HIV denial
tsmith | August 20, 2015
Long-term readers of the blog know of my interest in HIV denialism, especially as it is maintained and spread via the Internet. In my online travels, I recently met John Strangis via this blog post. John has an interesting story to tell regarding his experiences with HIV denialism and subsequently, his turn to patient and science activism. Many thanks to John for sharing it here.
John with his wife and son.
TS: Can you tell the readers a bit about yourself?
JS: My name is John Strangis. I was born in the United States from Italian parents but lived for fifteen years in Italy…
tsmith | September 25, 2014Everything old is new again. For years on this blog, I wrote about HIV denial and the few fringe scientists and journalists who espoused it. I attracted a host of trolls, some of whom repeatedly attacked my credibility, my appearance, even showed up at my academic office. One of the most prolific of these was Henry Bauer, who posts long-debunked ideas on HIV/AIDS (and the Loch Ness Monster to boot).
That was, oh, 2007-ish and prior. In that same year Steven Novella and I co-authored an article on HIV denial for PLoS Medicine. In 2008, a leader of the denial movement, Christine Maggiore of "…
sa smith | July 7, 2014Quick recap--
An HIV Denier, Clark Baker, starts a web group, the 'HIV Innocence Project' to defend people accused of HIV-related crimes. Name-change to 'HIV Innocence Group' after the Innocent Project complained.
An HIV advocate, Todd Deshong, started a different website, 'HIV Innocent Group Truth' to address and expose Clarks activities.
DeShongs coverage is rather innocuous-- What cases is Baker involved in? To what extent? What is the attack-angle Baker is providing to the accused/defense team?
Here is an example I picked at random from 2011.
I have said much more aggressive things about…
sa smith | February 10, 2014YouTuber MylesPowers1985 has got an in-depth analysis of the HIV Denier movie, 'House Of Numbers', going. Of the episodes I saw, it is really good. Its not the usual boring 'person talking to a camera' video-- it is serious investigative journalism.
I say 'of the episodes I saw' because MylesPowers1985s videos are being taken down by DMCA claims:
But you know, the easiest way to eliminate any kind of criticism on the internet is to BAWWWW DMCA.
My coverage of 'House of Numbers' has been minimal because its more fun writing about actual science. But my few interactions with them have not…
sa smith | September 9, 2013... From an infection that generally only affects those who are immunocompromised.
*surprise*
:(
You all might remember me talking about Tommy Morrison:
HIV-1, HIV Denial, and boxing
HIV-1, HIV Denial, and boxing: Round 2
HIV-1, HIV Denial, and boxing: Round 3
Morrison died last week, at the age of 44.
"That's the way Tommy took off after he was told he was HIV-positive," Holden added. "When he first was told, I was taking him to seek treatment and to different doctors around the country. And then he started research on the Internet and started saying it was a conspiracy. He went in that…
sa smith | October 9, 2012There are some HIV-woo ideas that I cannot believe we are still dealing with in 2012.
1. 'Condoms dont stop HIV' - Actually, they do. Really, really well. Better than any 'prophylactic antiretroviral' (with no side-effects). Virus cant evolve resistance to condoms. Virus cant swim through the tiny holes in the structure of latex. Condoms work, whether the Pope or abstinence-only educators or that guy who REALLY wants to bare-back-it wants to believe it or not.
2. 'Magic potions cure HIV!' - Really? Literally the best minds of three decades worth of scientists have been actively working…
sa smith | April 18, 2012Via jonnyneviripine:
Maria Papagiannidou died last Sunday. Another very public and active denialist has kicked the bucket; sad but predictable. Her face and "story" is all over the internet. You can read more about her there. I know she contacted some people I know about starting HAART but presumably she left it a bit late. She and her husband did everything within their considerable powers to rubbish HIV science, question the medicine and scare people away from treatment: for that she's now paid the ultimate price.
Maria Papagiannidou (or ÎαÏία ΠαÏαγιαννίδοÏ, if youre Greek),…
sa smith | January 6, 2012I think the unofficial Favorite Journal of ScienceBlogs has got to be the journal, Medical Hypotheses. It used to be, you could take two different approaches if you wanted to publish in Medical Hypotheses. 1-- Smash your face into your keyboard for 15 minutes. Submit for publication. Or, the less expedient 2-- Leave your laptop open on your bed and let your cat walk/take naps/play on the keyboard for a couple of days. Submit.
See, Medical Hypotheses had no peer review step in its publication process, so the kookiest, most dumbdiddilous crap could get published there, from anti-vax idiocy…
sa smith | November 23, 2011Do you want the good news first, or the bad news?
I like to get the bad news first, usually, because then the good news can cheer me up. So, the bad news:
Kim Bannon has Passed Away
(back-story on Kim Bannon)
HIV-1 Denial claimed another life. It was reported that (HIV-1 positive) HIV-1 Denier Kim Bannon was doing very poorly last year, but she apparently hung on until now. She died last week. Her life did so much harm to HIV/AIDS education and awareness... I hope her death can reverse some of the damage...
Edit to add:
Apparently (HIV-1 negative) HIV-1 Denier Lynn Margulis has died as…
tsmith | April 11, 2011We all know of once-respected scientists who ended up going off the deep end, adhering to an unproven idea despite massive evidence to the contrary. Linus Pauling and his advocacy of megadoses of Vitamin C, or Peter Duesberg's descent into HIV denial. It's all the more disappointing when the one taking a dive is a woman, since there are, compared to men, relatively fewer female "big names" in the sciences. So when one goes from views that were, perhaps, outside of the mainstream (but later proven largely correct) to complete science denialism, it makes it all the more depressing. Even worse,…
sa smith | February 14, 2011While practicality is one of the tools in my arsenal against anti-science advocates, its not my favorite. Maybe its because I am a delicate female with doe-eyes and sweet sensitivities, but my favorite weapon is emotion.
