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The Social and Symbolic Power of AIDS Denialism

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The Social and Symbolic Power of AIDS Denialism July August pages_SI new design masters 5/31/12 12:22 PM Page 34 The Social and Symbolic Power of AIDS Denialism AIDS denialism has proved socially resilient because dissident “hero scientists” provide legitimacy, “cultropreneurs” offer fake cures in the place of antiretroviral treatment, and HIV-positive “living icons” seem to provide proof of concept. NICOLI NATTRASS he discovery of antiretroviral therapy (ART) trans- a recent “documentary” funded in part by Rethinking AIDS. formed HIV infection from a death sentence into a Duesberg does more than merely 1 Tmanageable chronic disease. Yet a small group of question or rethink HIV science: he ac- “AIDS denialists” rejects the science underlying ART, be- tively publicizes his unfounded claims. Mark Wainberg, a microbiologist and lieving it rests on rotten foundations and that the therapy is past president of the Inter national toxic. These ideas have had deadly consequences. Most in- AIDS Society, called him “probably the famously, South African president Mbeki set up a panel of closest thing we have in this world to a scientific psychopath.”6 Duesberg’s sup- AIDS denialists and HIV scientists to debate the issue while porters, however, interpret such criti- delaying the use of ART in the public sector. Over 330,000 cism as evidence of his unfair oppres- South Africans died unnecessarily as a result.2 sion by a corrupt “AIDS establishment.” Accord ing to Celia Far ber, Duesberg’s In an earlier article3 for the SKEPTICAL powerful community-building effects. leading praise-singer, “As AIDS grew in INQUIRER I described the different vari- AIDS denialism gains social traction the 1980s into a global, multibillion- eties of AIDS denialism, highlighting the through four symbolically and organiza- dollar juggernaut of diagnostics, drugs, views of Berkeley virologist Peter Dues- tionally important roles: the “hero scien- and activist organizations, whose sole berg, who believes—despite never having tists” (notably Duesberg) who provide a target in the fight against AIDS was done any clinical research on HIV—that patina of scientific legitimacy for the HIV, condemning Duesberg became it is a harmless “passenger virus” and that movement; the “cultropreneurs” who part of the moral crusade.”7 AIDS is caused by recreational drugs, offer fake cures in the place of ART; the David Rasnick, who writes with malnutrition, and even antiretroviral HIV-positive “living icons” who seem to Duesberg, is also a hero scientist of therapy itself. He and the other AIDS provide proof of concept by appearing to sorts. He assisted the Rath Health denialists on Mbeki’s panel recom- live healthily without ART; and the Foundation with its illegal South mended that HIV testing be halted and “praise singers,” sympathetic journalists African trial (which resulted in several that immune deficiency be treated and filmmakers who publicize the move- unnecessary deaths) in which AIDS pa- through “massage therapy, music therapy, ment. tients were taken off antiretroviral ther- yoga, spiritual care, homeopathy, Indian Figure 1 shows the organizational apy and put onto high-dose vitamin Ayurvedic medicine, light therapy and connections between the key AIDS de- products in stead. The Alive and Well many other methods.”4 nialists. Duesberg is particularly in - website claims he is the creator of pro- This article draws on my recent work fluential. He sits on the boards of Re- tease inhibitors, but his name does not revisiting the problem of AIDS denial- thinking AIDS (an organization that ap pear on any of the relevant patents. ism, this time focusing on its organized promotes his views about HIV) and More important is Kary Mullis, an ec- character.5 I argue that the symbiotic Alive and Well (founded by HIV-posi- centric chemist who won the Nobel connection between AIDS denialism tive “living icon” Christine Mag giore to Prize for inventing the polymerase and alternative healing modalities is fa- promote alternative therapies). He also chain reaction. Mullis, who openly dis- cilitated by a shared conspiratorial stance served on Mbeki’s Panel and received cusses his experimentation with hallu- toward HIV science, which has had extensive coverage in House of Numbers, cinatory drugs and alleged encounters 34 Volume 36 Issue 4 | Skeptical Inquirer July August pages_SI new design masters 5/31/12 12:22 PM Page 35 with extraterrestrials, has never worked new medical protocols and alternative A common notion promoted by cul- on HIV; however, precisely because he therapies, many of which are AIDS re- tropreneurs is that AIDS symptoms are won a Nobel Prize, he is a symbolically lated.” caused by stress and harmful mental important hero scientist. The link between AIDS denialism states. For example, Michael Ellner, the Robert Leppo, a venture capitalist and alternative medicine is embodied by president of HEAL (Health Education who sits on the board