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Correcting Gallo: Rethinking AIDS Responds to Harper’s ‘Out of Control’ Critics
Version 1.4.1: September 27, 2006.
In its March, 2006 issue, Harper’s magazine published “Out of control: AIDS and the corruption of medical science”, an article by Celia Farber which described the death of one woman in a US-based clinical trial of Nevirapine in pregnant HIV-positive women, and the shoddy, corrupt or perhaps outright fraudulent trial of the same drug in Uganda. She described the coverup that occurred, and raised important questions about the effectiveness and safety of HIV/AIDS research. For brevity we will refer to this as “the Farber article”.
Shortly after this article was published, on March 3rd to be exact, a document started circulating entitled “Errors in Celia Farber's March 2006 article in Harper's Magazine”. Half of its authors were researchers: The lead author was Robert Gallo, MD, who claims to have discovered HIV. Others were microbiologist John Moore PhD, of Cornell University , Jeffrey Safrit PhD, senior program officer for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (which receives money from the Nevirapine manufacturer) and a medical professor, Daniel Kuritzkes MD. The remaining four are activists for AIDS drug treatment, HIV vaccines and medical marijuana. We will refer to this as “the Gallo document”.
After the Rethinking AIDS response the website “AIDSTruth.org” wrote that they “are aware that the AIDS denialist group, Rethinking AIDS, has finally prepared what they deem to be a rebuttal of our exposure of the errors perpetrated by Celia Farber in her Harper’s Magazine article. We have looked over the AIDS denialists’ response. It is characteristically superficial and silly, further exposing the Rethinking AIDS group’s misunderstanding of the science of HIV/AIDS. We will not be responding further to it. The AIDStruth website will continue to post, at periodic intervals, information that is relevant to understanding how HIV infection causes AIDS and how AIDS can be treated with anti-retroviral drugs.”
We would be happy to enter into a constructive debate but this response to our detailed scientific survey indicates that they are unwilling or, more likely, unable to respond to our challenges with substantive science of their own.
The Gallo document claims to have noted 56 errors in the Farber article. The purpose of this website is to address all of these. For each supposed error, relevant text from the Farber article is given, followed by the error description from the Gallo et al document, and then our response, including references identified as “RA”.Our analysis of the Gallo et al document attacking the Celia Farber article in the March, 2006 issue of Harpers magazine is broken down into the following sections. In each file a quotation from the Farber article is marked as “Farber”, the entire text of the Gallo document is marked as “Gallo” and our response is marked as “RA” (Rethinking AIDS). When we supply a section of references they are marked “Refs.”:
The Gallo Document(s)
We have discovered four versions of the Gallo document on the internet, dated March 3rd, March 4th, March 22nd and March 25th. The last two are marked “Final”. We have not analyzed the differences, however the two ‘final’ versions included the following note:
Correction History [for Gallo et al] 3 March 2006: First public version. Sent to Harper's.
4 March 2006:
Modified (37;3) "Nevirapine remains an important antiretroviral medicine whose risks outweigh its benefits." to "Nevirapine remains an important antiretroviral medicine whose benefits outweigh its risks."
(b) Modified Bruce Mirken affiliation.
5-25 March: references standardised and typing errors corrected. Thank you to Sister Mary Elizabeth of AEGiS for assisting with these changes. This version is final.We have not modified the four files linked above except the first file includes the number of each of their comments.
Rethinking AIDS Responds to the 56 ‘Errors’
Note: A consolidated version (responses to all claims on one web page) is also available.
