Three Swedish samples of the relevant vaccine have proved negative, but the Swedes have oddly refused to test what species of primate was used to make the vaccines despite Hooper's and Hamilton's requests. There remains a strong suspicion that they were made from chimpanzees, hundreds of which were sacrificed at a medical facility near Kisangani in Congo at the right time. Hamilton was collecting the stools of chimpanzees from around Kisangani to test whether they carry the 'M' strain of HIV, which has caused the main global pandemic. If they do, the case is very strong indeed. May. So far it has received a hostile reaction from much of the medical profession, which is understandable.
Vaccination does immense good and any contamination is long in the past.
To somebody like me who believes that medicine and biotechnology are overwhelmingly forces for good, it is painful even to publicise a theory that dents that confidence. It means that the last legacy of colonialism includes quite literally a plague that has killed 16 million Africans and lowered life expectancy all across the continent. This hypothesis was rapidly rejected by the early inquiries into BSE, but partly, it seems, because the implications would be too alarming in terms of undermining trust in the medical profession-a consideration that was not extended to the farming profession.