. to

know about

They have questions. They these doubts.

134

just don't

want

the public

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

AIDS DEMENTIA AND THE PSYCHIATRISTS I

my anonymous

spoke with

subject turned to

AIDS dementia.

encompassed such behavior

doctor-friend in

New

The

York.

Early symptoms, listed in journals,

as being unable to keep track of the plot

of a thick novel, forgetting appointment times, leg weakness.

Later on, these

symptoms would supposedly develop

into full-

blown incoherence and mental confusion. The dementia business was quite cially since

may

be the

some first

weird diagram

HIV

professionals in the field were maintaining that

or only manifestation of

The doctor vol. 239, p. 586).

me

referred

in the article.

dementia I

is

symptoms

I

AIDS

in

some

said.

It's

"Ask a few people about that

supposed

mean,

to

this is the

are really a

be showing levels of

whole reason they're so

form of AIDS.

They say the

caused by HIV attacking the brain."

talked with a respected molecular biologist, and asked

him

what he thought about AIDS dementia and its recent depiction. "Oh yes," he said. "That." He had seen it. "The diagram supposed

to depict the

indicated,

of

HIV

short.

all.

no

numerical

It's

absurd.

are

levels

shown.

But no time-period

There are

is

no numbers

The whole idea of connecting greater

levels

infection with progressively worse dementia falls completely

The

any AIDS

fact

is,

no one has found heavy concentrations of HIV

patient.

The concentrations are minute.

See Arch. Neurol. January, 1987,

vol. 44, p. 65,

135

RW

Price et

in

Very, very

minute."

1

is

ups and downs, the different levels of HIV

brain-infection during the course of dementia.

given at

it

people. 1

to a journal article (Science, Feb. 5, 1988,

"Ask around," he

infection in the brain.

confident these

strange, to say the least, espe-

al.

AIDS INC.

My New means

York doctor had

a

good deal more

"Take one of the listed symptoms.

dementia.

muscle coordination.

failure or irregularity of

number

in a medical dictionary there are a

if

not

all

the

"You're saying this

symptoms

is

say about

AIDS

simply

It

But you'll find

of forms of ataxia.

Alco-

In fact, alcoholism can

holic ataxia, Briquet's ataxia, Broca's ataxia.

bring on most

to

Ataxia.

AIDS dementia."

listed as

a definitional shuffle?"

I

"A

said.

shell-

game?" "They're saying

HIV

"So

all that's left is

of causes.

As

not even close."

It's

the symptoms."

"A whole bunch of them.

number

symptoms.

virus in the brain causes these

But have they proved that? No.

They could be attributed

a matter of fact,

one cause

is

any

to

severe diarrhea.

you have diarrhea long enough, you get dehydrated. Then you

And

electrolytes.

that

can cause

all

If

lose

mental symptoms. Con-

sorts of

fusion, disorientation, weird thoughts."

We

then talked about the enlarged role of psychiatrists in

AIDS, partly because of AIDS dementia. "Every professional wants a piece of the psychiatrists are

show

that

now

is

no exception. The

easiest

some AIDS symptoms belong

listed as

That means

if

way

in

pie,"

it,

The doctor said there were other

you

"The

to establish a role

your bailiwick.

an AIDS indicator disease in the

you're diagnosed with

he said.

is

to

Dementia

official definition.

'have' full-blown

AIDS."

interesting aspects of the en-

trance of psychiatrists into AIDS. In the counseling of patients, given the

that

AIDS Not

arise.

those

As this is

is

just for those

who have

the

AIDS

widespread opinion

a terminal disease, the issues of suicide

and euthanasia

with advanced immune-suppression, but for

simply tested positive for exposure to the HIV virus.

industry gathers steam - and

- patients are

now

I

have several reports on

being "permitted" to believe that the blood

the only thing one needs to see in order to

know whether

test

death

is

inevitable.

There

is

now,

in California, a

euthanasia in terminal

dustry

may

illness.

measure on the

ballot to allow

Indications are that the insurance in-

eventually support such legislation.

136

After

all,

the medical

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN system

already feeling the considerable financial crunch of paying

is

AIDS

for hospitalization of

patients.

"Dementia," the doctor said,

AIDS

that the

patient

chiatrists

would be

at times,

counsel

up playing

a role

is

make

called in to

AIDS

an entry point into deciding

is

made

Of

tients.

do go on

course, to

some

The mix of declaring

legal.

As

volatile.

same

a

time, sui-

unduly influencing pa-

in,

of those diagnosed with early

develop serious

also,

They would end

suicidal.

patient mentally incompetent and discussing, at the

cide/euthanasia could become

Psy-

They would

the diagnosis.

who were

patients

euthanasia

if

"is

not competent to determine his future.

AIDS dementia

They become incontinent,

instability.

bed-ridden, unable to manage themselves.

Some

But

die.

all this is

true with any serious degenerative disease."

Yet one more opportunity, based on a

list

of mental

an unproven and emotionally devastating

to use

blame everything on HIV.

To

inflate

AIDS

label,

symptoms,

To

AIDS.

case-statistics.

To even

suggest that suicide might not be a bad idea.

"Heavy drug certainly

use, exposure to combinations of chemicals could

produce what they

call

early signs of dementia,"

"Of course," the doctor said.

HIV

I

said.

"So could simply being diagnosed

positive." I

later

obtained a copy of a booklet, AIDS'

Effect

on the Brain,

published by the San Francisco-based AIDS Health Project, under the auspices of the University of California Regents.

It

contains an inter-

esting section: "Some people with AIDS may become confused or show personality changes. These changes may be due to direct brain infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the cause of AIDS. Or they may result from such causes as: anxiety, depression,

medication, or a treatable illness related to AIDS.

"About half of those with AIDS or involvement during cause other than

Many

their illness.

HIV

ARC

infection in the brain.

agnose the underlying cause of these changes. develops

the

problems described

seek medical evaluation."

in

this

Only If a

pamphlet,

(Emphasis added.)

137

develop signs of brain

of these signs are

due

to a

a physician can di-

person with it

is

AIDS

essential

to

AIDS INC. The idea

that only a physician

AIDS

tential it

to judge the cause

patients further into the workings of the medical system,

introduces them to

more

still

Based on what?

states.

competent

is

must be consulted, not only brings po-

of a patient's mental signs, and

(prescription) drugs to adjust mental

Psychosomatics

In the journal

1986, vol. 27, p. 562, James Dilly et

and psychiatric issues involved

there

al),

in

(August,

a discussion of ethical

is

AIDS patients. AIDS or other

treating

authors conclude, in one section, "In the case of nal diseases

suicide

is

.

.

.

The termi-

medical and legal scholars continue to debate whether

moral wrong and/or whether intervention by physicians

a

or the police

is

AIDS

No

warranted.

sus exists that suicide

is

clear medical, moral, or legal consen-

always wrong

in this group."

patients are being allowed to believe that their "illness"

virus

is

may

irreversibly affecting their brains, they

is

HIV

invariably terminal, and in the case of dementia that, since the

legitimately con-

sider suicide.

The general movement of the medical establishment

make

the terminal

AIDS

diagnosis

earlier,

and

if

this

trend continues,

based on anecdotal reports from

clinic administrators,

who

HIV

simply

test positive for the

words, "This condition

One his doctor

months

later,

virus will be told, in so

many

diagnosed with AIDS

to try various

in

Los Angeles,

left

unapproved treatments. Several

he returned to the doctor and told him, based on lab

work, his blood

He was

soon patients

is lethal."

patient, recently

and began

to

is

tests

were showing

feeling a great deal

definite signs of

improvement.

more energy.

You

His doctor said, "You're imagining you're getting better.

probably have AIDS dementia. The virus has gone to your brain."

Another patient's doctor suggested he get physician in Holland, where euthanasia

Diagnose

a patient as

few vague symptoms and anything; prescribe the condition

is

a virus

a

practiced.

and

which has not been proved

for his

that he

mental is

to pass?

138

state;

give

him

to

cause

the idea

mentally incompetent; possi-

bly suggest he consider suicide, or at least

coming

touch with

having early dementia on the basis of a

new drugs

terminal,

is

in

make

it

respectable.

Is this

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. JOSEPH SONNABEND Dr. Joseph

Sonnabend spent ten years working

at the British

National Institute for Medical Research (their equivalent of our NIH).

He

is

a

member

of the British Royal College of Physicians, has been

Associate Professor of Medicine at the

New

York

City.

Mount

Sinai Medical School in

Since 1978, he has been treating patients in

for sexually transmitted diseases

and AIDS. For several years

mid-1980s, he was the editor of the journal,

That journal,

now

AIDS

AIDS

AIDS was

in the

on HIV, was once

Sonnabend was

research.

released from his position by the publisher

York

Research.

exclusively concentrating

the only true independent voice in

that his approach to

New

when

it

became apparent

in serious conflict

with the more

widely accepted HIV-view. I

spoke with him on March 25th, 1988.

HIV hypothesis come from? A: Several places. One of them involved a very sloppy analysis by the CDC of the first Los Angeles AIDS patients. Q: From proposing that AIDS comes from a number of sources acting in concert, to proposing that AIDS is not a single disease-entity Where did

Q:

at

all,

seems a short

the

step.

A: That's right. Q: So learn

if

a patient

what produced

comes the

Pneumocystis - and once you to use the

say there

in with

Pneumocystis, you could try to

immuno-suppression that led learned that, there

word AIDS. There would be no reason

is

to

I

would go along with

139

that

go further and

something else that patient has called AIDS.

A: That's right.

to

would be no reason

that.

AIDS INC. Q: In which case, the a diversion

from the

is

age to the whole

would seem

to

be operating as

There was such a hasty pro-

a history to this.

cess - the worst thing that

HIV had been

thesis

truth.

A: Yes. There

that

HIV

happened was

announcement

the

in 1984

discovered to be the cause of AIDS. That did dam-

scientific

endeavor.

There are social factors here, you know, in the whole presumption that every disease has a single agent.

believe that nothing really unhealthy.

and

it

doesn't

we do

in

That poverty

make people

are really harmless.

our

is

sick.

lives, in

Some people want

to

our environments,

is

bad

really not a

thing, just a choice,

That sexual behavior and

lifestyles

when

believed

The single-agent idea of

disease,

across the board, at the expense of environmental factors, absolves

people whose economic policies create ghettos and keep people poor. It's

made people

so easy to say that a virus came along and

People

their living conditions.

who

live

sick,

not

highly promiscuous

a

lifestyle prefer to believe that the really lethal effects are external to

that

life,

much

and are from

easier

to

a virus that

is

really

due

to

it's

HIV.

We're hung up on high-tech solutions.

The one-agent theory

going to be attractive to researchers. All the funding went that way.

It's

also the attraction of the quick-fix, the quick cure.

The single-agent theory, dous appeal

riage.

call

who

"family values."

AIDS, are

will

have tremen-

promoting agendas

Or no sex outside

of mar-

That sort of agenda.

There really a

in the case of

for those political people

based on what they

is

in Africa,

say that illness from the collapse of malaria-

eradication programs or hunger

is

Or

comes along.

is

now

group which receives

such a thing as the AIDS-establishment virtually all the grant

money,

it

sits

It

on im-

portant boards (such as the fund raising organization, Americans for

AIDS

Research).

There

is

definitely a group,

and sadly,

it's

not the

best talent.

Q: Did

it

ever seem to you that some researchers had malicious

intent? A:

Toward who? People with AIDS?

Q: Yes.

140

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN A:

I

would

find that hard to believe

.

.

that

.

would be awful.

possible that an individual here or there might, but a group ...

It's

think

more

it's

own

they think nothing of pushing their

and

of arrogance, egomania,

Q:

ideas as

fact.

It's

a

mixture

stupidity.

obvious from talking with a number of scientists that

It's

there are people their

1

have ego problems, they're stupid,

likely that they

who have

questions about HIV, but they won't open

mouths publicly because

they're afraid of losing grant

money

or

their jobs.

A: They're probably justified in feeling that.

Q:

Is this

something new, the pervasiveness of

this fear?

A: No. Of course, with HIV, the degree to which that hypotheclosed

sis

all

debate was monumental. I'm sure

it's

affected me.

when people were saying that HTLV-1 caused AIDS, that was patently absurd. Later on, when HTLV-1 was rejected, there was a claim made which supposedly explained how the In the beginning,

1

mistake could have been made. ilarly to

at

all.

out

HIV

Q:

They

I've

many A:

AIDS

blood

It

was

HTLV-1 was

that

tests).

down

pointing

certainly weren't getting published.

had people say

scientists

It's

reacting sim-

But the French didn't find that to be so

So where were the researchers jumping up and

all this?

do so

(in

to

me,

if

HIV

around the world say

a selection process.

it

doesn't cause AIDS,

why

does?

The ones who agree HIV causes

get their articles printed.

Q: mistake,

But then people also

some famous

scientists

like to

maintain that

if

HIV were

a

would have spoken out publicly by

now. A:

That's ridiculous.

That's terrible.

to researchers that doesn't exist.

AIDS business which that these researchers

I

One

should have

That's ascribing a quality

thing that's

known

come out

already

would have more respect

.

.

.

of

all this

you'd think

for the truth,

more

else.

They

fight for their jobs, they're intimidated, they don't stand up.

They

social conscience.

1

A

virus purportedly

But these researchers are like

connected with leukemia.

