Luc Montagnier

Luc Montagnier was a French virologist and 2008 Nobel Prize co-winner for his joint discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. He was the co-founder of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention and co-director of the Program for International Viral Collaboration.
==Where things go south…==
===Homeopathy===
Unfortunately, Montagnier became increasingly cranky in his old age and become a big supporter of homeopathy.Nobel laureate gives homeopathy a boost (July 05, 2010 12:00AM) The Australian (archived from December 25, 2010).
In 2009, he conducted an "experiment" on diluted DNA in which he claimed that the DNA emitted an electromagnetic signal after it diluted down to nothing.Electromagnetic signals are produced by aqueous nanostructures derived from bacterial DNA sequences by Luc Montagnier et al. (2009) Interdisciplinary Sciences, Computational Life Sciences 1(2):81-90. doi:10.1007/s12539-009-0036-7. Although the brand-new journal (Interdisciplinary Sciences, Computational Life Sciences) claims to be peer reviewed,Interdisciplinary Sciences: Computational Life Sciences: Submission guidelines Springer. but at the time of publication Montagnier was chairman of the board,Interdisciplinary Sciences: Computational Life Sciences Springer (archived from February 26, 2020). essentially assuring that anything he wrote would be published. He used his laptop with unspecified and varying software, and an unspecified amplifier to experiment, so it's 99.9% certain that he just picked up some white noise.
Along these lines, Montagnier also claimed that the DNA emits abnormal electromagnetic radiation in people with autism, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis.French Nobelist Escapes 'Intellectual Terror' to Pursue Radical Ideas in China by Martin Enserink (24 Dec 2010) Science. doi:10.1126/science.330.6012.1732.
Nevertheless, woo-meisters like Deepak ChopraSpirituality is the new science by Deepak Chopra (Jan. 24, 2011) SFGate. and Dana UllmanNobel Prize-Winners Who Advocated for Homeopathic Medicine by Dana Ullman (January 19th, 2022) Homeopathic Family Medicine (archived from June 9, 2022). have held this up as a vindication of homeopathic "theories" since Montagnier has become something of an outspoken apologist for homeopathy after he conducted this "experiment". If a Nobel-winner says it, it must be true!
The fact that the effect lasts a few picoseconds (trillionths of a second) has not been reproduced by other scientists, was self-published without peer-review,The Nobel disease meets DNA teleportation and homeopathy by David Gorski (January 14, 2011) Science Blogs. and according to Montagnier, the research "cannot extrapolate it to the products used in homeopathy".Luc Antoine Montagnier Hexagonal Water (archived from September 23, 2013).Cure or Con? (Jan 14, 2011) Marketplace, CBC (archived from April 13, 2014).
Apparently, his homeopathic infallibility does not extend to knowing the applicability of his own research.
Montagnier has also spoken in support of immunologist Jacques Benveniste's "delusion[al]" research that resulted in the and the term "water memory".
===Claiming the COVID virus was engineered===
In 2020, Montagnier and co-author Jean Claude Perez hypothesized based on a genetic data analysis of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, was semi-synthetic.COVID-19, SARS and Bats Coronaviruses Genomes Peculiar Homologous RNA Sequences by Jean Claude Perez & Luc Montagnier (2020) International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH 8(7):217–263. doi:10.29121/granthaalayah.v8.i7.2020.678. The hypothesis was widely criticized by scientists because the gene sequences alleged to be synthetic occur widely within other coronaviruses in the wild.French Nobel prize winner: ‘Covid-19 was made in lab’: A controversial French Nobel prize-winning scientist has accused biologists of having created SARS-CoV-2 - the virus that causes Covid-19 - in a lab, but the wider scientific community has so far refuted the claim (3 March 2021 13:55) The Connexion. Another study, published the same year, clearly showed " that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus."The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2 by Kristian G. Andersen et al. (2020) Nature Medicine 26:450–452. doi:10.1038/s41591-020-0820-9. He has also suggested that COVID-19 would accelerate aging. SARS-COV2 accelerates biological age by Xavier Azalbert, Anne-Typhaine Bouthors, Michel Brack, Dominique Cerdan, Walter Chesnut, Gérard Guillaume, Jean-François Lesgards, Luc Montagnier and Jean-Claude Perez, August 30, 2021, France-Soir
===Joining the anti-vaccination movement===
He was present at Autism One with such notable kooks as Andrew Wakefield, Jenny McCarthy, and Operation Rescue.Nobel laureate joins anti-vaccination crowd at Autism One by Stephen Salzberg (May 27, 2012,01:53pm EDT) Forbes. In 2021, Montagnier falsely claimed that widespread COVID vaccination would create more virus variants, and called the massive vaccination effort a 'medical mistake'.Luc Montagnier’s Views on COVID Vaccines Are Latest Of His Wrong, Vexing Ideas by Shahid Jameel (27/05/2021) The Wire Science. He also stated that a process called antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) creates more serious COVID infections, however the problem ADE was already addressed during vaccine development. Before he died, he suggested that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines would eventually lead to the acceleration of Prion diseases.Towards the emergence of a new form of the neurodegenerative Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: Twenty six cases of CJD declared a few days after a COVID-19 “vaccine” Jab by Jean-Claude Perez, Claire Moret-Chalmin and Luc Montagnier, January 12, 2023, International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice and Research
==See also==
*Nobel disease
==External links==
*Bio at Nobelprize.org
*It almost makes me disbelieve HIV causes AIDS! PZ Myers
*Luc Montagnier: The Nobel disease strikes again, Respectful Insolence
*The Nobel disease and me, David Gorski, Science Based Medicine
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Alternative medicine promoters
Category:Anti-vaccination movement
Category:Biologists
Category:France
Category:HIV/AIDS
Category:Homeopathy
Category:Pseudoscience promoters