HIV and AIDS: Questions of Scientific and Journalistic Responsibility

34

HIV AND AIDS

~5. A press release on a "Commentary" in Nature
A piece "Does drug use cause AIDS?" by M. S. Ascher, H. W.
Sheppard, W. Winkelstein Jr. and E. Vittinghoff, was published in the
Nature issue of 11 March 1993.11 This piece was published as a
"Commentary". About a week before publication, Nature issued a press
release concerning this piece, headlined: "DRUG USE DOES NOT
CAUSE AIDS." The press release concluded: "These findings seriously
undermine the arguement [sic] put forward by Dr. Peter Duesberg, of the
University of California at Berkeley, that drug consumption causes
AIDS, and instead provides [sic] strong support for the hypothesis that
HIV causes the disease." Numerous members of the press started
calling Duesberg to get his comments on the forthcoming article in
Nature, but the article had not been made available to Duesberg.
Despite the fact that the press release was marked "Embargoed for
release 6:00 pm EST, Wednesday, March 10, 1993", Duesberg told me
that on 4 March he got several calls from journalists, including one from
the New Scientist in Washington. Duesberg told these journalists that
he could not comment on a piece he had not seen. The New Scientist
then faxed him a copy on 4 March. He received a copy from Nature
only on 9 March. Thus Nature and the authors of the article use the
media to manipulate public opinion before their article had been
submitted to scientific scrutiny by other scientists (other than possible
referees), and especially by Duesberg who is principally concerned.
A misrepresentation in Nature's press release. Among
other things, Nature's press release misrepresented how the sample of
1,034 men for the purported study was determined. The press release
stated: "These were selected by random sampling of San Francisco
households regardless of sexual preference, lifestyle, HIV status or
drug use." But a qualification from the "Commentary" itself was left
out in the press release. Indeed, the "Commentary" actually referred to
a "random sampling from neighborhoods of San Francisco where the
AIDS epidemic had been most intense before 1984." Thus the press
11Nature identifies the authors as follows: Michael S. Ascher and Haynes W.
Sheppard are in the Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory, California
Department of Health Services, 2151 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94704.
Warren Winkelstein Jr. and Eric Vittinghoff are in the Department of
Biomedical and Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health,
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.