1

A^

anybody

AIDS INC. have the arrogance

more

to think they're

interested in the truth than

other people are.

was

In 1984 or 5, there

This was

York.

just after

which looked exactly

like the isolate the

When

the sequencing of these

much

alike.

They were

two

isolates

New HIV,

French had grown

first.

HIV

its first

was done, they looked

here was done by simply growing

sample Montagnier and the French team had

just sent us.

Well, during this workshop,

I

was standing out

in the hall,

speaking with a Nobel prize winner, an American, and

we needed

to tell these reporters

said, "Please don't

who

teous person

You know,

how

filthy

he's

do

an

is

elitist

as the cause of

kill

out for ourselves,

it

AIDS comes from

human human cells

kill

doesn't reliably

we

the fact

a cell in vitro has nothing to

kill cells

do

There are any number of

body.

in vitro very efficiently.

can drink them, by the gallon, and nothing will happen.

HIV

self-righ-

the lab.

does in the

it

viruses that will

this

view.

A: The fact that a virus can

with what

And

believes the public shouldn't see

are, that we'll sort

One claim for HIV kills human T-cells in

it

him

about the identity of these two

wish you wouldn't." He's a

who

one of those

Q: that

I

it.

told

thinks he's the guardian of scientific propriety.

our operations This

scientists.

I

HIV, that there was something bad going on.

isolates of

man

That

was only one sample.

there

that

too

This of course leads one

virtually identical.

to infer that the isolation of

the

in

isolate of

workshop

a science writer's

America had grown

But you

At any

rate,

in vitro.

You know, one of the papers we published in AIDS Research showed that, from the blood of 60 or 70 AIDS patients, after analysis by three different well-known labs, there wasn't a sign of HTLV-1 in any of

that blood.

HTLV-1 was

This

was

at the

the cause of AIDS.

the usual journals,

and they

formal stranglehold on

all

AIDS

period

when

The author sent turned

it

the theory

down. This

research that exists.

very angry piece about the stupidity of HTLV-1.

AIDS I

Research

did tone

it

and

I

toned the language down.

down.

142

And

was

that

paper around

that

is

to

part of the in-

The paper was a I

published

I

regret

now

it

in

that

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN So there may very well be people

who now

question HIV.

But

they aren't getting a scientific forum.

There are supposedly several different AIDS viruses

Q:

all

causing this unique thing called AIDS. A:

I'm

amazed

that people haven't pointed out the stupidity of

Here we have HIV-1 and HIV-2.

that idea.

viruses, not strains of each other.

Now

siderable.

AIDS.

These two separate

The variance between them

same new

they're said to be causing the

These two viruses would have had

to

is

con-

disease-entity,

evolve independently

over untold amounts of time to arrive, by chance,

at the

ment, with both just happening to cause the same thing.

same moThe odds

against that are virtually impossible.

You did early research on interferon in AIDS patients, which showed they had persistent, elevated levels. Why are some researchers doing studies in which they give AIDS patients more inQ:

terferon?

No good

Definitely.

researcher it

immunosuppressive,

It's

A:

how

had such

is

isn't it?

coming of

they could continue to give

it.

AIDS

drug companies had such huge unsold stocks

would make

feron - anything that .

.

There

.

a

is

There are people, you know,

AZT

trials.

It's

A

of doctors

knows what A:

who

ter a

you

was so

It

door

God

yes.

I

gay

patients.

know

that

among some was

lifestyle.

couldn't change behavior.

year or so,

trial

prescribed anything from poppers, by the ton, to

for their

Oh

That

of responsibility has to be laid at the

amount

judgments about the so-called that

take tremendous pride in the

international business, an industry.

large clienteles of gay patients, there

phy

of recombinant inter-

at billions of dollars.

certain

who

when

said well, the

terrible.

AIDS has become an could be assessed

He

the annual shareholder meeting a

They think they were wonderful.

wrong, so badly done.

patients this

tremendous incompetence along with

this.

Q:

asked an interferon

immunosuppressive properties.

clear

happy event

I

I

shed

it.

I

mean,

I

doctors

make

There was a kind of philosoI

fell

into that myself, but af-

saw young men who should have

been so healthy, and here they'd had two bouts of

143

who developed

a great reluctance to

hepatitis, syphilis,

AIDS INC. and so

on.

It

starting to

tell

turn any of

was

a terrible thing.

So

I

really didn't

have

people about the risks they were running.

my

patients

off.

144

a

problem

And

I

didn't

PART

TWO

LAMBS OF THE MEDIA AND POLITICAL SCAPEGOATS

145

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

OFFICIAL, BIZARRE DEFINITIONS

Most

of the several

hundred

scientists

HIV

contribute to the question of whether

immune-suppression, or anything without question

that,

must be

true.

prit, that

was

I

I

OF AIDS

spoke with had

causes

human

disease, or

simply because they accept

else;

other medical authorities say

if

HIV

is

the cul-

quite surprised to find this out. These medical people did

HIV

not defend the choice of

most virulent thing

as the

along since automobiles, they simply said in essence, "So

HIV

searchers agree that

When

I

is

the cause of

AIDS,

it

must

to

come

many

re-

be."

AIDS itself was one cosymptoms and separate diseases, I

raised the question of whether

herent entity, or just a collection of

was met with even gone conclusion.

If

journal citations,

I

To 99% of these people, AIDS was a completely fore-

considered thinking.

less

the existence of a Central Reality called

tudes.

little to

was so

bold, on occasion, to ask for proof, for

suddenly found myself up against defensive

I

atti-

But no proof. Predictable, If

suppose.

I

AIDS was never proved

to

stem from one

symptoms, Pneumocystis and Kaposi, show no

what

virus, then

are

we

left

world.

It is

interesting to look at all

if its

main

tie to

that

with?

Several very broad definitions of

rounding up

virus;

particular

AIDS

them. They

sorts of diverse

are used

clearly

symptoms which

around the

have the

effect of

doctors, in their

wildest dreams, wouldn't ordinarily think of lumping together. First,

there

parts of Africa.

printed

in

September

4,

is It

the current

was announced

the Journal 1987,

CDC

and

is

of

the

definition, in

used in the U.S. and

August-September of 1987,

American Medical Association on

reprinted in

147

full in

Appendix 3 of

this

book.

AIDS INC.

A

document

for the ages,

and several categories of

it

sufficient for a diagnosis of

A

about 25 separate diseases /infections

lists

Any

diseases.

very strange thing

single disease or category

AIDS under most is,

AIDS which

There

walk

now

are, in fact,

HIV

test,

likewise,

test result is

the

Is

is

no

CDC

no

At another entrance, a negative HIV

HIV

has

little

than sults,

New

amazing statement

reported (to the

1149,

(p.

could

be? This

this

bothered giving the

Sept. 4, 1987):

United States have

HIV

is

less

test re-

in other areas."

saying that doctors simply haven't

blood-test to their patients; or

they haven't forwarded the results to the

if

they have,

CDC.

CDC, and came away with only answer. One spokesperson said she was sure

spoke with several people

confusion as the

JAMA,

in the

CDC) with HIV-antibody

compared with greater than 60%

I

do with AIDS? Not

York City and San Francisco, where, since 1985,

7% have been

How

to

Reading through the long document, one

"Approximately one third of AIDS patients

been from

which one can

At one door, an unknown or uncer-

obstacle.

admitting that

a truly

definition allows for

three doors through

barrier.

publicly, that's certain.

comes on

CDC

don't require positive blood tests for HIV.

into a diagnosis of AIDS.

tain

conditions.

after four years of research to find a

virus which supposedly causes AIDS, this

diagnoses of

is

at the

you could always have been diagnosed with AIDS, even though you didn't have a positive

HIV

test.

The other spokesperson

he was concerned, a positive HIV since the

HIV

cian, told

me

CDC's,

stemmed from

it

test

the

test

was developed

the accuracy of the

number

of

A

third source, a statistitest results

the health authorities in

New

was not

York and

delinquency was a lack of

the

Cali-

faith in

tests.

Regardless, the fact

ing

in 1985.

problem of reporting no HIV

fornia; possibly the reason for the

said, as far as

has always been necessary, ever

AIDS

is,

for the last three years, the

cases in the U.S. have been recorded

overwhelmby the

CDC

with no knowledge of whether or not the patients have tested positive for the

HIV

virus.

This throws into question

its

entire tally of

148

AIDS

cases.

CHAPTER NINETEEN The September,

matter of AIDS diagnosis back to square one. cians

were looking

had caused

at diseases like

In the early 80s, physi-

Pneumocystis and wondering what

A

the underlying immunosuppression.

was mounted which became

it

fact that the

research effort

announcement

resulted in the

HIV. Regardless of the solid proof,

whole

1987, definition also, in essence, puts the

of the cause:

announcement was based on no

AIDS

the central "discovery" of the

research es-

At that point, physicians, faced with infections and

tablishment.

dis-

eases that seemed to be related to AIDS, blood-tested their patients for the presence of HIV.

Now,

tive.

assume

just

this

says,

"Assume

permissiveness

as separate

Instead, a

makes

3.

air, it

Simply

a piece of flim-flam.

a host of infections

previously

known

I'll

these "AIDS-related" diseases

list

the considerable

only point out that there

a

is

list,

and

infections

in full glory, in

new category which now be diagnosed

The category I

is:

"And other

have told about

bacterial infections."

this definition (they

hadn't

were flabbergasted. doctor commented, "The worst part

One ria

AIDS always

as HIV-associated

word game,

You can read

Those physicians it)

read posi-

possible for any person under the sun to

as having AIDS.

seen

to

even more absurd. Out of thin

is

word AIDS with

won't try to

it

no longer required

entities.

in the definition.

Appendix

is

these infections /diseases are AIDS."

all

proof.

associate the

I

that test

As shaky

AIDS.

this is

new

was,

No

Now,

the physician, looking at a case of, say, Pneumocystis, can

about AIDS, diagnoses

Whatever

will

latitude the definition

AIDS

slapping on

labels at the

is,

with

all

the hyste-

be even looser than the definition.

now

allows,

drop of

a hat.

some doctors With

this

will

wasting-syn-

drome business, for example, some doctors won't really do the see whether the cause of the weight loss comes from parasites

.

.

.

they'll just call

The Western Journal ports that international

it

three different definitions, a

Bangui /WHO definition

tests to

some unusual

AIDS."

of Medicine,

AIDS

be

cases are

muddled

at least

(December 1987,

now based on two

makes

proposition.

695) re-

The so-called

a note that severe malnutri-

tion should rule out a diagnosis of AIDS.

149

p.

or possibly

But

it

doesn't attempt to

AIDS INC.

spell out

how

a doctor

is

really

the so-called major African

and fever - and

going to draw the

AIDS symptoms - weight out what part of that

tries to figure

when he

line,

is

sees

loss, diarrhea,

being caused by

germs or chemicals, and what part by lingering chronic long-term malnutrition.

Then That

is

there

is

the

CDC

definition of

also being used as a criterion in

AIDS

I

have

just discussed.

some African

areas, with

category, "other bacterial infections," any one of which can straight-out label of AIDS.

The

third possibility

add up

its

to a

the Swedish-Tan-

is

zanian proposed definition (Lancet, October 24, 1987), in which severe malnutrition pretty

much

is

not specifically stressed as non-AIDS and otherwise

mirrors the Bangui definition.

Generally, on the international scene, rampant malnutrition

and

tropical disease, causing

called

AIDS.

tions,

and

All

immune-suppression, can easily be

immune-suppression leads

to opportunistic infec-

which, in Johnny-come-lately fashion,

this is the pattern

has

now been

the

World Health Organization

defined as AIDS.

In fact, authors Peter Piot

and Robert Colebunders, writing

(December, 1987), make the following astonishing remark: jor

changes in the case definition

AIDS

patients

whose

(without specific lab

tests),

last is the killer.

sure the potential

AIDS

AIDS immunodeficiency,

Now any immune der

AIDS.

(of

"The ma-

AIDS) are the inclusion of

.

.

.

indicator diseases are diagnosed presumptively

the absence of other causes of

That

for

in the Western Journal of Medicine

and

the elimination of the requirement of

(Emphasis added.)

immunodeficiency ."

No

longer will

it

be necessary to make

patient isn't suffering from

some

other non-

before slapping on a diagnosis. depressed condition

All those Pneumocystis patients

is

all

right to

who were

lump un-

developing the

pneumonia because they had leukemia and were being given immunotoxic drugs? AIDS. All those people with hypogammaglobulinemia 1

,

who

weren't producing antibodies to anything?

sprouting opportunistic infections like crazy? AIDS.

1

A

shortage of gammaglobulin, which contains

150

many

antibodies.

Who

were

CHAPTER NINETEEN The

believe me,

list,

is

There are other older medi-

very long.

conditions which can closely resemble what

cal

is

called AIDS:

Hashimoto's Disease, Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID), Di

George Syndrome. Di George can give

CMV, and

sis,

diseases for

AIDS by

Pneumocystis, candidia-

rise to

atypical mycobacteria -

of which are indicator

all

the latest definitions.

To say nothing

immunosuppressive

of the

same

In the

category this

is

starvation.

new

issue of the Western Journal of Medicine, a

defined for us:

it is

can occur one week

would even

effects of drugs,

And

drugs, and more drugs, medical and recreational.

HIV

called "early

disease." Supposedly,

HIV, before a blood

after contacting

test

register antibodies to the virus.