I tell you what, its damn hard to talk to the general public (much less wooers) about the intricacies of genetics and retroviruses, its hard to explain the practicality of evolution in my research, but its real damn easy to give examples of that practicality that tugs on peoples heart-strings. Whether its your moms breast cancer, or your grandpas MS, I can give people a…
sa smith | February 10, 2011So I was just alerted by a reader that the Montreal Gazette just published a rebuttal to the HIV Denial POS they published a few days ago.
Dr. Norbert Gilmore takes an angle I like: Practicality.
We deal with it all the time with wooers-- its easy for HIV Deniers or Creationists or anti-vaxers to say something stupid, but its infinitely more time consuming for scientists to respond to the falsehoods.
An easy short-cut for us is practicality.
I use it when dealing with Creationists, specifically. "Fine. Lets grant the premise that everything scientists say about evolution is a lie. Why does…
sa smith | February 7, 2011HIV(+) status and sports is a big deal.
Any time there is a non-negligible risk of a bloody nose (golf or swimming vs soccer or basketball), there is a risk someone is going to get a blood droplet in the eye. Another player, a ref, a coach, a spectator, a beer vendor-- yes, the odds might be fantastic, but whatever the risks are, they arent worth it for entertainment.
Kudos to *most* state boxing commissions for recognizing that HIV status is a very, very big deal in their sport, thus require HIV tests before fights. And, if a boxer fails a test, they dont go all "DUDES GOT AIDS!", they…
sa smith | September 3, 2010What is it about ERVs that makes kooks cling desperately to them, like little 'gag-pol-env' life-rafts, as the kooks FAILboats sink into even further obscurity?
I think the general populations ignorance about ERVs is what kooks find so attractive. Kooks, like Creationists, can say any damn thing they want about ERVs, and Average Joe/Jane doesnt know any better. Some Creationists might be ignorant themselves and actually believe such claims, but Ive corrected Creationists so many times at this point, its frankly hard to believe Creationist Claims about ERVs are anything but purposeful,…
sa smith | March 20, 2010AAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Know how a while back, when I let that 'House of Numbers' spam through for the lulz?
Well, apparently that spam was sent by a real human, not a spambot. Like, a real breathing human with no life.
Cause humanspambot took that comment going through as an opportunity to spam numerous other posts on ERV, sometimes the same post repeatedly. The exact, same, message.
Since I approved the other spam, poor ERV thought it was supposed to let them all through, so I had to manually trash them all. I then sent a short polite email to the email address associated with the comments…
sa smith | March 1, 2010HIV-1 deniers-- They love Orac. They love Tara. Even like haunting the Hoofnagle brothers a bit.
They dont like ERV.
Never have.
*sad face*
I really cant figure out why. (I bet its cause Im mean and kannut com00nicates scienz).
Three years ago, today, I posted a challenge to HIV-1 Deniers. A simple test of basic HIV-1 literacy and competency. Three years ago... and it only has three comments. One from a supporter, one from me, and one from an HIV-1 Denier... who didnt answer the question. Just linked to the nutty Perth Group and hoped something Perth said stuck (nothing on the linked…
sa smith | February 25, 2010From building bridges with anti-vaxers to building bridges with animal liberation maniacs, Chris Mooneys 'building bridges' plan is revolutionizing the way scientists interact with insane people!
Its even changing the playing field with HIV-1 Deniers.
Long-time readers know I have relatively little patience with HIV-1 Deniers. Everyone involved with HIV Denial, from the 'professional scientists' to the 'Average Joe snake-oil salesman' are complete and utter morons. So, frankly, they are only good for one thing: lulz.
So while I like writing about the latest HIV-1 findings on ERV, I rarely…
goodmath | October 11, 2006While looking at the sitemeter referrals to GM/BM, I noticed a link
from "New Aids Review", a denialist website that that I mentioned in
[my critique of Duesberg.](http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2006/09/pathetic_statistics_from_hivai…)
The folks at NAR are continuing to pull bad math stunts, and I couldn't resist
returning to the subject to show how stubbornly boneheaded people can be,
and how obviously bad math can just slip by without most people blinking an eye.
To remind you, the original Duesberg quote was:
>Most, if not all, of these adolescents must have acquired HIV from…
goodmath | October 3, 2006As [Tara](http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/2006/10/aids_and_viral_load.php), [Nick](http://aidsmyth.blogspot.com/2006/09/viral-load-paradigm-shift-not-real…), and [Orac](http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2006/10/more_distortion_of_peerreview…) have already discussed, there's been a burst of
activity lately from the HIV denialist crowd, surrounding [a new paper](http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/296/12/1498) studying the correlation between viral loads and onset and progression of symptoms in AIDS. For example, Darin Brown, allegedly a mathematician (and recently a troll in the…
goodmath | September 15, 2006Orac sent me a link to some more HIV denialist material, I assume under the assumption that since I'm already being peppered by insults from the denialist crowd, I might as well cover this now.
What I'm looking at today is a [paper by Mark Craddock called "HIV: Science by press conference".][craddoc] The paper is purportedly about how the AIDS research community, in cahoots with the media, are deceiving the public about the nature of results of AIDS research. In his words "One of the most disturbing aspects of what passes for AIDS research these days, is the separation between what…