Introduction to the Gallo Document Item #1: Pregnancy and False Positive HIV Tests Item #2: “Outer limits of bearable toxicity” Item #3: Is the Death of One Person Relevant? Item #4: HIV Antibodies in Babies Item #5: Problems with HIV Tests Item #6: Comparing Clinical Trial PACTG 1022 to HIVNET 012 Item #7: Are reports of PACTG 1022 Sinister? Item #8: Comparing Clinical Trial PACTG 1022 to HIVNET 012 Item #9: Is it Okay That the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation Takes Money from the Nevirapine Manufacturer? Item #10: The Definition of AIDS in Africa Item #11: Does HIV, not Poverty, Predict Progression to AIDS in Africa? Item #12: Are HIV Tests Widely Used in Africa? Item #13: Tropical Diseases and False Positive HIV Tests Item #14: African HIV/AIDS Statistics Item #15: Who Benefits from Clinical Trials? Item #16: Is Jonathan Fishbein Qualified to Comment on HIVNET 012? Item #17: Nevirapine Rejected by Canada…Twice Item #18: Did HIVNET 006 Lower Viral Load? Item #19: 4 of 22 Infants Died in HIVNET 006. Is this a Problem? Item #20: HIVNET 012 Protocol Changes Item #21: HIVNET 012: Phase II or Phase III? Item #22: HIVNET 012 Not Placebo Controlled Item #23: Hopkins Medical News Hyping Nevirapine? Item #24: Farber’s Description of HIVNET 012 Item #25: HIVNET 012 Participants Also in a Vitamin A Trial Item #26: Was the IOM Report Biased? Item #27: IOM Report Writers Received NIH Grant Funding Item #28: Maternal Nevirapine Proven in ‘Multiple Studies’? Item #29: Valendar Turner, Nevirapine and Placebo Item #30: Nevirapine and a Study with 561 People Item #31: Vitamin A and HIV Transmission Rates Item #32: BW 002 Study of AZT Item #33: Problems with Original AZT Studies Item #34: Why was BW 002 Aborted? Item #35: Was ddI Approved without a Clinical Trial? Item #36: Was Indinavir Approved Without a Clinical Trial? Item #37: Are Clinical Trials Improving with Time? Item #38: How Does AZT Work? Item #39: Does HIV Cause Disease by Killing CD4 Immune Cells? Item #40: Does HIV Fulfil Koch’s Postulates for AIDS? Item #41: 4,000 AIDS Cases without HIV? Item #42: Is HIV Active in the Bodies of AIDS Patients? Item #43: Can HIV be Isolated Without ‘Reactivating’ Latent Copies? Item #44: Antibodies Mean Immunity…Except for HIV? Item #45: Does ‘Viral Load’ Measure Live Virus? Item #46: The HIV Latency Period (Time Before AIDS Develops) Item #47: Does HIV Spread Randomly? Should it? Item #48: Remote Cell ‘Suicide’ (Apoptosis) Item #49: Genetic Immunity to HIV Item #50: Does HIV Kill T-Cells? Item #51: HIV Does Not Kill Chimpanzees Item #52: Non-HIV Causes for AIDS Item #53: HIV and Holocaust ‘Denialism’ Item #54: Scurvy as a Parallel to HIV/AIDS? Item #55: The Reappraiser’s Petition Item #56: Does AIDS Drug Toxicity Cause AIDS? Opinions from other people on the Celia Farber article and the Gallo document are also archived here:
- ‘Perth Group’ Commentary on the Rethinking AIDS Response to the Gallo et al Criticism of Celia Farber in Harpers Magazine
- Neville Hodgkinson’s Letter to Harpers
Authors
This content of this web document was prepared by the following (listed in alphabetical order of first name):
- Christian Fiala, MD, Gynaecologist at the General Public Hospital, Korneuburg, Austria and Mulago Hospital/Makerere, Kampala, Uganda.
- David Crowe, HBSc (Biology/Mathematics). President, Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society.
- David Rasnick, PhD, Biochemist, Protease Inhibitor Developer.
- Etienne de Harven, MD, Emeritus Professor of Pathology, University of Toronto. An expert on viruses, with many publications to his credit.
- Henry Bauer, PhD, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Scientific Exploration, Dean Emeritus of Arts and Sciences, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Science Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
- Ken Anderlini, HIV-positive, co-moderator of AIDS Myth Exposed.
- Kevin Corbett, RN, PhD, Senior Research Fellow in Health Care, Liverpool John Moores University.
- Martin Maloney.
- Robert Houston, Science Writer.
We appreciate the assistance of:
- Bryan Owen, Rethinking AIDS Webmaster.
- Celia Farber, Journalist.
- Frank Lusardi.
- Siggi Duesberg.
The web pages were edited by David Crowe. Please contact him if you discover any errors, or have suggestions for updates.