"Several studies," authors Piot and Colebunders write, "have

now

described the clinical manifestations of early

HIV

disease.

lymphadenopathy

(infected glands), night sweating,

cough were

significantly

all

(becoming antibody-positive with seroconversion

tients

Where does one fered,

and

grand

total of

as far as

can

I

with this? the

tell,

^hird

HIV

62 patients. To define a

third to

one half of pa-

one of these symptoms."

First, a table

new

it

of statistics

illustrates

is of-

involved a

illness.

enough

to

rank one as having

disease."

new

The existence

of this

to one-half of

the patients

symptom.

seroconversion

two studies

Next, headache or cough are "early

One

report at least

start

with

associated

to HIV).

Fever,

headache and

A

Here

headache?

is

one more

A

demonstrated because one-

illness is

interviewed had at least one listed

cough?

little bit

of

assumed novelty,

a

AIDS, one more opportunity

We may

AIDS can be cured with

next hear that early

new phase

for

with the word AIDS.

to target a patient

a Chericol

and

soda and two Excedrin. Finally, a note

agnosis of AIDS.

on one of the

infections

JAMA, US history: between

of salmonellosis in

Two its

interesting facts.

sufficient for a di-

168,000 and 197,000 people.

The salmonella was

source was a pasteurized milk plant.

tion of antibiotics

now

Dec. 11, 1987, reports on the largest outbreak

equal AIDS?

151

resisiant to antibiotics,

and

Bad milk plus overprescrip-

AIDS INC.

CDC

The

uses a ploy to defend

definition of AIDS:

its

In at-

tempting to carry out surveillance on the "spreading of AIDS cases,"

must allow

it

widest possible definitions to be used, so that few

for the

would not expect

cases escape the net; one, naturally,

a physician with

coming

a single patient to apply such lax requirements in

to a conclu-

sion the patient had AIDS.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, people are not making a

between the

careful distinction, in practice,

practicing of

on AIDS is

good medicine. The public

that

any sort of diagnosis - surveillance,

and the

definition is

shining so hard

clinical

- whatever,

going to function as a death sentence.

Can you I

CDC

spotlight

had

employee saying

see an

AIDS.

a surveillance case of

he has

case, but It

to report

you

it,

It

see.

It's

doctor told

same

me

as a real

nothing to worry about

." .

.

By taking major symptoms of malnutrition,

definitions of AIDS. fever,

AIDS umbrella numerous

test,

the

numbers

reflect in treatment,

By placing under

all

a

and diseases, the numbers for

even

a posi-

of cases will grow.

The greater the number of reported ent threat to public health

grow.

will

infections

By eliminating the need

of reported cases will grow.

HIV blood

for

wasting-away, and diarrhea - and calling them

AIDS, the numbers of reported cases

tive

"My

exactly the

doesn't take a genius to figure out the effect of these various

example -

single

to his boss, isn't

cases, the greater the appar-

over the world

by drugs and vaccines.

Ultimately this will

Pharmaceutical profits

will soar.

Several nois, told

me

months ago,

Doctor Herbert Ratner of Oak Park,

the following story:

health officer for lio

a

Oak

Back

in 1954-5,

when he was

Park, just before the introduction of the

public

first

So Ratner

said,

po-

was

vaccine, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis

paying physicians $25

Illi-

for every reported diagnosis of paralytic polio.

"A patient would walk into the doctor's

with a

office

limp from an accident. He'd say he had a fever a few days ago

.

.

.

and

guess what the diagnosis would be?" Paralytic polio.

polio cured

vaccine

itself

50%

Ratner also stated

it

was well-known

of the time within sixty days.

was introduced,

the definition of polio

152

paralytic

After the Salk

was changed. Now,

in

CHAPTER NINETEEN order to have paralytic polio, you had to have

it

longer than sixty

days.

Quite a shell-game,

if

First, inflate

true.

case statistics by offer-

ing to pay for reported diagnoses of the disease; then, after the vaccine is

introduced, change the definition so that

of cases plummeted. strategies really

what

is

Of

go on

Once

really

thought.

numbers

world of medicine.

We

But look

are in the definition-expand-

the AIDS-vaccine arrives with the cavalry,

bright researcher might is

will look like

course, people don't believe such devious

in the pristine

happening with AIDS now.

ing phase.

it

much more

make

a

This researcher will

breakthrough and discover that AIDS

symptoms than previously be pleasantly shocked to find his work

specific

hailed and broadcast instantly

some

in

its

and accepted, not only by the

public,

but practitioners of medicine. 1)

The

2)

Drugs /vaccines

3)

The

Could

Why aspect of

definition of a disease expands. are introduced.

definition contracts.

it

Case numbers swell.

Case numbers reduce.

happen? Yes.

hasn't the mainstream

AIDS?

153

media covered

this definitional

CHAPTER TWENTY

MEDIA AND THE AIDS PARTY-LINE Once

NIH

there

was

war on

a

cancer, an epic struggle carried

during the 1970s. Richard Nixon was advised

health, because

Ted Kennedy was

1972 election.

Nixon declared and sent out

into the ranks

Two

dustrial society.

human leukemia

it

in the

were drafted

battle.

faction, eventually led

no one won.

In the end,

viruses,

more circumspection than hand

scientists

was caused by substances generated out The other

looked for viruses.

of

do

at

factions developed; one, rather secretive for a time, be-

lieved that cancer

earthing.

to

and

on

support public

run against him

likely to

the war,

to

of our in-

by Robert Gallo,

Gallo discovered two

which today are written about with much in the early

triumphant days of their un-

Meanwhile, the environmentalists

let

the issue get so out

took hundreds of pages just to

list

the

environmental

compounds which might cause cancer and /or cell-mutation. Arguments like this have raged before. Smallpox, which we take to be a viral illness entirely preventable by inoculation, has been

accused of daring to decline in

late

nineteenth-century England be-

cause of improvement in sanitation alone.

Epidemics of cholera

widely with

came

antibiotics.

in Zaire,

where

in Africa in the late 1970s

But reports are that the best management

antibiotics

was put on improving

were treated

were underplayed, and the emphasis

sanitation

and handing out salt-sugar packets

which, mixed with water, reversed the terrible dehydration cholera brings on.

With AIDS, the media have chosen not to become embroiled in the question of causation. Media get their information from press people who work at universities and public health agencies, and who are fed

HIV-dogma

like

popcorn.

155

AIDS INC.

If

you are

a reporter

and

enough, are paid not

to think

on

research institutions looking for

call

PR

information, you are shunted to

their

They relay information given of various labs

They

A number

Cancer

Institute,

them from department heads

going on.

which are em-

have called the Na-

of reporters, for example,

wanting

rock-solid conviction that

ous

is

own.

to

also screen out requests for information

barrassing. tional

where research

who, though earnest

folks

HIV

to

speak with Robert Gallo about

He

causes AIDS.

has become notori-

for refusing to discuss this question, especially

current nemesis, Peter Duesberg,

Duesberg

is finally, at

deserves, but for the

first

is

if

the

name

of his

mentioned.

this late date, getting

some

seven years of AIDS, no one

a non-viral or (after 1984) a

his

non-HIV cause

for

of the press he

who forwarded

AIDS was given prime

space.

Why?

Because the

down from NIH and CDC. table exceptions, like

Crewdson Caceres,

at the

newspapers print comes

official line daily

That's just the

Nick Regush

way

at the

things run (with no-

Montreal

Gazette, John

Chicago Tribune, and Terry Krieger and Dr. Cesar

who have

contributed to the Wall

St. Journal).

Writers for dailies don't get paid to do research in bio-med braries, to put together pieces of information they actually dig their

own from

medical literature or

eral health agencies are

always going

human to

sources.

sound

right

li-

up on

Therefore, fed-

and authoritative

to reporters.

Also, for a writer, not pleasing an editor, going outside traditional sources of info could lead to excessive tor's

part about whether to trust said writer.

the time-honored grove of anonymity, in ity

has the

final

based on his his

word?

own

Is

he trying

Who

Is

research?

paycheck looking

story? tials?

wonderment on

to

for

Is

the edi-

said writer deserting

which Reasonable Author-

said writer beginning to speak for himself Is

said writer, fool that he

unknown

facts

on

said this character could shoot off his

156

about to risk

a highly controversial

become an authority without

medical degree?

is,

the proper creden-

mouth without

a

CHAPTER TWENTY Said daily staff writer

knows

these questions drift in the

all

enough wrong moves on

ether like inactivated germs which, after part, could

be triggered and bring about his

There

a degree of sheer politeness

is

An

here too.

obvious media assumption

his

firing.

and good form involved Things Are Generally

is:

All Right.

A

writer

knows how

close he

when he

sense of an issue, he knows

and everything This

soup

all

it

is

like

over your

On

about

is

to turn

and say some issue or another

breaking the central rule:

is

This

Right.

in

getting to questioning the basic

is

is

over the cart

a con.

Things are Generally All

walking into a Washington cocktail party with

suit.

AIDS, very quickly you begin

a story like

to realize you're

lot of

conventional wisdom, not just in a single

aspect, but in every aspect.

You're going to point out that the whole

going to contradict a

research program, as vast as

vant fields as

it

is

it is

beginning

coming

to

to be, as

employ,

on

is

many

stars in rele-

a crash course to

Nowhere. If

you work on

staff for a

steer clear of this recognition.

It's

major daily paper, you are going to self-damaging

Investigative reporting costs tion, there are so

many

layers, so

for

Right,

know

bowing

Science

is

They'll

if

a

on

it.

any proporgo

time, nothing gets published.

money on

Things Being All

a story

few of them, but

almost never one of those shots.

in mists at the top of the federal towers,

know

act

to locate, that you'll

to the basic rule of

do

highly polished medical domes

you

a story of

backing you up with a decent

they can't justify spending

a great deal of time. shots.

is

months on end. During which

Editors, besides

On

many people

broke as a writer unless someone

wage

money.

It's

which takes

they'll pick their

too

wrapped up

where supposedly only a few

what's really what.

So here with AIDS, media reluctance and mass hypnosis meet. The men in the white coats are kings. They scoot in polished labs and issue proclamations now and then, and the populace listens through the

media and pays obligatory homage. All the more reason to be wary of death sentences handed out

by white

coats.

The power,

for

some

157

patients

is

close to ultimate.

If

a

AIDS INC. person will jump

you know something whether

in part called cultural

that hysterical person hadn't the slight-

it,

his disease,

was operating on pure

Something

going on.

is

hypnotism because, admit est idea

because he tested positive for HIV,

off a building

was going

any,

if

to

be

He

fatal or not.

faith.

There are books which have been written about the ownership of media, about the tastes and prejudices and agendas of the people

who

actually

purpose of

own newspapers and

this

book

occur to

me

exercise

more day-to-day

were being But

that

television stations.

do an excavation on

to

maybe

there

was

a time

control, just to

there

does

when these owners had to make sure their attitudes smoothly

a tendency for things to run

is

Writers for major papers and

themselves.

TV

all

by

no need

stations are in

Without prodding, most turn

out what, in the eyes of their betters, should be turned out.

They be-

at the cocktail party.

many people

easy to miss the cumulative effect of many,

It's

"correctly" building

up an

issue like

The juggernaut thus created

is

We

its

or eight years.

epidemics are perfect events for me-

have the invisible

dictably, without tipping

AIDS over seven

very hard to turn around.

First there is the fact that

dia work.

We We

it

reflected in the output of their employees.

now

of lecture, correction, and navigation.

have well

not the

It's

that subject; but

killer.

It

moves

silently,

unpre-

hand.

meet victims.

new

get a constant barrage of

scientific information, break-

This gives readers the impression they're peering over the

throughs.

shoulders of the best minds of our time, delving into the mysteries of the gene, the virus, the core-essence of

We

get terror.

might be me.

It

sneezed on by a junky, even though sneezes. dle.

But

That's

maybe

all it

cop

who

My

girlfriend

shot

can.

I

him with and

I

.

.

then

a stun .

life.

might be the next person

know

I

can't get the virus

gun

some AIDS victim in

LA.

I

wonder

bled

be

from

if

all

over the

the cop's suing.

we've only been living together for four years.

She could have picked up the virus when she was

Who was

to

That lab worker stuck her hand on a nee-

And

took.

I I

human

that scuzzball she used to

go out with?

158

in Baltimore.

CHAPTER TWENTY It's

whipsawing, from

called

One newspaper baloney, and

it

and drag

it

avoid

to

this

all

small.

is

had no chance of influencing the AIDS issue by pre-

tending to be the Ortleb started

managed

The New York Native

worth mentioning.

it's

Partly because

pillar to post.

the U.S. has

in

New

York Times, partly because publisher

on $500 (which

tells

you

it

can't outfit

Chuck

bureaus abroad

every detail of AIDS from around the world), and partly

in

because of Ortleb's interest

making

in

AIDS

per has kept alive the

issue in

a

good kind

New

of trouble, this pa-

York as no other media out-

let has.

The approach has been simple: harkens back to what

we

fondly like to

In this, the

attack. call

(did

Native

ever really exist?)

it

the muck-raking tradition in American journalism.

The Native has approached

scientific issues

surrounding AIDS

with none of usual get-a-few-statements-from-both-sides pap. They've put people on tually deciding the issue.

original studies

on

it

to

AZT,

How

for example, with the

dangerous

is

the drug?

purpose of

How

ac-

were the

done? They've put Peter Duesberg on the cover,

carrying on the only intelligent dissenting conversation in America

concerning

HIV and

its

non-role in AIDS.

