Chronology of AIDS Dissent

From the Harvard Teach-In on AIDS and Alternative Theories

Original Publication
HEAL Toronto

Open

1981

A drug technician at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the USA notices a higher number of requests for the drug pentamidine used in the treatment of pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP).

Dr. Michael Gottlieb at UCLA reports five cases of PCP occurring in Los Angeles gay men.

The search begins for the cause not only of the PCP in gay men in Los Angeles, but also of the Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS) occurring in gay men in New York. The leading candidate for the cause is poppers, or nitrate inhalants. The alternative explanation is that the cause is an infectious agent. Later in the year cases of PCP are recorded in drug addicts.

1982

The syndrome, that is the collection of symptoms, is called GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) by some scientists.

Scientists begin to move towards a consensus that these diverse symptoms are caused by a single infectious microbe.

The first article appears in the Wall Street Journal about GRID affecting women and male heterosexual drug users.

It is decided the illnesses some Haitian refugees in Miami have should also be considered part of this syndrome. Soon it is decided that the illnesses hemophiliacs have been getting should also be included as part of this syndrome.

The syndrome is renamed because it is decided that it does not just affect gay men. It is given the new name AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. It is decided that it is an illness resulting from a failure, or deficiency, of the immune system to work properly. The word acquired is used because it is decided by some scientists that this collection of symptoms in these people must be caused by an infectious microbe.

The New York Native, runs side-by-side commentaries on the issue of the cause of AIDS. One physician argues that the "available evidence overwhelmingly suggest that AIDS is caused by [an] undiscovered transmissable [sic] agent." The other commentary, written by Michael Callen and Richard Berkowitz argues that the conditions called AIDS are caused by different factors in different people.

HEAL, Health Education AIDS Liaison, is founded in New York with the mission to "provide information and support for alternative and holistic approaches to AIDS and related conditions." (However, since that time, HEAL has grown to have chapters all over the world and is the largest AIDS activist organization in the world which supports the notion that HIV is not the cause of AIDS.)

AIDS is said to occur in blood transfusion recipients and in babies of drug-addicted mothers.

AIDS has now been "reported" in fourteen nations world-wide.

1983

(At this point the limited research being done was almost entirely based on the premise that the conditions called AIDS must be caused by an infectious microbe. Some have stated that this premise was false and that it has therefore misdirected AIDS research for the past 18 years.)

Doctors at the Institute Pasteur in France believe they have isolated a new virus, which is the cause of AIDS. They decide to call this virus the lymphadenopathy-associated virus, or LAV.

It becomes clear that the conditions called AIDS affect different "types of people" in different parts of the USA. For example, in New Jersey, gay men represent a minority of AIDS cases, while IV drug users account for nearly half. This is very different from, for example, San Francisco, where AIDS cases are found mostly among gay men. It is also noted that different AIDS risk groups often manifest different groups of symptoms.

In May 1983 a scientific report of AIDS occurring in children suggests the possibility of casual household "transmission" of AIDS.

Three scientists, Dr. Joe Sonnabend, Dr. David Purtilo, and Dr. Steven Witkin publish an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association in May, challenging the prevailing view that a single infectious agent causes the symptoms called AIDS. They suggest that many factors, in combination with one another, can cause different symptoms in different people, eventually resulting in "immune overload."

Late in the year the number of children with AIDS increases, and it is decided that the children acquired the infection from their mothers in the womb or during birth. It is also decided that a virus must be transmitted through blood transfusions.

AIDS has been reported in 33 countries. 3,000 Americans are now said to have AIDS, of whom 1,283 have died.

1984

At a press conference on April 24, Dr Robert Gallo, at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) announces he has "isolated the probable cause of AIDS" and that it has been named HTLV-III. Dr. Gallo immediately files for a patent on a test for antibodies to the virus he claims to have found. The next day, the New York Times calls it the "AIDS Virus", and the case on causation is rather immediately closed.

