HIV and AIDS: Questions of Scientific and Journalistic Responsibility

HIV AND AIDS

~1. Gallo-Montagnier and
the Gallo-HHS press conference
The Institut Pasteur discovered the virus called HIV. Both the
Institut Pasteur and Gallo share responsibility in leading people to
believe that "HIV is the AIDS virus", in other words, that AIDS is
caused by a virus, and that this virus is HIV. The controversy between
Gallo and Montagnier of the Institut Pasteur, about growing the virus
and about its use for an HIV-antibody blood test, was the first major
factor in making people accept unquestioningly that "HIV is the virus
that causes AIDS".
Gallo's purported "discovery" of "the AIDS virus" was announced at
a press conference by him and HHS Secretary Margaret Heckler on 23
April 1984. This press conference was a major factor in making people
accept unquestioningly that "HIV is the AIDS virus". So was a Lasker
award to Gallo, Essex and Montagnier in 1986 "for Leadership in
Research on the Retrovirus That Causes AIDS and Contributions
Toward Understanding this World Wide Public Health Threat".
~2. What do people mean by "AIDS"?
There does not even exist a single proper definition of AIDS on which
discourse or statistics can reliably be based. Indeed, certain practices of
the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) obstruct a scientific appraisal of
the AIDS situation. The CDC definition of AIDS is circular. It
involves a list of 24 to 29 diseases (depending on the year), about 60% of
which have to do with immunodeficiency (including tuberculosis), and
40% have to do with other types of diseases, some of which are of
cancer type, such as cervical cancer (included in 1992-1993), or Kaposi's
sarcoma. CDC calls these diseases AIDS only when antibodies against
HIV are confirmed or presumed to be present.1 If a person tests HIV
1For instance, in the publication Confronting AIDS Update by the Institute of
Medicine (1988), we find:
p. 207: "The following revised case definition for surveillance of acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was developed by CDC in collaboration
with public health and clinical specialists...The objectives of the revision are a)
to track more effectively the severe disabling morbidity associated with
infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)..."
p. 208: "For national reporting, a case of AIDS is defined as an illness
characterized by one or more of the following "indicator" diseases, depending