They've pointed out that the

ment buried York

York City Health Depart-

the question of whether African

implicated in AIDS.

New

New

Swine Fever might be

They've helped bring the black community of

into the issue,

by printing on

their front page, a short

sketch of the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1932-72), in which four hundred poor black sharecroppers were observed, without treatment, were kept from getting treatment, unto death by syphilis, for

purposes of

scientific study.

U.S. Public Health Service

The experiment was run by

officials.

CDC

raising the question of a possible syphilis-AIDS connection, the tive

simply asked,

is this

glect the order of the day,

connection being ignored, is

AIDS

in

and

With some current researchers

New

York

is

Na-

malignant ne-

a continuation of the

Tuskegee Syphilis Study? Ortleb printed a

Mayor Koch, Mayor

letter

on

his front cover,

an open

letter to

replete with assurances that everyone knows the

good

wouldn't purposely condone a continuation of the Tuskegee

159

AIDS INC. Study

New

in

find out

why

York

would His Honor please

City, but

New

the hell the

York City Health Dept.

get

on

and

it

dragging

is

its

heels looking into an AIDS-syphilis link?

may

This

not be the sober and stolid

world

in a city that leads the

tlefront mentality

and

newspapers that.

Most

Our

report on

America seem

in

of

them are trying

it.

They know how

apply

how

to

all

media

is

that a

frame

sues, which, after

all,

scientific is-

Or should

are the heart of solving the disease.

get almost nothing questioning the science.

about university researchers

who

built

is

debate and action.

forestalls public

With AIDS, media move away from judging the

are rankling

We

get nothing

under the

collar be-

cause they can't get a dime to do viral research unless they write

HIV

lieve In

at the

top of their application forms.

about issues which might If it's

we

rely

on the

affect curing

fact that

pretty easy to dismiss the

NIH

AIDS and here

news) hide I

record,

their

heads

and ask them

nent

in:

cles

do

is

around the

they feel political matters have become promi-

having to assume is

AMA

ponents claim

amounts

an ordinary

it is

AIDS

causes AIDS.

fact of life in scientific circles called its

praises.

Its

this:

in

determining what

160

peer

most manic pro-

responsible for most of science's advances.

simply

arti-

Part of the definition of "political," of

HIV

executives like to sing

to is

TV

a survey, off the

health-agency scientists

obtaining grants to do research on AIDS, getting

There review.

community

mitigate against a res-

in the sand.

published in journals.

course,

it

if

But

as inconsequential.

again, major dailies (to say nothing of

university and

U.S.,

get nothing

science itself will resolve AIDS,

think a few of the major dailies should

among

We

/ Be-

AIDS.

media doldrum

several factors within the scientific

olution of

do

become bureaucracies.

big-city papers fulfill the function of gathering information

around news - which

We

to

because even the alternative

be losing their grip on

to

to

of great diversity, but the feeling in

be.

but

home. They are actually trying

a different thing to see,

it's

to present issues,

AIDS, the paper operates out of a bat-

in

blasts issues

AIDS mystery, not

to solve the

heat,

which

way

What

articles are printed

CHAPTER TWENTY in technical journals, in deciding

No

judge their fellows.

scientists

By outsiders are meant cal expertise.

know

At

first

seems

the value of a grant-project,

the direction science

is

what

taking,

Syphilis Study

a

is

peer review

After

who

we

to

be interested

in

all,

are

have

a right to

priorities are

being emphasized, in the

The above-mentioned Tuskegee

prime and extreme example of what can happen the total order of the day.

is

Bad Blood (Macmillan, 1981)

lent

lack credentialed techni-

These issues are mostly buried

themselves.

scientists

who right.

its feasibility?

civilians

is,

risks are being ignored.

minds of

when

outsiders allowed.

civilians

glance, this

However, the point

what

what grant applications are funded,

for a

See James Jones' excel-

thorough treatment of the

Tuskegee Study. For 40 years, until reporters blew the whistle, medical bureaucrats perpetuated,

and reaffirmed periodically with funding,

a project

men in Alabama had syphilis. The reahuman syphilis in its late stages men's symptoms spread all the way to death.

that hid the fact that 400 black

son for the project? until these

Even

Observing

after penicillin

around 1950,

had become the drug of choice

was made

a conscious decision

from the 400 men.

Of

course, their children

out what was going on

were autopsied and

either.

As

the

their diseased parts

Local doctors in

men

to

withhold medication

and wives never found died, one

were sent

Macon County were

in the U.S.,

all

to

by one, they

NIH

for analysis.

too eager,

when

ap-

proached, to cooperate with the medical bureaucrats in Washington,

who needed subjects"

"field professionals" to assure that,

went

to doctors

on

their

if

the "experimental

own, they wouldn't be given peni-

any reason, because that would affect the natural course of disease. Local physicians who went along with the project felt

cillin for

their

they were part of something important, a large purpose.

them asked why had

would not be

the sharecroppers

Not one

of

treated or told they

syphilis.

As

far as the subjects of the

experiments themselves were con-

cerned, they believed they were simply being treated for ill-health.

The pink

pills

handed out during

probably aspirin. Nothing stronger.

161

their physical

examinations were

AIDS INC. Obviously, to be carried out, the Tuskegee Study required the

cooperation of

many

trained citizens,

had they been

Also obviously, un-

scientific bureaucrats. sitting

continued funding came up (and

on review boards

how many

as requests for

times do you think that

was, over a forty-year period) - these citizens would have raised questions.

They would have asked about messy matters

wand

hypnotic spell created by the

of Science

like

murder. The

would have been

shattered.

Never has any person been fined or prosecuted

for his role in

the Tuskegee Study.

With AIDS, no newspaper probes the politically, established

HIV

fact that

peer review has,

as the starting point for all research, has

ruled out other research, no matter

how

HIV

promising, where

is

not

the basis.

A

virologist at a southern California university said,

asked him about HIV as the cause of AIDS:

who

stand back a

ally haven't

little

from the

political fray

proved HIV causes AIDS.

you know. The Swedes, the substance of their

when

I

"There are those of us .

.

.

and see

that they re-

Medical faddism

in 1911, did important research

work was ignored here

on

until 1950,

isn't

new,

polio, but

because

re-

search in America had been heading along a different channel." This

was

off the record.

At another southern California university, several virologists

were read the a positive cally

fell

HIV

latest test

CDC

was no longer needed

One

off their chairs.

But, of course,

illegal!"

definition of AIDS.

of

When

they realized that

for a diagnosis, they practi-

them was heard

no one would go on

to splutter, "That's

one of the researchers emphasized

action, or

any

neutrality

by remarking, "Are you crazy? Do you think I'm going

stick

my

reaction.

neck out on

In fact,

this

.

.

the record with that rehis to

business?"

Professionals frightened for their jobs, their grant monies.

They

will not take a contrary or critical position

on AIDS.

of that fear stems from the tacit threat that peer review,

own

A

good part

among

their

conservative kind, will shut them down, leave them without

grants, publishable articles,

and ultimately

162

jobs.

CHAPTER TWENTY Big daily newspapers will present as fact that a diagnosis of

HIV-positive tirely

nearly tantamount to future death - an assertion en-

is

unsupported by broad-spectrum studies - but they don't dare

suggest

below the surface of academia, there

that,

ment about

way AIDS

the

research

is

a lot of resent-

is

being managed.

That they

call

unsubstantiated rumor.

We've

also been led to believe that more funds

Media play

troversial issue.

truth

is,

and AZT, that

is

now

more money thrown down just a lack of

money

the only con-

being given to that analysis. the

questionable money.

etc., is

more than

is

is

same hole

Very questionable. But

Denmark

rotten in

cardinal rule: Things Are Basically All Right.

It is

The

produced HIV

that

to

say

violates the

impolite to suggest

that structural supports are rotten, that problems are endemic, that

AIDS

research If

swimming mess and

a

is

a major

media

and scandals with

a

will stay that

to

keep the public

management to

step

contradictions

mean, day-after-day approach, exposing every

pect, not relenting, giving front-page coverage

enough

way.

AIDS

outlet decided to pursue

in,

in a

as-

and headlines often

mild frenzy, then you might see upper

you might see media-ownership make

a

move

put the squash on proceedings, because then the natives would

have gotten out of hand with an issue which

When NIH a broken mast.

is

too sensitive.

turned the corner into the 1980s,

Its

program on cancer had been

expectations generated in the professional public mind. Then

AIDS

arrived.

NIH

it

was

a flop

sailing with

compared with

community and

in the

determined that Robert Gallo,

one of those men who had worked with so-called cancer viruses, the new class called retroviruses, would get the nod on pursuing the search for an

ment was

AIDS germ. The technology was

there.

It

was

Gallo has proved to be adept search.

He

in place.

The equip-

high-tech. at controlling the direction of re-

has minimized, with help, the number of causation-sce-

narios which will be entertained.

More than any

other American re-

searcher, he has belittled environmental factors, belittled the non-

HIV models

of AIDS. Zombie-like, the press has cooperated.

When newspapers do face,

it

report something that

usually dies after a day or two.

163

lies

under the sur-

AIDS INC. For example, on October 22nd, 1987, the makings of a major scandal broke

The tics

New

in the

York Times.

CDC. Seems

released by the

NYC

New

York City Health Dept. challenged AIDS

resulting from IV

drug

that instead of

use, a

much

31%

of

death-statis-

AIDS deaths

53% was

larger

in

the correct

figure.

What

meant was, diagnosed AIDS

this

drug than gay. The the city

CDC

in

NY

was more

all

AIDS deaths

had been saying 55% of

were male gays. The

New

York City Health Dept. said no,

IVin

that

figure should be 38%.

You would be hard pressed story.

It

died.

No

scandal erupted.

up any more

to dig

No

info

on

major conflict emerged

this

at the

CDC. It

earlier

actually

was

the

tail

end of detective work done two years

by Terry Krieger and Dr. Cesar Caceres (Wall

ber 24, 1985), and

still

by John

earlier

St. Journal,

Octo-

Lauritsen (Philadelphia Gay

News, Feb. 14,1985).

Although the two 1985 pieces were

a bit different

from each

AIDS is a drug-related phenomenon, almost across the board. Throw out the risk-groups and just look into the backgrounds of those diagnosed with AIDS and other, their

you

message was

will, in the

essentially the same:

overwhelming majority of

Since these stories

cases, find

made an obvious kind

drug abuse.

of sense, they

were

ignored.

Researchers had been explaining IV drug use as AIDS-related

by invoking

dirty,

shared needles as the cause. That gave them a sce-

nario for viral transmission, which

And

in the case of

homosexual

was what they were looking

sex, they cited

semen

mission in anal intercourse as the probable route of

to

for.

blood trans-

HIV

transmis-

sion.

But they overlooked and ignored another

factor.

Drugs.

The

drugs the IV users were shooting up every day and the immunosuppressive effect of

hang

that,

like a fifty-foot

which

neon sign

Furthermore, the

CDC,

fact to

any ordinary observer would

in the air.

in its

AIDS

statistics,

IV drug-user category for heterosexuals only.

164

had invented the

Those gay men who

CHAPTER TWENTY also shot drugs were put in the gay/bisexual category, because

it

was

assumed that gay sex was the way they had contracted AIDS.

Turned

out, reported Krieger

and Caceres,

homosexual and bisexual IV drug users erosexual IV drug users,

been intravenous drug

we

"If

AIDS of

25%

of

AIDS

patients, projected that at least

54%

79.

".

surveys of

AIDS patients had been we find that at least 79%

of .

CDC

.

patients have been drug abusers."

Let

me

you, the joy of being able to detect one virus in

tell

new

of patients with a

of

patients have

users."

drug abusers. 54 plus 25 equals

AIDS

the 1,163

to the 2,342 exclusively het-

find at least

Krieger and Caceres, then invoking several

oral

we add

disease

would be cause

79%

for strutting in the halls

NIH. But to discover that 79% of

all

those diagnosed with

AIDS

are

quite possibly drug abusers

makes no news.

no novel drug

manufactured and prescribed and sold

eradicate

all

that can be

drug

in the world, a

and

will

Although as

use.

researcher

is

be more than eager

I

Well, there

It falls flat.

write this, I'm sure

is

to

somewhere

trying to invent just such a medication, to

overlook

its

undoubted hazardous

side effects.

As

AIDS

of October, 1987, IV drug use In addition to that, the

cases.

who have

was holding firm

CDC

of

42% makes one

they are close to the truth

looked factor in AIDS.

54%

of

AIDS

AIDS

we

all

is

in the

also 42%.

think these figures are estimates,

at all,

they too reveal a major over-

accept the Krieger-Caceres projection that

patients are oral drug-abusers - or any figure remotely

resembling that panic

If

of

reports that, of the blacks

Hispanic community, the percentage of IV drug users

if

24%

been diagnosed with AIDS, 42% have used IV drugs;

The coincidence but

at

we

could be talking about

patients abusing

some form

90+%

of black

and His-

of drugs.

Of course, people have been using drugs for centuries. But not in these combinations, tant,

and not with these adulterants.

some heavy drug abusers

More impor-

have, historically, died of

suppression-plus-opportunistic-infections, the so-called

immuno-

AIDS

pattern.