(Dr. Gallo made his press conference announcement before any scientific articles were published, bypassing the peer review process. Quite disturbing is the reality that Gallo only found this "virus" in about 36% of the patients he decided had AIDS. He only found what he decided were antibodies to this virus in about 70% of the patients he decided had AIDS. These scientific reports, which appeared in the journal Science in 1984, are what convinced the scientific community and the uncritical media that HIV was the "AIDS Virus.")

The United States Health and Human Services Secretary, Margaret Heckler, confidently predicts a brief epidemic and says, "There will be a vaccine in a very few years and a cure for AIDS before 1990".

Dr. Joe Sonnabend writes in the New York Native that the question of whether HIV causes AIDS must remain an "open one."

In August, the New York Native interviews Dr. Gallo. During the interview, Dr. Gallo is challenged on the issue of AIDS causation. Regarding HIV, he states, "Why does anyone resist this data?…Nobody at high levels of science is arguing about this data."

By the end of 1984, 7,000 Americans were said to have died of AIDS.

1985

(Stephen Epstein notes, in his 1996 book Impure Science, that in 1985, fully 88% of scientific publications referred to the virus Gallo "discovered" in early 1984 as the "probable" or definitive cause of AIDS. Many observers are unsure of how this conclusion could have so quickly been reached as, according to them, proper epidemiological studies could never have been carried out so quickly. 0% of scientific articles mentioned the possibility that the "AIDS virus" might not be the cause of AIDS.)

The Food And Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA approves Gallo's patent on the antibody test. Soon after the first commercial kit for antibodies is licensed. o Late in the year the Pasteur Institute files a lawsuit against the NCI, claiming a share of the royalties from the NCI's patented AIDS blood test, and alleging that Dr. Robert Gallo had stolen the virus from their laboratory.

In the USA, Ryan White, a 13 year old hemophiliac with AIDS, is barred from school.

Large numbers of people are now claimed to be infected with the "AIDS virus" in Central Africa by media and UN health agencies. The initial definition of AIDS had been developed in the USA in 1982, but this definition required laboratory facilities which were not available in most African countries. So in 1985 a new UN WHO clinical definition of AIDS in Africa is created. This definition means that anyone with weight loss, fever, coughing, OR diarrhea, among other conditions, can be considered an AIDS case, even without a test for the "virus" Gallo had found.

By the end of the year, AIDS has been reported in 51 countries.

1986

It is decided that what is called LAV and HTLV-III are actually the "same virus". An international committee rules that both names should be dropped and replaced by the new name, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The new name of this "virus" no doubt helps to solidify the belief that it causes immune deficiency. At the second international AIDS conference in Paris, there are preliminary reports of the use of the drug Zidovudine (AZT) for the treatment of AIDS.

Writing in the Gay Community News, journalist and survey researcher John Lauritsen questions HIV as the cause of AIDS. Lauritsen asserts that HIV fails scientific tests which are necessary to establish it as the cause of a disease and concludes that "recreational drug" use can explain most of the AIDS cases during or before 1986.

The Journal of the American Medical Association publishes an "authoritative collection" of articles on AIDS written in recent years. The section on AIDS causation contains 56 references. Only one mentions non-viral factors as a possible cause of AIDS.

Dr. Peter Duesberg is elected into the elete National Academy of Sciences for his work on cancer and retroviruses. The National Institutes awards him an Outstanding Investigator Award, the most prestigious grant for high achievers. Dr. Duesberg is regarded by scientists around the world (including Gallo) as an "extraordinary" scientist, co-discovering, and being the first to map, the structure of cancer oncogenes.

1987

With no long-term trial to determine drug safety, or even whether this drug decreases total deaths from AIDS, the FDA in the USA approves AZT as the first drug to be used as a treatment for AIDS.

On March 1, in the journal Cancer Research, Dr. Peter Duesberg publishes his first scientific article challenging what is at this point the deeply held belief that HIV causes AIDS. This paper is essentially ignored by the scientific community, until journalists and activists such as Larry Kramer begin asking questions.

A memo circulates at the National Institutes of Health on April 28 which "alerts" key NIH scientists of the need to develop a "strategy" for the "provocative" media situation arising as a result of Dr. Duesberg's article and "anti-NIH gay playright" Larry Kramer's related media activities. There is no mention of any need to look into the scientific questions Dr. Duesberg has raised in his paper.