of Rethinking what I term “cultropreneurs.” Cul tro - AIDS Liaison), runs a “medical hypno- AIDS, funds Duesberg’s laboratory as preneurs use AIDS denialism and re- sis” service and claims10 that it is the well as Rethinking AIDS. Farber de- lated conspiracy theories to undermine shock of an HIV diagnosis that kills scribes Leppo as the “reluctant hero of the credibility of antiretroviral ther- people because such a diagnosis creates the underground” who “saved Dues berg apy—a convenient marketing device for “very toxic emotional states,” which from utter dissolution” after his federal their alternative therapies. For example, supposedly “knock out and undermine” funding was supposedly cut off “as pun- the Rath Health Founda tion describes the body’s natural defenses. Repairing ishment for advancing a scientific hy- antiretroviral therapy as a form of geno- the victim’s mental state is thus his so- pothesis that differed from that of the cide inflicted on society by the “pharma- lution to AIDS—a convenient prescrip- 8 9 establishment.” Leppo was also the ex- ceutical drug cartel.” Gary Null, who tion given Ellner’s line of work. ecutive producer of an AIDS denialist sells a variety of books and alternative Roberto Giraldo, another member of film, The Other Side of AIDS, the pro- healing products, makes similar con- HEAL who sits on the boards of organ- motional material of which describes spiratorial suggestions and often fea- izations such as Rethinking AIDS and him as “deeply involved in researching tures AIDS denialists on his radio show. Alive and Well, describes himself as a “natural health counselor” and runs a clinic of “integral psycho immunology” in Brazil. Infamous for advising Mbeki’s health minister on nutritional alterna- On Mbeki’s Panel tives to ART, Giraldo subsequently went Board of Rethinking AIDS on to promote organized AIDS denial- ism in Latin America. Robert Leppo Cultropreneurs, and indeed all alter- David Crowe native therapists, rely on anecdotal evi- Andrew Herxheimer Gordon Stewart Christian Fiala Manu Kothari dence and testimonies of people who Claus Koehnlein Sam Mhlongu* were pleased with their treatments. The (deceased) David Rasnick* “living icon,” the person who through Etienne de Harven his or her very existence “proves” that Charles Gesheckter HIV disease can be fought with alterna- Roberto Giraldo Peter Duesberg tive remedies, thus plays a crucial role in the cultropreneur’s success. The most Celia Farber important of these icons for the AIDS Liam Schef Harvey Bialy denialist movement was Christine Mag- Brent Leung Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos giore, who not only actively promoted Christine Maggiore Valender Turner, the cause of AIDS denialism but tragi- (deceased) Kary Mullis# Neville Hodgkinson cally also put her own health and that of her family on the line. Mohammed Al Bayati, In the preface to her widely distrib- Juan Jose Flores uted book, What if Everything You Thought You Knew about AIDS Was Featured in House of Numbers Wrong?, Maggiore says she lost faith in Board of Alive and Well HIV science after a series of inconsistent HIV tests. This prompted her to con- duct her own investigation “outside the confines of the AIDS establishment” Figure 1. AIDS denialist networks. Names marked by an asterisk (*) are also linked to Mattias and to start her own organization, Alive Rath (The Rath Health Foundation); name marked with a pound sign (#) was invited onto and Well, to “share vital facts about HIV Mbecki's panel but did not attend; names in italics are journalists/filmmakers. and AIDS that are unavailable from Skeptical Inquirer | July/August 2 012 3 5 July August pages_SI new design masters 5/31/12 12:48 PM Page 36 mainstream venues.” Writing in 2000, predictions” and to conduct further tests. prove for people on ART because they she observed that her HIV status had These were apparently indeterminate, are “surrogate markers” of the presence been “decidedly positive” for five years, positive, negative, and positive. Evidence of HIV. but that she was enjoying good health for the negative test result is unclear, When she was pregnant in 2002 with and was living “without pharmaceutical however, as the clip shown in House of her second child, Maggiore was featured treatments or fear of AIDS.”11 Numbers focuses on a fragment of the on the cover of Mothering (a now-de- The saga of Maggiore’s test results is test result that shows nothing demon- funct pro-alternative healing and anti- a crucial foundational narrative for her as strative of a negative result. But when vaccination magazine) with a red circle an AIDS denialist and features promi- the film shows the final test result, it is slash symbol over the letters “AZT” (an nently in House of Numbers. Indeed a cen- clear that all bands on the Western blot antiretroviral drug used to reduce the tral AIDS denialist claim is that because are positive for HIV antigens—an un- chances of transmitting HIV from different HIV tests can deliver different equivocally positive result.
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