They have developed wasting syndromes, pneumonias, rampant viral and bacterial infections which have killed them.

It isn't

new.

165

AIDS INC. The Krieger and Caceres story appeared and promptly died.

It

became an

in the Wall St. Journal

interesting curio, nothing more.

166

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

INSTEAD OF THE EVENING NEWS Suppose your TV that not

set

began

telling

you something important:

one study of consequence had been done which tracked the

changing health of those who cut out damaging immunosuppressive factors

from

worse

yet,

But that story

their lives. it

You might

is

conclude,

if

too complicated for TV, and

Things Are Basically All Right.

bites a hole in the rule:

medical researchers aren't punching up better

health by studying people

who

try to

change detrimental

what

habits,

the hell are they doing?

Suppose, since your est" stories,

it

began

TV

telling

set

is

"human

already fixated on

inter-

who have

you about numbers of people

been misdiagnosed as having AIDS. This must be happening

all

over

the world.

A

hit

and miss scan

of

AIDS

literature quickly turns

up

a

few

recorded examples.

Raymond Smego describes a case in "Secondary Syphilis Masquerading as AIDS in a Young Gay Male," (North Carolina Medical Journal, vol. 45, 1984, p. 253-4).

Smego

writes, "(The patient's presen-

lymph node enlarge-

tation of) constitutional complaints, diffuse

ment, and widespread skin lesions was mistakenly attributed to AIDS

by both the patient and

many

the medical staff

upon admission.

Indeed,

of these features were compatible with either the AIDS-related

may

complex, which

represent a prodrome to the development of

KS

full-blown AIDS, or with disseminated

eventual conclusion, though, was

But once

a disease gets rolling

not in populations - you leave

RA an error

(Kaposi's sarcoma)."

that this patient

- and

common

I

had

mean

The

syphilis.

in

Washington,

sense behind.

Berg, in the July, 1986, Southern Medical Journal, describes

in

AIDS

diagnosis:

"A 29-year-old male Haitian refugee had

generalized lymphadenopathy, weight

167

loss, bilateral

lung

infiltrates,

AIDS INC.

diagnosed by transbronchial lung biopsy as tuberculosis.

He had

pre-

viously been labeled as having 'pre-AIDS' which led to multiple sui-

Four months

cide attempts.

later,

cyanosis and gangrene of both

lower extremities necessitated amputation, which revealed vasculitis."

That was the diagnosis, for which he hadn't been treated.

Not

AIDS. Dr. Harry Hollander, of the Adult Immunodeficiency Clinic, at

the University of California at San Francisco, summarized, in a 1986

who had

study, 80 consecutive physician-referred patients he saw,

been diagnosed "with AIDS-related out to be, as he called

it,

Eight of them turned

illnesses."

pseudo-AIDS. They actually had other medi-

which was being derailed by the

cal illnesses, treatment of

false diag-

nosis.

Here

is

one story from the

"The patient, a 20-year-old

eight:

man, was referred by

a

phadenopathy syndrome

(infected glands).

a

winery

who complained

physician-relative for concern of lym-

.

.

is

a physical laborer at

and fatigue beneath

His family assumed that he practiced a homosexual

right arm.

style because he lived with

referred

He

of ten days of pain

.

his

life-

male companions, and therefore he was

The history showed recent heavy

lifting at

work

that pre-

He said he had not engaged in homosexual activities known to be risk factors for AIDS. On ex-

ceded the onset of pain. activities or other

amination there was only tenderness of the short head of the right ceps with a resolving ecchymosis overlying the mid-biceps.

bi-

No

adenopathy was appreciated. Results of a complete blood count and sedimentation rate were within normal limits In other words, the proper diagnosis

Too many dence. yet to

In what,

make

of these misdiagnoses

An AIDS

though?

a single right

1987), Dr.

green

was

monkey

muscle-strain.

might shake public

confi-

research establishment which has

Practice

Luc Montagnier, co-discoverer

WHO

.

move?

In a recent issue of Family

Jonathan Mann,

." .

spokesman

for

theory of AIDS' origin.

News (December of the

virus,

and

AIDS, both debunked the

The Family

covering an AIDS-in-Africa conference in Naples.

some very weak arguments had been forwarded

168

HIV

15-31,

to

Practice article

was

Montagnier said put AIDS' origina-

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE and characterized the emergence

tion in Africa

AIDS

of

viruses as "a

Jonathan Mann told the conference, "The more that emerges, the less we know about where this virus how long it has been in the world, and how it grew to

continuing mystery."

information

came from, become

the problem

Why

today."

it is

hasn't this story

moved from

Why

one of major American newspapers?

good kick on

Family Practice to section hasn't

it

Basically, because the press representatives at

haven't told American reporters that the story official seal of

approval from their

still

NIH and CDC

true, that

it

has the

scientists.

two of our highest-ranking AIDS

believe that

AIDS

originated in Africa, despite the

African-monkey origin of an HIV-type

monkey

is

Essex,

fact that Essex recently retracted key research

So, for

a

Max

Robert Gallo and researchers,

been given

evening news?

to the

American

reporters, the

which had pointed

to

an

virus.

debunking of the African green

theory by one of HIV's discoverers

is

just a

European opin-

ion.

One

night, instead of the evening news,

by

tasy, a fable told

A

Leonard Bernstein.

Boys and

I

propose airing a fan-

a voice like Rather, Cronkite, or perhaps, better yet,

girls,

narration to an on-screen cartoon:

forthwith the story of the suicide-gene.

In several big cities across America, simultaneously seventeen

carpenters have committed suicide. course.

But computers, digesting

country bring

should

this

odd

happen?

this

fact up.

No

This takes awhile to discover, of

facts of police inquiries all

And, of course,

one can answer

for the cause.

prising researcher, Doctor X, has a pet theory.

headed up

investigative teams.

out into the

field

it,

Why

that.

But right away a search commences

years, has written articles about

an odd

it is

over the

fact.

One

enter-

He's nursed this for

has garnered grant monies, has

The teams, though, don't actually go

and paw over crimes, they study human genes

in a

human which

con-

lab in Maryland.

Doctor

X

believes that there

trols the act of suicide.

is

a

gene

in the

This gene can be switched on or switched

169

off,

AIDS INC.

but

when

ON,

it is

The suicide gene does

it,

in the

there

is

owner

the

is

hard to

of the gene eventually

but

trigger,

commits

suicide.

when some unknown

no turning back. That's the basic reason

factor

for violence

world, always has been.

hogwash about upbringing, poverty, drug

All the

abusive fathers, character flaws, juvenile incidental to the suicide gene.

starvation -

jails,

addiction, all this is

Without the gene being switched on,

nothing happens.

Doctor X

overjoyed about these carpenters because

is

him

a clear field for research.

ally

been done

Now

suppose (and I'm not here trying

"discoveries,'"

and

Many

regulate.

mimic what has

gives

actu-

human genetics) Doctor X has mapped to know what human functions they

in the field of

out seven genes and claims invariably

to

it

journal

argue against these

articles

but Doctor X has been gaining adherents over the years,

on the

his fortunes are

Not because

rise.

of his science,

mind

you, but mainly because the idea of genes regulating behavior in general

is

becoming more accepted. So he has some

Now

he begins to research tissue samples of the seventeen car-

penters; he has a

samples.

leverage.

lots of

how

theory about

method

This

Doctor X has

new

is

not

known

equipment there

to

to

99%

analyze genes from those of

human

in his lab,

geneticists, but

and seven people are

necessary to run just several oi the large machines at his disposal.

A

period of silence ensues.

period, Doctor tells

X wearily and

in

At the end of

Several years.

this

triumph emerges from his lab and

the world, through the press, that he has once

and

for all isolated

In the cases of these seventeen carpenters, he has,

the suicide gene.

moreover, discovered

,

in general at least,

how

the gene

comes

to be

switched on. Since he

unchallenged; is

going to

is

it's

roll

backed bv federal money, clear that the scales

his

pronouncements go

have been tipped.

More money

downhill towards Doctor X, and scientists want

on the correct side of

that incline.

They're not stupid.

to

be

They need

re-

search money, too. Besides,

among

more

carpenters.

suicides are beginning to occur, and not just

There

is

another group.

170

Alaskan fishermen.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE They're jumping off their boats in increasing numbers. suicides in the

US

up

are

Actually,

for the year.

Suicides in the U.S., Haiti, Africa, and Brazil are

all

Doctor X publishes a paper indicating that these

year.

all

up

for the

statistics are

significant.

Already, people are beginning to ignore the that seventeen carpenters

the

memory

of

committed

most Americans.

suicide.

Hell,

we seem

of sorts going on, one which embraces, or could

odd

first

That

is

to

revelation

dropping out of

have an epidemic

come

embrace, the

to

globe.

And now comes below Houston

living

a sensational revelation.

Street are

TV

Doctor X appears on

Americans

Artists in

committing suicide

New

York

too.

once every couple of months, assuring

problem of trying

to

understand the complete mechanism by which the suicide gene

is

that he

One

turned on.

gene-activation.

accidentally

working on

is

this devilish

thing, he stresses,

is clear.

bumping

activate.

crowds, and Well,

were

right

it is

gene

new

better.

somehow

it is

best to avoid

people live by these principles anyway.

They

of

all

just didn't

Around

So they

know why.

grant monies being dished out by the feds to

suicide epidemic are

aimed

at

understanding the suicide

the U.S., at universities, researchers are privately

grumbling about Doctor

was responsible

is

which causes the suicide

effect

Therefore, on sheer probabilities,

along.

Soon 80% curb the

a contagion of

best to limit contacts with strangers.

many

all

is

shoulders, and the contact alone

producing an interactive chemical gene to

There

People are contacting other people, shaking hands,

X.

How

for suicide,

did he really prove that a single gene

and how did he prove

that activation

created by personal contact involving a chemical triggering of

is

some

kind? But the grumbling

is

private, because grant

monies are

Reputations can be broken by publicly taking Doctor

Rumors begin

way to

to

ooze out of Doctor X's

lab.

X

at stake.

to task.

X

really has

no

of verifying that his suicide gene controls suicide or has anything

do with

that desperate act.

X has been

171

ranting of late against sug-

AIDS INC.

gestions that exotic cofactors 1

catalysts,

,

might be involved

in switch-

ing on the suicide gene.

"No

cofactors!"

he screams

at least

once a day. "All you need

the gene and simple chemical triggers.

with anything

whole gene theory

single

phenomenon

is

come out

into the

open and say

that

may not even be a may be vastly differ-

sheer tripe, that suicide

is

to start with.

exactly like another

To which defenders

That

own

ent reasons for ending one's suicide

Suicide has nothing to do

else."

Several scientists actually the

is

there

is,

and the assumption

life,

that

one

absurd.

is

X

of Doctor

scornfully reply:

"We have an

epidemic on our hands and these people are living in the dark ages

We

with their multiple-cause theory.

now

about

this revisitation of the

professional

critics,

We

ignorance.

tivation of the

X's

many

is

move

forward."

impossible to set

up

a controlled experiment to

gene causes suicide.

going to stand

still

If

he's right,

mechanical ac-

What

exper-

for that?

researchers point out that one aspect of the epidemic

essentially proves Doctor X's theory

New

Otherwise healthy tual count,

right

black plague, and these gainsayers,

gene would cause immediate suicide.

imental volunteer

But

to

it is

prove that Doctor

do something

to

are trying to take us back into the past, back into

have

Of course,

have

commit

suicide,

is

true:

York bakers,

have begun

who

to kill

almost never, by ac-

themselves - and

this

has happened always after contact, on the lower East Side of NY, with high-risk artists and/or carpenters

(whom

they've contracted to do

repairs in their shops).

What else does one need to prove, der to know finally that the suicide gene

neatly is

and

alive

perfectly, in or-

and well and com-

municable? But several researchers scratch a

who

find that, of those bakers

high-risk carpenters

1

and

Cooperating elements

central

germ or other

artists,

(e.g.

factor to

little

below the surface and

apparently have come into contact with

only

2% have committed

suicide,

and

other germs, malnutrition, drugs) which enable a cause disease in a person.

172

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE some

of those had terminal cancer.

researchers

who

But this study

ignored by the

is

are landing grants to study the suicide gene's

mech-

anism.

more disturbing

In the next several years, there are

ing out of Doctor X's lab and adjoining labs.

Doctor X

He

with several large pharmaceutical houses.

is

com-

stories

negotiating

is

thinking of leaving

own

firm - the

his position with the

government and

purpose of which

will

be to manufacture a drug which will directly

interfere with the

body chemicals

meets

when

that react

What

an unaware victim.

in public

starting his

a

a high-risk person

boon

By

this will be.

prophylactic use of this drug, a person will be able to walk the streets

without

fear.

If

he meets a high-risk person and the secret chemical

contagion begins to occur - which would tragically switch on his suicide gene - the

Several X's plans to

new drug

more

will stop all that.

make

fringe researchers

(unproven) theory about the way is

planning

number

other scenarios for

happens by the

attacks the

how

many

Another

This

essentially,

is

now committed is

to his

triggered, since

prominent

scientists are

the suicide gene

switched on.

virus from person

and

proposing

Some

beyond

think

The virus

to person.

triggers, accidentally, the

the suicide gene turns on

story: rises

is

now

a certain point,

when

the

and there could

reasons for this heat-escalation, including ordinary fevers.