The CDC in the USA revises the definition of AIDS to include many more conditions. Thus, the numbers of AIDS cases continues to climb dramatically.

In the United States, legislation is passed which prohibits entry into the U.S. by "HIV-infected" immigrants, aliens and short-term visitors.

President Reagan gives his first speech on AIDS, by which time 36,000 Americans have been diagnosed with AIDS and 20,000 had died.

1988

In July, Dr. Peter Duesberg is invited to write a short statement ("HIV Is Not the Cause of AIDS") for the journal Science. A paper with the opposite viewpoint ("HIV Is the Cause of AIDS") is authored by Drs. Gallo, Blattner, and Temin.

Dr. Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos publishes the scientific article "Reappraisal of AIDS- Is the Oxidation Induced by Risk Factors the Primary Cause?" in vol 25 of the journal Medical Hypotheses.

Throughout the year, gay publications Christopher Street and the New York Native run stories promoting alternative AIDS causation hypotheses.

The FDA implements new regulations which shorten the time taken for the development of new treatments for AIDS. This effectively means that pharmaceutical companies are no longer required to prove long-term safetey and/or efficacy (efficacy means the extent to which the drug actually works, or doesn't work) of the drugs they want to market.

The WHO's Global Program on AIDS instituted World AIDS Day as an annual event on December 1st each year.

1989

A number of new drugs become available for the treatment of opportunistic infections called AIDS. Burroughs Wellcome lowers the price of AZT by 20%. A new antiretroviral drug, dideoxyinosine (ddI), is authorized by the FDA for use by patients intolerant to AZT.

The American trial of AZT in early treatment is stopped, because it is decided the drug used had been shown to significantly slow progression of the disease, even though there had been no study to confirm or disconfirm this.

In February, Dr. Duesberg publishes "HIV and AIDS: Correlation but not Causation." in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Scientific journalist Jad Adams publishes the book AIDS: The HIV Myth in England.

1990

In April, Ryan White dies in the United States at 19. He is a hemophiliac who had become well known a few years earlier as a result of his fight to be allowed to attend public school. He dies of a blood hemmorhage, relatively common in hemophiliacs, but the media reports that he died of AIDS.

Just a few months after Ryan White's death, the Ryan White CARE Act is passed by Congress. The aim of this act is to provide systems of care for people with AIDS who do not have adequate health insurance or other resources.

Dr. Robert Root-Bernstein publishes the scientific article "Do We Know the Cause(s) of AIDS?" in the summer issue of the journal Perspectives in Biology and Medicine.

Journalist John Lauritsen publishes the book Poison by Prescription: The AZT Story.

Dr. Duesberg publishes "AIDS: Non-Infectious Deficiencies Acquired By Drug Consumption and Other Risk Factors." in Research and Immunology. This is the first article in which Dr. Duesberg presents an alternative hypothesis for the cause of AIDS.

Dr. Duesberg loses his Oustanding Investigator Grant after a panel says he has recently become "unscientific and unproductive." The panel includes an AZT researcher and the mother of Robert Gallo's child.

Dr. Duesberg and Bryan Ellison publish, "Is the AIDS Virus a Science Fiction" in the publication Policy Review. The issue is quite controversial, eliciting a great deal of response from readers.

1991

Former Harvard biologist Dr. Charles Thomas and a group of notable scientists form the Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis by composing a letter in June to several of the most prestigious scientific journals. This letter calls for a reappraisal of the evidence for and against the hypothesis that HIV causes AIDS. All the journals refuse to publish the statement. (At this point in 1999, there are over 1,000 signatories to this letter, including well over 100 scientists, doctors, and clinicians.)

There is public hysteria over the connection between the dental profession and AIDS, as Kimberly Bergalis nears death. She testifies before Congress and writes to the American Medical Association requesting the mandatory testing of health care workers. She testifies to congress in a wheel-chair, with her hair falling out, and barely able to speak. The visible conditions she suffers from are consistent with listed side effects of AZT, although she is later said to have died from AIDS.

