A Response to HIV/AIDS Quicktest, CBC Radio "As It Happens", July 18, 2012

Roger Swan Treasurer, Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society

In the beginning of HIV/AIDS Inc. we had Luc Montagnier, who discovered HIV and in 2008 received a Nobel for it. He was never a real team player, disconcertingly talking about ‘co-factors’ early on, to the consternation of the Fundamentalists. Perhaps part of his reticence was that he was never able to provide a scientific reference for the data that demonstrated that HIV=AIDS=Death. Today he is pretty much an Apostate and starting to receive the opprobrium normally reserved for real Unbelievers.

Robert Gallo is the founding Father of the Fundamentalists, initially a co-discoverer of HIV with Montagnier, until it could no longer be denied, even by Believers, that he was a fraud. He was thrown out of the National Institutes of Health and narrowly escaped jail. But in one of the beautiful ironies of HIV/AIDS Inc. it is the Fraudster’s 1984 papers, published in Science, that were the evidence of his fraud, that nevertheless remain the only papers to be cited, on the rare occasion that this happens, as providing the confirming science that HIV=AIDS=Death (not that they do of course - more later).

Along with Montagnier and Gallo there was Peter Duesberg. Professor Duesberg is an Unbeliever. Always was, always will be. He has never found evidence, based on his own research, that HIV is the cause of AIDS, understood as that which afflicted a relatively small number of young, gay men in the early 1980’s. At the time Peter was the recognised world authority on retroviruses, of which HIV is supposed to be one. For not kow-towing to the Fraudster, Duesberg was thrown out of the National Academy, had his lab privileges revoked, funding cut and he cannot get published in ‘reputable’ journals. This isn’t how it’s supposed to work in Science 101 of course but as you become more qualified the incantations of Priestly Retribution seem to count as evidence for many virologists.

Jump ahead to today and we have Dr. Julio Montaner, from Vancouver, a true-blue Believer and 30 years on still fighting the Good Fight. Julio is the latest in a long line of champions who have taken up the Quest to vanquish the Dragon. Quite reasonably he wants to test everyone, even though the tests are not HIV tests as the prominent disclaimer in every package and kit attests to, whether it be beguiling ELISA or the authoritative WESTERN BLOT (though not too authoritative since Britain no longer uses this particular nonsense) or supersexy QUICKTEST (aka Rapid Test).

Anyone testing positive will be nurtured by being given Miracle ARVs (anti-retroviral medications), which to work their miracle must be taken Religiously (of course) and for the rest of your life, if you live that long! ARVs are chemotherapeutic agents. Used to treat cancer such drugs are given for a few months in the hope they will kill the cancer cells before the cancer cells kill you. Continued indefinitely the chemo will kill you, probably before the cancer. But HIV is so lethal it seems, being what is called a "latent" virus which hides until it decides to express itself lethally in the next 5,10, 20 years or sometime anyway, that Julio, the pharmaceutical representative for HIV/AIDS Inc. from Vancouver, says it is necessary to start taking the "therapy" right away, long before you might start feeling sick. And forever. If you live that long of course because normally chemo agents are only taken on a periodic basis, blah, blah, blah....

Professor Kary Mullis is a Nobel Laureate too and a whimsical, delightful Unbeliever whose polite request in 1988 for someone, anyone, to give him the citation to the science that demonstrated the causal link between HIV and AIDS, remains unanswered. The problem with Mullis is he read the papers published in Science back in 1984 and, along with anyone else who’d read them - not many - knew they were crap. He also knows the ARVs are crap. As he so presciently puts it, keep taking the ARVs long enough and they will kill you but it’ll be blamed on the virus!

Mullis won the Nobel for his discovery of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) which has revolutionised genetic research. Sadly, in another show of their ignorance but ever ready chutzpah not to let any opportunity pass unexploited, HIV/AIDS Inc. has latched on to PCR to help bolster the non-existing science. PCR is an amplification technique which, once a strand of DNA of interest has been identified, can replicate it millions of times. Virologists from the corporate world of HIV/AIDS however, are forever on FASTTRACK (QUICKTEST) and simply leave out the bit about identifying a strand of DNA as being from the HIV and instead count, on the wonky viral load test, whatever protein bits look likely to bring them a pay cheque. “Quantitative PCR is an Oxymoron.” A quote from the Man who should know!

But when it comes to HIV/AIDS, As It Happens and CBC Radio in general, have never let common sense get in the way of a good story. Though you hadn’t a clue what Julio was going on about, anymore more than did your listeners, nevertheless he sounded authoritative and what’s more, more "Good News" from HIV/AIDS Inc. - yay! - one of the few, still promising investments it seems. Pity Carol is off on sabbatical and as Chief Flag Waver not here to announce and promote it. But Helen and Jeff, producers too and the odd investigative reporter if such can be found, follow up, no stigma, be examples, let your listeners know your status. You are going to get tested aren’t you?