Wait a minute. thought

is

the suicide gene

of certain nerve cells

temperature of the brain

be

of

transfer of a

genome

suicide gene.

X

manufacture a drug to stop that triggering process.

to

In fact, a

it

accusations about Doctor

go into private drug-manufacture.

they say, creating a conflict of interest: Dr.

he

own

it

We

map was

thought the

already laid out.

had definitely been proven that chemical reactions were

We set

this part of

off in the victim

a high-risk person.

the scenario

then Doctor X's plans to go into

is

when he contacted really up for grabs,

If

private manufacture of a drug could really constitute an uncon-

scionable bias - and since he searcher on the subject of suicide

the

is .

.

.

number one government

re-

shouldn't he be disqualified and

replaced? Quietly, while Doctor

X works

in his lab trying to

other developments are taking place which will dwarf

173

save us

what

is

all,

occur-

AIDS INC.

For the

ring there.

been reporting ously, there

suicides as part of the growing epidemic. Previ-

all

had been some attempt

committed

cides"

doctors and psychiatrists have

last several years,

to differentiate "ordinary sui-

obvious down-to-earth

for

human

those triggered, most probably, by the gene after

But now,

with a high-risk person.

tact

ALL

boards.

suicides are

that, a pre-suicide state

are being kept, but

it's

added

it

was

reasons from set off

that nicety has

all

gone by the

to the rolls of the epidemic.

No

has been defined and diagnosed. estimated that

by con-

Not only statistics

million Americans are in this

1.1

pre-suicide state.

The symptoms? Restlessness, anxiety, depression. Whenever

make

doctor spots signs of these, he can agnosis.

show

Studies are beginning to

more pre-S people

a

presumptive pre-suicide

that, as

a

di-

time passes, more and

are turning into actual suicide statistics.

Although no figures are released, beyond a specialized study of 3000 It's

men from San

Francisco, the

Of

a death sentence.

course,

word

is,

when

pre-S invariably leads to

a doctor

termination and so informs his patient, there fect

on the

patient.

is

makes

S.

the pre-S de-

a strong hypnotic ef-

Very strong.

Furthermore, patients with small pimples, with minor skin rashes, with headaches, with blurry vision from watching excessive

amounts of TV, are flooding

A

that they are pre-S.

into doctors' offices, fearing the worst,

certain percentage leave the office with that di-

agnosis.

No S and

one knows

how

long the incubation period

is

between pre-

S.

But the capper comes

makes

this startling

murder

is

when

a friend

announcement

and colleague of Doctor X

in a televised press conference:

actually suicide.

Yes, an avalanche of studies undertaken over the last twenty

years leave no doubt that a murderer

The

act of killing

is

merely

a

is

mask

actually trying to

kill

himself.

for a biochemical event, the

switching on of the suicide gene.

Suddenly,

all

of history takes on a

new

hue, a

new

weight.

All

those wars, those revolutions, those uprisings of the poor, those

squashings of the peasants underheel, those poisonings of rivers by

174

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE large thoughtless corporations It's all

the If

same

we

monstrous.

gene.

It

a death wish,

it's all

always was.

It

always

suicide.

all

it's

will be.

we had an epidemic before, now the figures are murder is now reported to the authorities as a sui-

thought

Every

cide.

Now

there

death business

is

is

No

no turning back.

so horrible, so

.

.

.

We

debate strategies and underlying causes. in the

dissent

brooked.

is

we

contagious that

have

to

This

can't afford to

march forward

groove established by the big-time researchers headed by Doctor

X.

The whole

we

can progress

program

thrust of the

A

faster.

is

now

more money so

to give

cure must be found.

Villages, towns, cities, states are passing laws requiring the

zenry to submit to pre-S subjective all

know

testing.

and vague are squashed

murder and

that

They

like us.

and who knows, maybe some day soon

citi-

"tests" are

Besides,

as counter-patriotic.

suicide are really undertaken

types of people, and they are not ent,

Complaints that these

by

we

certain

are genetically differ-

we'll

be able

to

prove that

they're genetically inferior. In the

those

meantime, detention centers are being

who show

Speaking of

is

up so

positive for the pre-S condition can be

true.

gorillas

are being kept in sterile single isolation

rooms

no sound, no motion, no germs. These primates have

been operated on. Brain surgeries have been done, attempts cally switch

that

isolated.

chimps and

isolation, in labs all over the country,

and rhesus monkeys

where there

set

on suicide genes, thus proving

to artifi-

that Doctor X's thesis

is

Unfortunately, although one hundred plus primates have had

the switching-on operation, none, after four-plus years, has killed

himself.

There

is

some

speculation, though, that the sterile isolation

rooms may induce madness

after

enough

which may

years,

in turn

lead to suicide.

Insurance companies are funding research into the suicidegene, and they are eagerly awaiting primate suicides. Their strategy interesting:

who

they hope

to rule out, as uninsurable,

are diagnosed as pre-S.

incubating his later suicide,

After

all, if

a

person

he most probably

175

is

will

all

is

those people

pre-S, while he

is

be prone to devel-

AIDS INC. oping stress-related But

health plans.

which would ordinarily be covered by

illnesses,

if

away with

refusing

days

to

develop

and thus be able

to reject,

insurance companies can get

go on

to insure pre-S types, they will

complete genetic profiles of

in glorious

their applicants

forever, inferior specimens.

Needless to say, as time passes, the odd fate of the original seventeen suicidal carpenters, and others whose suicides really did seem to

be unusual and a departure from pattern are ignored completely

in

the accumulating hysteria.

No

one takes notice (and here, admittedly,

the carpenters a

new brand

oversimplify) that

artists are all

which contains a compound

of shellack

plane glue seem like room deodorizer.

upon

I

and the Alaskan fishermen and the

inhalation of this shellack

is

that

using

makes

The destruction of brain

nearly instantaneous and

is

air-

cells

quite

extensive.

No

one takes

much

Things are

notice.

too complicated now.

With succeeding redefinitions of Suicide (even

now

certain cancers are

being included under a category called Self-Created Terminal

Conditions, in keeping with bland assurances of

one finds

it

In fact, pre-S

There

is

pop

psychologists),

very hard to go back in time and pick up vague threads.

seems

no longer doubt

papers, TV, media pick

to

be the condition everyone

is

focusing on.

that pre-S inevitably leads to S.

up on

the

new assumption and

The news-

incorporate

it

into their stories.

Since pre-S

so important now,

is

little

side-maladies are being

defined that stick out from pre-S like spikes from an iron

and foremost

is

pre-S schizophrenia (PSS).

Boston University publishes a a

sudden upsurge

list

of early

A

sudden anger;

First

psychiatrist at a leading

symptoms: sloppy hygiene;

in attendance at church; crossing out

one's telephone index; taking long walks alone; clips;

ball.

names

in

unbending paper

errors in paying taxes; a change in speaking into-

nation, according to neighbors; unreasoned fear of dentistry; discard-

ing possessions; seeking to travel abroad for no apparent reason. Several preachers prostitutes

announce

Bible prophecies.

who have

that these

not yet been found sleeping with

symptoms match one

of the esoteric

Yes, in the end-times, just before the Encounter

176

on

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Armageddon, sinners

the Plain of

afflicted

with plagues will begin

to

exhibit strange, baffling behaviors.

A new

drug

introduced to treat those with pre-S.

is

cousin of ethyl chloride, which

every time

it is

inhaled.

known

already

is

The new drug

It

is

a

to destroy brain cells

also attacks brain cells.

It is

thought that by permanently warping areas of the brain, the suicide

gene might have no

effect

when

it

finally triggers.

Of

course, a state of

considerable mental depreciation would already have taken place,

from the drug therapy, but some

A He

is

spokesman

backing

new

life is

better than none.

for a large insurance

company

publicly disagrees.

detention legislation which will allow pre-S per-

sons to ship out to any number of South Pacific colonies,

one would be

The

U.S. intelligence

community

is

tions to the National Security Council.

global epidemic,

we

In these

busy making recommendaSince

we

are faced with a

should take advantage of the situation (before the

The basic plan

other side does).

atolls.

from harassment by non pre-S types.

free

is

simple.

Foreign governments,

particularly in lands bearing rich mineral reserves, should be

wooed,

with an eye toward their declaring national states of emergency, based

on large numbers assist.

It

exists to

will be

U.S. medical representatives will

of pre-S citizens.

made

clear to these

governments that no better way

cement national control than through medical channels.

There are no

political issues to

needed

All that's

is

promote, no ideologies to enunciate.

the insistence of medical authorities that the

Health Emergency dictates instituting curfews, postponing elections,

and establishing detention

Any sidents

is,

centers for the afflicted.

connection between some of the afflicted and political dis-

of course, entirely coincidental.

Since casual personal contact with strangers can trigger the S-

gene, no gathering of more than three persons in any public place will

be tolerated. Sex, a very personal form of contact, will be restricted to those

couples registered as married.

Conceiving and giving birth since Society

must guard

will

be subject to medical control,

against pre-S mothers having pre-S babies.

177

AIDS INC.

"Tests are

now

being perfected" for detection of the S-gene in a

state of near-triggering, but in the

will

be the guide.

diate,

and

meantime, behavioral symptoms

much larger list of early, intermepublished. Some additions include: skin

In this regard, a

late signs is

being

rashes; leathery patches

on the

face;

speaking

at excessive

volume;

losing objects; refusal to answer the telephone; a prolonged sober ex-

pression

.

.

.

About from an board,

this time, a confidential internal

leaked to the press.

is

sinks beneath the weight of

Fund

causes a stories

Long Term Planning; What

in the

The in

locked. that

It

new

on

stir for

a

day or two, then

pre-S.

RY

Subject:

one

written

HS

From: To:

memorandum,

major pharmaceutical house to a member of the

officer of a

all

for the

Sort of Research Grant Shall

ideal disease,

which the In other

from

a financial point of view,

entire catalog of

words, you could

sore throats were nothing

RY, would be

human symptoms were

start

from

a sore throat,

inter-

and know

more than ominous pre-conditions

emergence of heavier symptoms,

cells counts.

We

Future?

like fever, like

lowered T-

These, in turn, would be locked on to another heavier

branch of the disease-tree, which involved malaise, melancholy, despondence.

And

each branch of symptoms would involve

tests to ascertain

the exactness of the patient's medical position.

On

each branch, there would exist various drugs, various

remedies. Each drug would have toxic side-effects in various degrees,

and would invoke

its

own symptoms, which would show up later in down to-

more

serious well-defined elements of the disease, further

ward

the trunk of the tree.

Ultimately, once

you arrived on

the trunk

you would have

a

congealing of psychological and physical symptoms requiring surgical

removal of organs, including, for further research

at last, the brain,

on the one Disease.

178

which would be used

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Each new definitional phase of the Disease would of course volve the

office-visit for the diagnosis,

the patient a

give

jolt

of depression.

him knowledge

his current

sore throat

of the

whole

symptoms were would never be

and

would

It

tree, bit

that diagnosis also,

by

bit.

by dint of education,

He would know

indicative of worse things to come. a sore throat.

It

in-

would give

would be

probable disaster and would function, to a degree, as a

a

that

A

prelude to

self-fulfilling

prophecy.

As ing of

all

and, thus,

I

say, business-wise, this

human symptoms compounding

a sniffle that

is

the ideal Disease.

requiring

side-effects.

was regarded merely

interlock-

more invasive intervention

The opposite extreme would be

as a sniffle.

179

The

.

.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

ON THE

AIDS MEDIA

POLITICAL

RIGHT Here are

a

few examples of

a different sort of

news coverage

and media play on AIDS.

Under

AIDS? on

the banner headline

the cover of the

newspa-

per for the Moral Majority, Liberty Report (May 1987), the following short text

way

men abandoned

also the

burned

"And

printed over the space of half the page:

is

ting indecent acts

of their error.

and receiving

Romans

1:27

woman and men commit-

the natural function of the

men

towards one another,

in their desire

same

in the

in their

New

own

with

persons the due penalty

American Standard."

titled, "FROM ME TO YOU by Jimmy AIDS A JUDGMENT FROM GOD?", Swaggart writes, "Every baby that contracts AIDS through a blood transfusion, etc. can

an undated release

In

Swaggart/

IS

thank the homosexual community dividual

who

Likewise, every in-

for his death.

receives contaminated blood while undergoing surgery

can thank the homosexual community for his death."

Swaggart's group mails out an issue of The (December, 1987) as well.

member other

He

of the Indiana

Written by

House

Don

Evangelist

Boys, preacher, a former

of Representatives,

work from the religious right: 1) "God warned mankind about AIDS

in

its

text is similar to

Numbers

32:23

when

said, 'Be sure your sin will find you out.'" 2) "In

ing with

every formal debate and every television talk show deal-

sodomy

that

I

have been involved with,

I

have always heard

about the great contributions creative homosexuals have made to society. But they never tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. They only shine the spotlight on a few well-known perthe old

lie

verts that

made

a

name

for themselves,

181

and those are debatable."

AIDS INC.

"The sodomite doesn't

3)

middle

for

The prisons

most

you

that

it is

not the upper and

are sodomites, but the lower classes of

Homosexual rape

are full of them.

the

is

Many

"Sodomites are the most vicious people in the world.

mass murders have been committed by sodomites

.

.

518 deaths in the past 17 years, sodomites killed 350 of them

remember

cent (and

norm

Officials look the other way."

prisons.

