From: jfurr@nyx.cs.du.edu (Mr. Furr)
Subject: Re: AIDS and the CIA (was Question)
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Date: Mon, 9 Nov 92 12:07:07 GMT

In article <1992Nov9.105126.24880@dcs.warwick.ac.uk> wisp@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Wisp) writes:
>In article <stovall.721181535@ficus.cs.ucla.edu> stovall@ficus.cs.ucla.edu (Steven Stovall) writes:
>>thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Mmmm... Purple) writes:
>>
>>>I have seen Actual Communist Propaganda posted in New York (no doubt
>>>by the New York Method (tm)) blaiming AIDS on the US government,
>>>on posters by the same sort of groups that were complaining that the
>>>Chinese were being too soft-hearted on the traitors in Tianenmen Square.
>>>Don't know how much the Soviets had to do with these posters, but
>>>post-Gorbachev they have been found to have funded just about every
>>>Communist movement in the US.  But even these folks may have been too
>>>fringe for the KGB.
>>
>>A while ago I reposted in s.c.a.a. some of Billi Goldberg's sci.med.aids
>>articles on the Wistar Origin of AIDS Theory, which postulated that early
>>polio vaccine innoculations in Zaire may have introduced simian viruses
>>into humans which were precursors for HIV. That theory has lost some steam,
>>although it is still not clear to me that samples of the 1959 vaccine stock
>>(which were said to still exist in the freezers of the Wistar Institute)
>>were ever found and tested.
>>
>
>Well, this one is definitely bullshit. A merchant seaman died of a
>then-inexplicable immune deficiency in the Manchester Royal Infirmary in 1956.
>Subsequent analysis of samples retained by the labs demonstrated the presence
>of large titres of HIV. (Source, the British Medical Journal, 1988(?) I'll go
>dig out the exact reference if anyone wants it...)

Please do.  I'd appreciate being able to go photocopy this case to be able
to show to a few weirdos I knew who are convinced that the CIA was trying
to kill off all the blacks in America.

>
>>The technology did not exist in the 1950's to genetically engineer HIV,
>>but there may have been accidents and/or experiments involving simian immuno-
>>suppresant viruses during those years, and such simian viruses may well
>>have mutated into what we now call HIV. It certainly is possible that
>>the US intelligence community participated in such "accidents" and/or
>>"experiments." There definitely is something curious about the epidemiology
>>of AIDS so far: in this country, it has been almost exclusively confined
>>to homosexuals and people of color, and worldwide it will decimate Africa
>>and Asia, apparently leaving Europe relatively untouched.
>
>There's nothing even remotely unusual about the epidemiology of HIV. So far as
>the spread in the USA/Europe goes, the spread is via blood-blood or other
>bodily fluid contact, almost exactly the same way as Hepatitis B is spread
>(and yes, it predominantly affects the same groups).
>
>As far as Africa, Asia and 'people of color' go, several points. First, there
>*is* a  genetic difference in the response of different races to different
>viruses (Epstein-Barr virus is a good example). Second, vastly different
>living conditions affect the outcome/infection rates of all sorts of diseases
>(for example, measles has  <0.1% mortality rate in the UK, and in East Africa
>the same disease kills about 10% of children who become infected...). Finally,
>there is a behavioural component to the spread of AIDS: if you take reasonable
>precautions you're extremely unlikely to get it, and unfortunately those most
>at risk are also those least likely to take reasonable precautions...
>
>I've always admired Spike Lee's work, but I think he should stick to what
>he knows: he's made a real prick of himself with this latest outburst...
>
>The Wisp. [now if it was nailing lawyers and estate agents...]


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