In February, Dr. Duesberg publishes, "AIDS Epidemiology: Inconsistencies With HIV and With Infectious Disease." in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The red ribbon is launched as an international symbol of AIDS awareness, and is first shown on television at the New York theatre Tony Awards.

The third antiretroviral drug, dideoxycytidine (ddC), is authorised by the FDA for use by patients intolerant to AZT. All three of the approved drugs are in a group known as nucleoside analogues, which work by randomly terminating DNA synthesis and attacking bone marrow, where t-cells are produced.

By the end of 1991, the second 100,000 AIDS cases have been reported in the United States and there have been 133,000 deaths in people labeled as having AIDS.

1992

Dr. Duesberg publishes the voluminous and painstakingly referenced article, "AIDS Acquired by Drug Consumption and Other Non-contagious Risk Factors" in Pharmac. Ther.

1993

The definition of AIDS is expanded yet again which causes cases of AIDS to dramatically increase overnight, in Los Angeles, for example, by a factor of 4. The new definition includes pulmonary tuberculosis, recurrent pneumonia, cervical cancer, and a CD4 count (t-cell), at any time, of 200 or less. This means that a person can have no clinical symptoms and be listed as having AIDS if the lab reports they had a < 200 CD4 cell count at some time.

AIDS cases peak in this year and then begin a decline which has continued ever since. Note that cases of AIDS began declining almost 4 years before the vast majority of U.S AIDS patients had access to the new "miracle drug treatments" called Protease Inhibitors.

A European drug trial known as Concorde finds that AZT is not a useful therapy for "HIV positive" people who have not yet developed any of the conditions called AIDS. It also finds that measuring t-cell counts (CD4 counts) is not useful for predicting progression to illness (Doctors continue to do this anyway, even today). It also finds that patients who begin AZT early die at a 25% higher rate than those who wait until they are seriously ill. (It is important to note that the Concorde trial was funded primarily by Glaxo-Wellcome, the maker of AZT. As the trial progressed and the results were becoming clear, Glaxo attempted to stop the trial and hide the results. Despite the pressure, however, the researchers involved completed the trial and published the results.)

Dr. Robert Root-Bernstein publishes the book Rethinking AIDS: the Tragic Cost of Premature Consensus. This 512 page book describes numerous "anomalies" in the HIV=AIDS hypothesis and presents evidence which supports the idea that many factors can cause AIDS. Dr. Root-Bernstein was the recipient of the prestigious and rare MacArthur Genius grant from 1981-1986.

Journalist John Lauritsen publishes the book The AIDS War: Propaganda, Profiteering, and Genocide from the Medical-Industrial Complex.

Dr. Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Dr. Valendar Turner, and Dr. John Papadimitriou publish the scientific article "Is a Positive Western Blot Proof of HIV Infection?" in the June issue of Bio/Technology. In this article, the authors conclude that HIV tests are not proven to actually test for a virus called (or antibodies to) HIV.

Dr. Duesberg publishes "The HIV Gap in National Statistics" in the journal Bio/Technology, in which he claims to document the existence of 4,621 HIV-free individuals who meet the definition of AIDS.

1994

Tom Hanks wins an Oscar for playing a gay man with AIDS in the film Philadelphia.

AIDS becomes the leading cause of death among Americans between the ages of 25 and 44. 400,000 people in the United States have developed AIDS since 1981, and over 250,000 people are said to have died from conditions in the category called AIDS. (During the same period, over 25 million people died of heart disease and cancer in the U.S.)

Dr. Phillip Johnson, Dr. Charles Thomas, and Nobel Prize recipient Dr. Kary Mullis author "What Causes AIDS? It's An Open Question" in the June issue of Reason.

1995

The FDA approvez the use of Saquinavir, the first of a new group of Protease Inhibitor antiretroviral drugs. Protease Inhibitors would not be taken by a majority of AIDS patients until some time in 1997. However, the media, pharmaceutical companies, and many scientists decide to attribute declining AIDS cases and death rates to the use of these drugs (AIDS cases peaked in 1993, and death rates in 1994). There exists no study to confirm the claim that Protease Inhibitors have reduced overall AIDS cases or death rates.