4)

of the

who

classes of people

people.

tell

that

.

Out

of

— 68 per-

homosexuals make up only about 4 percent

of the population)."

"As a

5)

troduced a

wanted I

to

wanted

doing

in

member of the Indiana House of make sodomy illegal again

bill to

.

hang them from

to

the maples

do was put them

in jail

Representatives,

They acted

.

.

in-

I

as

if I

on the statehouse lawn, but

from 7

to 21 years (as

all

we had been

Indiana for 75 years)."

6) "Dr.

Robert Benjamin

13,1985, issue) as saying,

To

to quarantine people for

life.'

Bible historian

reported in Newsweek (September

is

completely control Well, get to

James McKeever,

who

AIDS you would have

that

it if

is

necessary."

appears on the cover of

one of his books with Pat Robertson, has penned The AIDS Plague

(Omega

The introduction was written by Dr.

Publications, 1986).

Ralph Byron, former chief of surgery ron writes, "In the for

AIDS

is

at the City of

by page 17 he

is

making

Hospital.

By-

Jimmy Swaggart. How-

this suggestion:

when harm

is

imminent.

Alert, but there is serious concern "It is

Hope

believe the only adequate solution

takes a softer tone than, say,

to 'Condition Red'

Red

I

a vital faith in the resurrected Christ!"

McKeever ever,

final analysis,

"A military There

and acute

base... goes

no panic

is

at a

alertness.

time to declare a state of national health emergency con-

cerning AIDS."

McKeever suggests HIV

thinks people might be tagged in three categories, stage

(antibody-negative) you (antibody-positive),

would be issued

you would be issued

He

0, 1

and

a green card.

a yellow card.

both antibody-positive and had symptoms, stage red card.

He

testing for everyone in America.

2,

If

2.

At

At

1

you were

you would get

a

also discusses giving "infected" students their lessons at

182

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO home by

video

(".

.

AIDS may

.

force us to

move

to a

more

isolated

type of education technology.")

Appendix B

Finally, in

offers four steps to being healed

must humble

book, McKeever gets rolling and

to the

wicked ways. As AIDS turns

A

from one of God's plagues.

himself, really pray, seek God's face,

person

and turn from

into an opportunity to enforce morality,

McKeever makes his ultimate pitch in a section headed, "PROTECTION DEPENDENT UPON OBEDIENCE." He defines a state of voluntary slavery (bondslavery)

and says

that a

bondslave

is

a

"volunteer permanent slave."

we

"Here

see,"

McKeever

slaves.. .on their foreheads.

Later

writes, "that

we

find out

Become

a slave to

Christianity

is

on the wane,

American

world-view,

prone to

them

earth."

for

Mes-

you from AIDS.

its

cartoonish aspects shunted to one side

system of

this closed

faith

this bizarre

and thought, leaves us

all

disaster.

American

society don't

association, particularly

most important

and reporting on

a living out of analyzing

want

to get too close to the religious right

they are afraid their colleagues

It

will save

seals

But the failure to understand

stage.

Those who make

years.

why: He

bond-

easy to believe that the influence of hawkish right-wing

It's

of the

God and He

seals His

coming upon the

their protection against the plagues

sage:

God

if

will

they give

political force in

will continue to

somehow make them the movement its due:

America

guilty

--

by the

It is

in the last twenty-five

have an important role

in the next

adminis-

tration.

Here well,

who

crowds

is

a particularly interesting bit of

has hosted events for his friend

that

Bush

Falwell:

is

man

for the

White House

You're a Christian.

the trumpet sounds,

told

You'll be

There'll be several people in

automobile with you, maybe someone who

When

Jerry Fal-

in 1988:

"You'll be riding along in an automobile.

the driver perhaps.

the

the

wisdom from

George Bush, and

is

not a Christian.

you and other born-again believers

that automobile will be instantly caught away

--

you

in

will disappear,

leaving behind only your clothes and physical things that cannot inherit eternal

life.

The unsaved person or persons

183

in the

automobile

AIDS INC.

will

suddenly be startled

and the

a driver,

to find that the car is

moving along without

suddenly somewhere crashes

car

.

.

Other cars on

.

the highways driven by believers will suddenly be out of control and stark

pandemonium

where Christians

on

will occur

are caught

away

.

.

.

every highway in the world

(taken to heaven) from the driver's

wheel." This sort of astonishing occurrence, according to Falwell and other American luminaries of the religious right,

and Jimmy Swaggart and

Billy

Graham, marks

e.g.,

Pat Robertson 1

a period called the

Rapture, during which born-again Christians will be swept

away

into

heaven, body and soul, by Jesus.

What Tribulation,

then follows on Earth

and the USSR,

what you

is

a terrible period called the

marked by land war, nuclear exchanges between

get

disease, pain

if

and general all-around

you're not born-again, and

glint in these preachers' eyes

it

may

suffering.

the U.S.

This

is

explain the strange

on Sunday morning TV.

They believe

know something we don't. They know that Armageddon is on the horizon, because Bible tells them so ~ if it's read selectively, of course. And one of

they

most obvious signs

A

of the

end of history

1985 Nielsen survey

ularly listen to preachers

showed

who

tell

is

the the

plagues. AIDS.

that 61 million

them nuclear war

Americans regis

a fact in our

generation.

Pat Robertson, the broadcaster and candidate for President in 1988, spoke to 16 million families every

Americans

who own

TVs.

day on

television, or

20%

of

His 700 Club brings in $200 million a year,

is larger than the readership of the New York LA Times, Washington Post, Time and Newsweek combined. Jimmy Swaggart, White House visitor and TV preacher, spoke

reaching a group that Times,

to 4.5 million

households.

households daily, Jerry Falwell talks to

Both have been regular White House guests.

The vast majority of 80,000 the nation every day

1

5.6 million

religious broadcasters

on radio and TV believe

Robertson believes Christians must suffer the end which the Kingdom of God will be established.

after

184

who speak

in nuclear

of the world

to

Armaged-

down

here,

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO The

don.

technical term

As

dispensationalism.

is

God

in,

dispensing

AIDS, of course, being one of God's very important dispensa-

justice.

tions.

There are 10,000 Americans

move

graduating they will

own

Upon

in Bible colleges today.

to proselytizing, teaching, starting their

Bible colleges.

People with end-times scenarios are very conscious of AIDS

and view

symbolic

in that

it

perfect hook.

light.

They can come

in

For these types, an epidemic

behind

with

it

much

is

a

business about

purity and detainment of the impure.

These harder elements of the religious right definitely accept nuclear war and other signs of the end-times such as AIDS.

mean God's

final

when

the later fullness of time,

kingdom

his

And

prophecies are coming to pass.

They

of course, in

Jesus does return to Earth to set

up

him

all

of a thousand years of peace, he'll bring with

those born-agains he snatched out of their cars on the freeway.

and white

They'll be executives

There

and

revenge soon. to

yes, there

is

knowing

in

great

is

new

workers in the be

are, of course, big dollars to

preaching, and, yes, there ger,

collar

power

paradise.

made from

television

to wield over flocks of the ea-

the sweet idea of revenge against the sinners

that

God

will

burn them

in oil forever,

But to understand these people of the religious right,

~

and

you have

understand the ecstasy of the "visionary."

The question

is,

why would

a preacher

making $100 million

a

year seriously believe in and welcome the end of the world? He'd be too busy enjoying his

which many

money

critics of these

to

want

it all

to end.

preachers just

call

This

it all

is

the point at

shuck and

a

dis-

miss the movement. But here

is

a clue.

Ramrodded by

a desire to get

when they are taken up into bombs go off down here on them;

this isn't just

manicured

the sky

by Jesus

at the

revenge on the

when

sinners of our times, dispensationalists believe that

End, before the

Earth, they will keep their bodies with

an ethereal ascension.

There

is

form

nails, the coiffed hair, the straightened teeth.

vival of a distinctly

new

they go,

kind,

unknown

cal religions of the past.

185

to science or

too.

This

even

is

The sur-

to mysti-

AIDS INC.

And

Christian Heaven, as anyone can see from a cursory tour

of cathedrals,

God

as

is,

doesn't need

but he likes the

Alan Watts once

The

fact

The whole kingdom

The

and

if

that doesn't beat

it all,

what

will?

with Jesus will lead them back here to rule in his

trip

for a

in the clouds."

Falwell and others believe they will travel to

is,

first class,

kingdom

cherubs and the angels and the singing and

flitting

the baroque curlicues.

Heaven

said, "a very extravagant place.

those servants around Him, He's omnipotent,

all

Do you

thousand years.

Reagan see themselves

think Jerry Falwell or Ronald

as dishwashers in the

think they see themselves minus perks in the

new

paradise?

New

Do you

World? No, they

belive they won't lose a thing.

You

can take

And you the

it

with you.

can live in a Disney heaven on earth, cleared of

all

riff-raff.

These people see religion as essentially

waged by

the greatest general of

all

a military

campaign

time, Jesus Christ, pronounce-

ments about laying down the sword and turning the other cheek notwithstanding.

He

will lead his troops to victory over Satan in the

no wonder

greatest

Superbowl ever played.

mind

fascinated by the evangelical position.

is

It

is

that the military

No wonder

that the

Pentagon and the intelligence services are replete with born-agains.

And

with people like George Bush (born-again) and Pat Robert-

son waiting in the wings, the religious beat will go on.

God is going to wage nuclear war, bring and brimstone among us mortals, is like the ultimate game chicken, the ultimate fraternity hazing stunt among men of reliCaressing the idea that

down of

fire

gious right. They are of

life

awed by

and limb, the Olivers of Norths.

hind them are the biggest kick -

those with the most apparent disregard

and Armageddon

Somewhere

itself is

in the

the biggest

Men

world

game

in their souls, Falwell,

with guns and

to these

men

God

be-

of the cloth

-

of war.

Reagan, Robertson are

in

love with nuclear clouds ballooning and expanding out over populations.

This

We

is

power.

said these

were conning

preachers were stupid.

the socks off poor saps in Virginia

186

They were and

sick, they

Mississippi.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Meanwhile is

they're having lunch at the

White House.

Falwell

being briefed by the National Security Council on our nuclear

strategies vis-a-vis the Russians,

Armegeddon, author

and Hal Lindsey, modern guru

of The Late Great Planed Earth,

of

addressing

is

Pentagon generals on the waging of nuclear war. These things have

happened.

among conAs we are now in

Considerable propaganda about AIDS has gone out

TV

gregations and

audiences of the religious right.

the year of a Presidential campaign, there

is

approach the AIDS issue and squeeze the most of

it

for a

how

the question of political

to

mileage out

Geroge Bush.

The note

at the

moment

is

one of caution.

But that

is

only a

Given possible future escalation of public sentiment

strategic matter.

against so-called high risk groups, given what might

moment in a wave would move more

of public hysteria about

become

a correct

AIDS, the religious right

~ and their potential money and organization in

boldly in the public arena

should not be tossed

off.

They have both

considerable amounts, and through political action committees and

fund raising organizations, they have completely emerged out of the

bumpkin-phase In the

uncovered

fall

a

Washington

in

politics.

of 1987, the Bay Area Reporter, a San Francisco paper,

confidential

passed within an

memorandum which may have been Charlton Research.

outfit called

Charlton

firm that has done work for the Republican Party.

is

a

PR

The Reporter

Chuck Rund, who was a deputy manager of Ronald Rea1984 campaign, wrote the memo. Rund denies this. He says a

stated that

gan's

former aide, unhappy with porter.

his job,

wrote and leaked

The February 1988 Harper's reprinted the

tive to read,

because

it

real considerations in

September

17,

memo.

it

to the It's

Re-

instruc-

assumes that strategy and winning are the only

how

hard

to press the

1987

187

AIDS

issue:

AIDS INC.

CONFIDENTIAL NOTE TO:

HD

FROM: CR RE:

AIDS

Issue

The AIDS issue could important that

it

easily be a

paramount one

be used effectively and wisely.

sue that could easily backfire

SRC

Nationally,

if

It is

in 1988.

It is

an explosive

is-

(handled) in a heavy or blatant way.

(Senate Republican Committee), the Bush

campaign, the Washington governor campaign, and the Robertson

campaign are exploring ways sue.

be used

major races

In California

it

is

in

is-

Maddy

(a

both Texas and Florida.

Some

mixed bag.

a

AIDS

to harness public reation to the

in

will

It

Republicans,

Republican state senator), Quackenbush (an aide to Republican govit, but many are An example of how

ernor George Deukmejian), refuse to try and exploit

more than

willing.

not to approach

If

we

do,

we must

be

Congressman Dannemeyer

is

it

discreet.

meeting two weeks ago, he was terrifying

mouth anytime anyone made even with AIDS. Someone

and

sound reasonable, play

is far better:

appear

is if

the party

is

a live

grenade on I

the emotion,

responding

to a public

than inciting one.

We

cent fate of the La

Rouche and the Briggs

must avoid being labeled

senator John Briggs introduced a hibit

foaming

at the

fear that

this issue

he would

(Republican state senator) Doolittle's approach

scare a lot of people. 2

it

is

emotional to do any good; indeed

far too

At the

(R., Calif.).

practically

a sympathetic reference to people

Dannemeyer

like

—

bill in

and above

all

make

ground swell rather as extremists; the re-

initiatives

(Republican state

the state legislature to pro-

gays from teaching in public schools) prove that an outright

at-

tack will be rejected by the voters.

