rethink-hiv> New Duesberg book reviewed
californ@netcom.com
Sun, 07 Jan 1996 04:55:50 -0800 (PST)
Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 1996
AUTHOR: Duesberg, Peter H.
TITLE: INVENTING THE AIDS VIRUS
PUBLISHER: Regnery (256 pp.) Phone: 202-546-5005
$ 24.95 Release date? Mar. 22, 1996
REVIEW:
A well-credentialed scientist's hard-driving attack on the
accepted view that AIDS is an infectious disease caused by HIV.
Duesberg (Molecular biology/Univ. of Calif., Berkeley), an
early researcher in the field of retroviruses, asserts that HIV,
like virtually all retroviruses, is harmless. He finds that HIV
meets none of the usual criteria (such as the six laws of
virology) used to establish that a microbe causes disease. But if
that is so, why do scientists persist in saying that AIDS is an
epidemic caused by HIV? As Duesberg tells it, the federal Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention needed a serious epidemic to
justify its continued existence, and by naming AIDS a single
contagious disease, it created an atmosphere of public fear that
brought it increased funding and power. The biomedical
establishment took note. Having failed to find a viral cause of
cancer, Duesberg says, virus hunters needed a new disease, and
AIDS was it. The HIV-AIDS connection was then announced by Robert
Gallo, head of a retrovirus lab at the National Cancer Institute,
at a 1984 press conference rather than demonstrated in a peer-
reviewed scientific paper. Further, Duesberg charges, the
pharmaceutical companies exploited the situation by bringing back
highly toxic failed cancer drugs, such as AZT, which, he says,
destroys the immune system and causes AIDS-like symptoms.
Duesberg cites other scientists who have questioned the HIV-AIDS
hypothesis, among them several Nobel laureates, including Kary
Mullis (for Chemistry), the author of this book's foreword.
Duesberg's own theory is that AIDS is linked to the use of
immunity-suppressing illicit drugs (such as crack and "poppers"),
and he urges investigation along these lines. One need not accept
Duesberg's drug hypothesis, however, to be persuaded that the
serious charges he makes deserve serious answers.
A controversial book, certain to be met with strong resistance
from the biomedical establishment. Four appendixes (not seen)
include articles on HIV by Duesberg in scientific journals.
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©COPYRIGHT, AIDS Authority; reprinted with permission