Nearly every epidemiologist is convinced. If AIDS is not caused by a sexually-transmitted virus, there would be no need to tell people to use condoms or take other protective measures. It wouldn't be necessary to buy AZT or other expensive anti-viral drugs. These savings may sound attractive to the leader of a poor country, but wishing does not make it so. The result is that 24 million people in South Africa are now HIV-positive.
Pseudoscience can truly be lethal.
Comedian Andy Kaufman was another victim of pseudoscience. These fraudulent practitioners prey on the hopeless, pretending to remove diseased tissue while actually producing chicken entrails hidden in their hands. It's not always easy, even if you're a professional scientist. But here are some suggestions. First, pseudoscientists generally do not publish articles in reputable scientific journals.