Dr. James Parker's letter in response to "Flight from the AIDS police" (June 5, 2000) is a typical recitation of HIV/AIDS dogma. He admits that AIDS, by definition, requires signs of HIV. In other words HIV is associated with AIDS by definition, not by scientific reasoning. AIDS is nothing but a grab-bag of exotic diseases if the HIV causation theory is challenged.
Antiviral chemotherapy with AZT and related drugs does not just cause serious morbidity (illness) but also mortality. It is incredible that so soon after the thalidomide scandal, a drug that has been described as a trans-placental carcinogen, mutagen and teratogen can be prescribed for use by pregnant women. The excuse, of course, is that both HIV-positive women and their children are doomed, so any medication that prevents transmission is acceptable, with much of the toxicity due to the drugs likely being blamed on HIV.
There are actually many HIV-positive people whose healthy is strong evidence that HIV is not a health risk. The mother in Montreal who had her children taken from her because she refused to put them on chemotherapy had been HIV-positive, healthy and NOT on anti-HIV drugs for 14 years! All she wanted for her children was the same experience. Why are doctors so arrogant and stubborn that they cannot try to learn from experiences like hers? Could it be that the bottom would drop out of the AIDS funding barrel if people realize that being HIV-positive was not a death sentence?