This

campaign.

is

the plan for the (Democratic state senator)

We

shall

nizations and have

make

Garamandi

contact with various pro-life, family orga-

them launch campaigns.

2

Dannemeyer states he did not attend the meeting the mouth, and the memo is a fictitious document.

188

in

In

Garamandi's

district,

question, he did not

foam

at

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO the Century Assembly of

hardworking,

God Church seems

a likely ally.

politically ignorant, but as zealous as

They are

Dannemeyer. At-

tacking Garamandi as Pro-Abortion, Pro-Gay and therefore Pro-AIDS

might prove

be easy.

to

Not only could but

AIDS

the

might help us hang on

it

(Dornan

in trouble

[R.,

issue help us to gain

(in places)

where some

ground

in '88,

of our people are

Again, the Republican party must

Calif.]).

never seem to be inciting a reaction, only responding to

If

it.

we

are

low-key, sound logical, and stress the importance of "protecting" families

from the disease, then we could find ourselves

shape

in excellent

in '88.

In February of 1988,

interviewed the pastor of a church south

I

of Los Angeles on the subject of AIDS.

been

telling his flock that

God

to signal that

AIDS was

we were

"a

The pastor had,

some

for

time,

disease and a plague sent from

in the end-times, that sinners

were going

to suffer for their crimes."

During the interview, which took several turns didn't like, record.

Here

Q: A:

is

What It

that the pastor

he said he was only going to continue talking off the

is

an excerpt from our conversation: is

AIDS?

a

punishment

for acts

done against the idea

of the

family and religion.

Q:

And how

A:

You mean, on

is

that plague introduced?

the physical plane?

Q: Yes. A:

Through

the

Q:

God

it

sent

AIDS

through the green monkey

A: Maybe. That's

Q: The

virus.

what they

in Africa?

say.

scientists.

A: Yes.

Q: They say there are several of these A: Well, God would send

Q:

Do you know

of bisexual

swing

there are people

clubs in

AIDS

viruses now.

several plagues, but

New 189

who have

York and other

it's all

been

AIDS.

to a

cities,

number

and have

AIDS INC.

reported

all

community

men and men, and men HIV virus spread out into the hetero and cause AIDS in a big way?

kinds of sex going on between

Why

and women?

at that

A:

Why

Q:

Because

A:

I

point

should

can't

Q: Did

didn't the

it?

a virus.

it's

answer

what viruses do, don't they?

that.

God make

and IV drug users

That's

in

contagious

HIV

that only affected

male gays

America, and then affected black African

heterosexuals in Africa? A:

You mean

a virus that stopped at the boundaries of certain

groups.

Q Why would a virus do that ? A: My understanding is that viruses

don't

do

that.

Q: That's correct. A:

I've

always thought the Soviets might have had some part

in this.

You mean, they

Q:

are

making an attempt

to destroy

America

with AIDS? A: Yes.

Q:

And God

is

working through the Russians.

God works through them. God had invented the AIDS virus. I Q: thought just now you meant that God gave the Soviets the idea of the HIV virus, and showed them how to make it in one of their labs. And the the Soviets spread it to America. A:

(laughs)

I

don't think

But you said that

A: No. The Soviets

would do

that

The Soviets would be trying

Q:

on

their

to destroy

own. America with AIDS.

Since AIDS, you say, affects only the sinners in America, then the

would have invented

Soviets

a virus to lay

waste to sinners in

America. A: No.

Q: That would

make America

stronger,

by getting

rid of all the

sinners.

A:

You

in order to

see,

AIDS

understand

it.

is

a plague.

A

This

is

where you have

plague from God.

190

to start,

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Q:

So God

is

also punishing the Haitians

and Africans

in

Central Africa, and people in Brazil. A: These people have been lax for a long time, in a way.

Q: In what way. A:

They don't become technologically advanced,

like the rest

of the world.

Q:

And

A:

It

this is a sin.

creates a kind of drag

to help these

on

We

the rest of society.

then have

money and food and machines. this drag, God sent them a plague.

people with

Q:

And

A:

They don't believe

because of

in Jesus, either, despite the

many

efforts

of missionaries.

Q: The ones that do would be spared. A:

If

they believe in their hearts.

Q:

Most sinners

A:

Why

Q: Because, of A:

in

America are men?

should that be?

AIDS

reported

all

cases,

91%

are

men.

That could be a mistake.

Q: In

statistics?

A: Yes.

Q:

Are you familiar with the approved treatment

for

AIDS,

AZT? A: Yes,

Q:

AZT

A:

a

drug

that's

Some people who

also can

Q:

it's

have adverse

been around take

effects

it

for

one or two years now.

then need blood transfusions.

on bone marrow.

Well, this could be a further punishment.

mean

You

God

working

through

the

medical

establishment? A:

Not

exactly.

The

scientists are correct in their

of the situation, as far as they are able to

Q:

Would God,

York but not

in

for

comprehend

assessments

it.

example, punish homosexuals in

Des Moines or other

cities

New

where AIDS hasn't

developed to any great extent? A:

In the large cities, the drug-using

more pronounced.

191

and sexual

activities are

AIDS INC.

Why

Q:

haven't there been

Soviet Union, and other

many

Communist

cases of

AIDS

in China, the

countries?

A: Because they keep their borders closed to outsiders.

God wouldn't cross borders? If Communism is closely why hasn't God visited AIDS in a big way on those

Q:

linked to atheism, countries?

Is

there a ranking of sin, according to

There

A:

may

trouble understanding

There

be.

worst?

is

Sometimes we humans have

it.

Well, for instance,

Q:

is.

which

would male homosexuality be worse

than lesbianism? A:

It's

hard to choose, in that

case.

Because cases of reported AIDS

Q:

among

lesbians are nearly

non-existent.

may have something

That

A:

Q: In what

Q: A:

No, I'm

It

just

Q:

is

to

the virus

itself.

men.

suggesting

family values, real values, as society

do with

way?

may be suited You know this?

A:

to

all

that...

You

see,

these questions

when

become

a person has

clear, in so far

concerned.

How

does that happen?

when you have a family to protect, you see the You may not understand the little pieces of this plague, but how it generally affects people trying to maintain a clean

A: Well,

dangers.

you see family.

Q:

In this year's Presidential race,

would you say

that voters

concerned with these family values would recognize the right candidates?

You mean,

A:

AIDS

into families?

Q:

Yes.

was

against the spread of

That would be obvious.

the right candidate

would be Bush?

don't tell my congregation how to vote. Would you be in favor of quarantining those people who Q: positive for the HIV virus? A: It may come to that, if this thing gets more serious. Q: And you would support that.

A:

test

And

the candidate that

I

192

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO A: As a public health measure,

Q: sinners.

But you believe that just a

It isn't

A:

Oh

A

no.

random

we had to do it, yes. AIDS only affects those who if

plague truly

is

a sign.

It tells

sinners are afflicted, and the end of history the

end

are

thing?

of history isn't necessarily a

bad

is

you

that, in this case,

over the horizon.

But

thing.

Q: But the sinners have to be punished. A:

Yes, otherwise there wouldn't be

Q:

As

A: Only

later on.

would you urge them

all

HIV?

to get tested for

think

Heaven on Earth

minister to your congregation,

they were homosexual or IV drug users, and

if

we have any

I

don't

of those.

Q: In other words, those are the sins which

God would punish

by sending down HIV.

who

A: Those are the people

can spread HIV.

Q: But nobody else can. A: That's what we're told.

Q:

But in a religious sense,

is

this a

plague just to punish

homosexuality and needle-drugs? A: That would be

Q:

Well,

if

much

too limited, don't

God

there are other sins that

HIV, what would they be?

Adultery?

you think? could punish with

Sleeping with prostitutes?

Watching pornographic films? A: Sleeping with prostitutes, yes.

Q:

So,

if

any of your congregation have done

trips or the like, then they

A:

Q:

with

Q:

on business

too.

If

women A:

should be tested

we have any of those. And these preachers we

that,

they weren't married

Why If

hear about to,

who have

been sleeping

should they be tested?

not?

they tested positive, should they be put in detention?

Quarantine? A: Well,

Q: So

It

would

HIV

for the case of

A:

I

is

leave that to God.

basically a plague

IV drugs.

seems

that

way.

193

I

wouldn't judge.

for the sin of

illicit

sex.

Except

AIDS INC.

Maybe

Q:

Union has

Soviet

A:

do with

AIDS

cases in the

around. Sexually.

less fooling

wouldn't know.

I

But their basic sin

is

rejecting

That would be more a spiritual thing.

Jesus Christ.

God and may be

So they

ways.

afflicted in other

Q:

the reason there aren't a lot of to

Maybe mental ways. Some dementia,

perhaps.

A: Yes. Possibly.

Q:

One

two

or

virus doesn't infect

A:

I

scientists

enough

have come out and said that the HIV

cells to

hadn't heard that.

cause harm to the body.

Maybe,

if

that's true, the virus

has

way of working in the body. Q: What would that be?

another

A:

wouldn't know. But again,

I

would have

a

way

of

making

the thing

Q:

The thing? The virus?

A:

That's right.

this is

God, so

behave according

Q: Let's suppose that no one has proved a single global epidemic.

A:

You

see,

Could you accept

AIDS

it

clear that

we

are in the end-times.

No

certain passages in the Bible.

are the last generation, but

prophecies and analogies.

and they are part plague

is

here.

see

It's

to His laws.

a single thing,

off the track here, I'm aren't-

That's to

me

The Bible

the

power

of

one can absolutely guarantee that we

and others see

it

Therefore,

of that picture.

we know

it

in these Biblical

that plagues are here

So regardless of what people say, the

the right time.

Q:

The

A:

Whether one

science, then, doesn't

debate and argument.

who

I

is

He

that?

where we are getting

speaking with knowledge of the Bible, and you

makes

to speak, so

make much

scientist says this

We

can see that

study the Bible.

194

difference.

and another says

AIDS

is

that

is

just

a plague, those of us

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

MANDATORY TESTING/DETAINMENT A

complete accounting of

all

state

laws which pertain

through 1987, would require a formidable research

governmental Health Policy Project sity

To

effort.

to

AIDS,

The

Inter-

George Washington Univer-

at

has summarized AIDS laws from 1987 state legislative sessions.

my

knowledge, they are the only group which has an overview.

From some form

their study,

of

one can

mandatory

see, for

example, that 13 states have

testing (HIV) for specialized groups:

handlers, hospital patients, couples about to be married,

and

children, prisoners,

food

newborn

prostitutes.

Nine

states allow for

some form

Nine

states require

some form

of isolation /quarantine.

of reporting/surveillance for

those "infected" with HIV. It is

tine.

clear that, as of yet,

no

state is

pushing

for

massive quaran-

Certain commissioners of health, however, have the flexibility

deem

to take actions they

necessary for public health.

That

may

in-

volve co-approval by boards of health, or governors, or legislatures. In

some

cases,

commissioners have unequivocal power to act alone.

All states have completely

bought the assumption that AIDS

a classical sexually transmitted disease,

and

that the

HIV

test is a

is

good

indicator of present infection by the causative agent of the disease. If

you could

freeze time

and read AIDS laws, you would con-

clude that most states are being cautious on matters of detention for

"HIV

carriers."

But time

is

not frozen. Events can lead to a defusing of hysteria

about AIDS or an escalation. gradually pressed into service.

In the latter case, these laws will be

The

already been happening to a degree.

195

last three

years

tell

you

this

has

AIDS INC. Here

an example, from the Intergovernmental Health Policy

is

summary, of a few current state laws: Alabama HB 338 - "Provides for commitment proceedings

Project 1987 1)

STDs

(e.g.,

who, by

their

for those infected with notifiable diseases or designated

AIDS) who refuse

conduct, put others

known

porting

and treatment and

testing

at risk of infection

.

.

.

for those

Those responsible

for re-

or suspected cases include physicians, dentists

.

.

.

school principals and day care center directors." (emphasis added)

Not reporting It

is

is

subject to a $100-500 fine.

interesting that principals

vested with medical refusing, say

acumen by

and day care directors are

in-

law; and can a person be detained for

AZT?

North Dakota, SB 2117 "expands the powers and duties of

In

the State Health Officer to include issuing orders relating to disease

control measures necessary to prevent the spread of

diseases

AIDS).

(e.g.,

immunization

Disease control measures

may

communicable include special

and decontamination measures

activities

.

.

can-

.

celling public events or closing places of business (with District

Court

approval.)"

Oregon HB2067 "provides

that,

whenever

administrator reasonably believes a person ble disease

(e.g.,

The order

is

submit

to

AIDS)

.

.

.

to include a

the person

may

a local public health

may have

a

communica-

be ordered to be examined.

statement that the person

may

refuse to

may

an examination, in which case a public health measure

be imposed, including isolation, quarantine or other preventive health measure (providing certain guidelines and due process provisions are followed) ..."

A

final

note for now:

People's Doctor, a "the world's first

lished

the late Dr. Robert Mendelsohn's

consumer newsletter

AIDS colony

The

(vol. 12, no. 2), reports that

(a 16th-century manor)

is

being estab-

on the island of Adelso, near Stockholm, Sweden. ..there men

and women (AIDS

patients) will be confined in an escape-proof

pound behind three-meter

thick

196

walls

patrolled

by

com-

armed

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

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