re: HIV=/=AIDS video

Pat Fallon (pfallon@noln.com)
Sat, 08 Mar 1997 13:17:27 -0500


>>Pat Fallon wrote:
>> The period of research into the cause of AIDS which considered both
>>agents lasted only 3 years. It ended in April 1984 when our government
>>announced at a press conference that HIV caused AIDS prior to the
>>publication of any scientific evidence.

> Davin C. Enigl, (Sole Proprietorship) MEAS
>That is not correct. It was published in 1983 not 1984 in _Science_ (the
>year before the U.S. announcement) with full peer review.

In 1983, Gallo published a paper in Science in which he claimed that a
retrovirus called HTLV-I caused AIDS [Gallo, R.C., P.S. Sarin, E.P.
Gelmann, M. Robert-Guroff, and E. Richardson. Isolation of human
T-cell leukemia virus in acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
Science 220 (1983): 865-867.].

In 1984, under dubious cicumstances, he took credit for isolating a
retrovirus he called HTLV-III from a number of AIDS patients. This virus
was later renamed the HIV virus. His paper claiming this virus as the cause
of AIDS was published in April of 1984 in Science [Gallo, R.C.,
S.Z. Saladhuddin, M. Papovic, G.M. Shearer, M. Kaplan, B.F. Haynes,
T.J. Palker, R. Redfield, J. Oleske, B. Safai, G. White, P. Foster, and
P. D. Markham. Frequent detection and isolation of cytopathic retrovirus
(HTLV-III) from patients with AIDS and at risk for AIDS. Science 224 ]
(1984): 500-503.]

More than one week BEFORE the publication of the paper claiming that
the virus later renamed HIV causes AIDS was published in Science,
Gallo's and his employer, the Department of Health and Human Services,
sponsored a hugely attended press conferences at which Margaret Heckler
declared this new virus was the probable cause of AIDS.

>How convenient to forget this.

How convient to substitute a paper on another virus for the one we are
talking about.

Pat Fallon
pfallon@bigfoot.com