HEAL-Los Angeles is formed by healthy HIV-positive Christine Maggiore. HEAL-LA, now known as Alive and Well, exists "to bring honesty and accountability to AIDS reporting, research and education… At one time, we all accepted without question the popular belief that testing positive meant we would soon become ill and die. On our own, we each discovered information refuting the HIV/AIDS hypothesis".

Dr. Elinor Burkett publishes the book The Gravest Show on Earth: America in the Age of AIDS. "Not since And the Band Played On has any journalist taken readers behind the scenes in the war against AIDS to reveal how avarice, ignorance, and egotism are subverting the nation's struggle against the epidemic. But Elinor Burkett goes well beyond Randy Shilts. She not only reports on the decade of plague he did not cover, but addresses the wider questions about what AIDS reveals about America on the brink of the new millennium."

Dr. Mark Craddock, an Australian Mathematician, examines the math used by Drs. Ho and Wei in their Nature papers on AIDS published in the same year. Their papers form the basis for the concept of "viral load", but Dr. Craddock says the math is nonsense.

Dr. Duesberg publishes "Foreign-Protein-Mediated Immunodeficiency in Hemophiliacs With and Without HIV." in Genetica. In this article, Duesberg advances an alternative hypothesis for what is called AIDS in hemophiliacs. Dr. Duesberg and Dr. David Chiu publish "The Toxicity of Azidothymidine (AZT) on Human and Animal Cells in Culture at Concentrations Used for Antiretroviral Therapy" in Genetica. The authors conclude that at the dosage prescribed to AIDS patients, AZT is highly toxic to human cells.

Dr. Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Dr. Valendar Turner, Dr. John Papadimitriou, and Harvey Bialy publish the scientific article, "AIDS in Africa: Distinguishing Fact From Fiction" in the World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology. In this article they examine the many myths of HIV and AIDS in Africa.

Dr. Papadopulos-Eleopulos and five other scientists publish "A Critical Analysis of the HIV-T4-Cell-AIDS Hypothesis" in the journal Genetica. This article presents evidence which the authors argue disproves the notion that HIV causes immune suppression by killing CD4 t-cells.

Journalist John Crewdson publishes a stunning critique of the ethics of Dr. Robert Gallo in the January 1 issue of the Chicago Tribune. "In Gallo Case, Truth Termed a Casualty."

1996

Dr. Peter Duesberg publishes the culmination of his work on AIDS, the book Inventing the AIDS Virus. In this 722 page book, Duesberg presents massive amounts of evidence against the HIV=AIDS hypothesis, indicting AZT as a cause of disease, and examining the history of the biomedical research machine that led us to where we are today.

Healthy and HIV-positive Christine Maggiore publishes the first edition of the book: What if Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong? This book, in a simple and straightforward fashion, deconstructs the many myths surrounding HIV and AIDS.

Neville Hodgkinson, former science writer for the London Sunday Times, publishes the book AIDS: The Failure of Contemporary Science, in which he deconstructs the HIV hypothesis and the AIDS establishment.

In the August issue of the newsletter Reappraising AIDS, Dr. David Rasnick, a protease inhibitor expert, writes the article, "Inhibitors of HIV Protease Useless Against AIDS: Because HIV Doesn't Cause AIDS".

During 1996 an increasing number of drugs receive approval from the FDA in the United States, both for use on their own, and/or in combination with other drugs. Another treatment development that takes place is the development of the "viral load" test, which is claimed to provide information about the risk of "progression to AIDS."

1997

Dr. Papadopulos-Eleopulos and three other scientists attempt to publish a scientific article entitled "A Critical Appraisal of the Evidence for the Isolation of HIV" in the journal of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons. After many months the editorial board declined to publish the paper saying it would be of little interest to readers.

Martin Delaney, co-founder of Project Inform, writes to the President of the National Academy of Sciences attempting to have Dr. Peter Duesberg "unelected" from the Academy for publishing his views on AIDS. Delaney is unsuccessful.

