[Letter to Colleagues from Peter Duesberg]

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
BERKELEY * DAVIS * IRVINE * LOS ANGELES * RIVERSIDE * SAN DIEGO * SAN FRANCISCO o0 SANTA BARBARA * SANTA CRUZ
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
c/o Stanley/Donner Administrative Services Unit
229 Stanley Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
FAX: [phone]
Phone [phone]
June 25, 1991
Dr. Lawrence Bogorad, Chairman
Harvard University
The Biological Labratories
16 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
Dear Dr. Bogorad,
I did appreciate your call yesterday on the fate of my currently
rejected paper "The Role of Drugs in the Origin of AIDS" and your
agreement that I could have my paper communicated by another member.
One of the topics we discussed was your concern about the reputation
of the Proceedings as a result of publishing a paper like mine, which
according to some anonymous reviewers includes unsubstantiated or
selective evidence. However, I would like to point out the following:
although the AIDS literature is vast, the over 100 references I cite in my
paper, most from AIDS researchers, argue against the view that my paper
lacks substance and that I was unreasonably selective in preparing my
manuscript. The failure of these reviewers to cite critical,
counterselected references also supports my point.
Further there is no risk that my paper is unsubstantiated and thus
entirely wrong for a growing list of reasons. The CDC reports that 30%, or
about 50,000, American AIDS patients are intravenous drug users. It does
not report on oral drug consumption by AIDS risk groups, which is
estimated to be about 10 times higher, as my paper documents. Thus "The
role of drugs in the origin of AIDS", with over 100 references, is
substantiated and thus unlikely to affect negatively the reputation of the
Proceedings. Further, several leading AIDS researchers have postulated a
role of drugs in the origin of AIDS. Most of them refer to drugs as
"cofactors" and some(see ref. 4-14 of my paper) argue that drugs may be