The FDA grants approval for delavirdine, the first in the latest group of drugs, the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors.

During the course of the year it becomes apparent that the number of people affected by the "side effects" of the protease inhibitor drugs was greater than had previously been thought. It is also clear that some of the "side effects" are quite serious, the FDA issuing specific warnings concerning diabetes and hyperglycemia in patients receiving protease inhibitors.

The development of the concept of "drug resistance" increases in popularity. Patients who become sick while taking "anti-AIDS drugs" are said to be "failing treatment" or are said to be becoming "drug resistant." (Some argue that this is an indirect way of saying the drugs don't work or are harming patients, rather than helping them.)

At the end of the year, UNAIDS reports that word-wide the "HIV epidemic" is far worse than had previously been thought. Updated surveillance techniques suggested that 30 million people were now living with HIV/AIDS and 16,000 new infections were occurring every day. These estimates, based on complicated computer speculation, are reported as fact by the uncritical media.

1998

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in December publishes draft guidelines calling on all states to require reporting cases of HIV infection to health officials. All states currently require AIDS cases reporting. Although the guidelines allow states to choose between using names or unique codes for HIV reporting, the CDC advises the use of names, an approach that many public health officials and HIV advocates contend will deter HIV testing and treatment.

Nobel Prize winning Chemist Dr. Kary Mullis publishes the book Dancing Naked in the Mind Fields. AIDS is among many topics covered in this eclectic work. Dr. Mullis doesn't think HIV has been proven to cause AIDS.

In June, former New York Native publisher Chuck Ortleb publishes the book Iron Peter. This satirical and fictional work looks at the AIDS establishment and how it treats a young and gorgeous AIDS dissenter.

In August in Los Angeles, two AIDS establishment scientists (Dr. Ralph Frerichs and Dr. Roger Detels) agree to debate AIDS reappraisers Christine Maggiore and Dr. David Rasnick at Emerson Middle School. The event is moderated by ABC radio talk show host Frank Sontag.

African historian Dr. Charles Geshekter publishes "The Epidemic of African AIDS Hysteria" in The Citizen in September. In this article, Dr. Geshekter examines the oddities of African AIDS.

British journalist and documentarian Joan Shenton publishes the book Positively False: Exposing the Myths Around HIV and AIDS.

1999

The International Coalition for Medical Justice is founded outside of Washington D.C. The ICMJ exists to allocate research grants into alternative AIDS research, to fight medical tyranny, and to promote investigation into the many hypotheses of AIDS causation.

Dr. Duesberg and Dr. David Rasnick publish "The AIDS Dilemma: Drug Diseases Blamed on a Passenger Virus" [pdf version] in the journal Genetica. In this article, Rasnick and Duesberg document the literature indicting drugs, recreational and pharmaceutical, as a cause of the conditions called AIDS.

Dr. Papadopulos-Eleopulos, et al publish the scientific article "A Critical Analysis of the Pharmacology of AZT and its Use in AIDS" in Current Medical Research and Opinion Vol. 15: Supplement, 1999. This article is an exhaustive review of the literature on AZT. "Based on all these data it is difficult if not impossible to explain why AZT was introduced and still remains the most widely recommended and used anti-HIV drug."

Anthony Brink, an Advocate for the South African High Court, writes two articles examining the "miracle medicine" that is AZT.

"HIV positive" and healthy since at least 1985, Dr. Richard MacIntyre authors the book Mortal Men. This study examines the lives of 20 long-term survivors of AIDS. Dr. MacIntyre believes AIDS may not be as simple as HIV.

In January, San Francisco and Los Angeles AIDS activists meet with Mayor Willie Brown and challenge him to "re-examine" what he has been taught to believe about HIV and AIDS.

In July, the ICMJ sends a copy of the book Inventing the AIDS Virus, by Dr. Peter Duesberg, and an excerpt from the book Dancing Naked in the Mind Fields, by Dr. Kary Mullis, to every member of the U.S. congress. This package is sent with a cover letter calling for a GAO investigation into all AIDS programs and services. .