“I get a sense that we’ve all
been educated into one school of thought. I’m not surprised at
all to find among the overwhelming majority of scientists, are people
who would hold one particular view because that’s all
they’re exposed to.”
Sitting Down with President Mbeki,
Carte-Blanche, 2000 Apr 16. www.ktv.co.za/carteblanche/week/000416_mbeki.jhtml
But the point remains that science is not a
popularity contest. We don’t vote for our favorite theory the
way one would vote for a homecoming queen. Scientific facts are not
determined or proven by majority rule. If that were the case, we
would all still be living on a flat planet around which the entire
universe revolves.
All of the hype swirling around the release of the
Durban Declaration would have one believe that a poll was
taken among all of the world’s scientists and doctors,
and that the results came back -- 5,000 to 1 (Duesberg being the sole
dissenter).
(See www.nature.com/nature/prepub/index.html
to read the Durban Declaration and view the list of
signatories.)
The fact is that the Durban Declaration
gives no indication whatsoever of how many scientists or doctors
don’t believe that “HIV” causes
“AIDS,” or how many of them merely remain unconvinced of
the link.
If the media were really interested in reporting
REAL NEWS, instead of telling us something we already know, they
would perhaps instead report on:
1) Suppression of the Group for the Scientific
Reappraisal of the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis
The Group for the Scientific Reappraisal
of the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis has been nearly universally censored for
almost a decade. This is a group of internationally-distinguished
scientists (including Nobel Laureates), doctors, researchers,
academics and other professionals who have signed on to the following
statement (which now numbers over 1,000 signatories):
“It is widely believed by the
general public that a retrovirus called HIV causes the group diseases
called AIDS. Many biochemical scientists now question this
hypothesis. We propose that a thorough reappraisal of the existing
evidence for and against this hypothesis be conducted by a suitable
independent group. We further propose that critical epidemiological
studies be devised and undertaken.”
And although the scientific press and
mainstream media are all too eager to publicize the recent religious
fervor and fanfare which surround the historically and scientifically
insignificant Durban Declaration, the initial signatories (in
June of 1991) to the above statement were unable to convince the
editors of Nature, Science, The Lancet and The New England Journal of
Medicine to publish their letter. Each of these leading scientific
journals outright refused to publish it.
Nearly four years later, the
journal Science finally agreed to publish a letter from the Group
(Science. 17 Feb. 1995, vol. 267, pp. 945-946):
Since Nature has agreed to publish the
Durban Declaration -- a piece of worthless, unscientific fluff
-- along with the 5,000 plus signatures, will they now consent to
publishing the previously banned letter of “The Group”
along with its 1,000 plus signatories? Will other scientific journals
consider breaking the 9-year-old media black-out concerning the vast
magnitude of dissent within the international scientific community
concerning the actual cause(s) of what is called “AIDS”?
2) Lack of Participation in the Internet Debate
by Orthodox Members of South African President Mbeki’s
Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel
South African President Thabo Mbeki’s
historic and visionary “Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel”
has unfolded to reveal a bizarre lack of participation in the
“debate” by the orthodox panel members. President Mbeki has
explained the reasoning behind his decision to convene a panel in
this way:
“I say that why don’t we
bring all points of view. Sit around a table and discuss this
evidence, and produce evidence as it may be, and let’s see what
the outcome is, which is why we are having this International panel
which we are all talking about. They may very well be correct, but I
think if they are correct and they are convinced they are correct, it
would be a good thing to demonstrate to those who are wrong, that
they are wrong.”
www.ktv.co.za/carteblanche/week/000416_mbeki.jhtml
Have the orthodox panel members made a
good-faith effort to participate in an open debate, and to provide
their best evidence in support of their theories and beliefs, in an
honest attempt to “demonstrate to those who are wrong, that they
are wrong”, so that this matter could be settled once and for
all in an open public forum, so generously created and offered by
President Mbeki, and financed by the South African taxpayer?
No. Quite the opposite! Instead, we are
witnessing a rather transparent and embarrassingly juvenile attempt
to subvert the process of open debate, along with an insulting and
offensive parallel effort to upstage President Mbeki and his historic
panel, by issuing this proclamation of religious doctrine -- the
Durban Declaration, signed by all of the leading high priests
of the “HIV causes AIDS cult” -- before the
“Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel” has even completed their
deliberations (scheduled to conclude on July 3rd and 4th in
Johannesburg). Shockingly, after having accepted President
Mbeki’s invitation to sit on the panel, many of the orthodox
panel members actually signed the Durban Declaration (and some
even appear to have been involved in helping to organize it), which
displays a shameless contempt for the process of open scientific
discourse and debate, while at the same time publicly mocks the
sincere and compassionate efforts of President Mbeki to provide both
orthodox and “dissident” scientists the opportunity to
“make their case” and resolve this long-standing
controversy, with the ultimate goal of preventing the unnecessary
suffering and deaths of countless Africans, primarily impoverished
rural Africans, those who are said to be closest to Mbeki’s
heart.
Disappointingly, yet not surprisingly,
with few exceptions, the orthodox panel members almost unanimously
boycotted the Internet “debate” which was supposed to have
taken place between the first panel meeting (in early May) and the
final meeting this week. In contrast, the “AIDS dissidents”
fearlessly and passionately raised their best arguments, posting
document after document, while their orthodox colleagues held a
scientific “beauty pageant,” with “HIV” once
again retaining her crown, unchallenged in their eyes. Stunned and
mesmerized by her golden radiance (in this case, the “gold”
refers to $$$$$), it is no wonder that her beauty has reigned supreme
for the past 17 years!
Will we hear in the media about this
display of scientific cowardice and stubborn, adolescent behavior on
the part of the orthodox panel members?
Will mainstream journalists ask the
obvious question -- what are these orthodox “experts”
trying to hide?
3) The “International On-line Petition in
Support of President Mbeki:”
A newspaper editor interested in reporting
real news might choose to feature a story about this petition
which states:
“In science, no theory should be
immune from challenge, and debate over an issue affecting millions of
lives should never be declared over. I support South African
President Thabo Mbeki’s intention to investigate the definition,
causation, treatment and prevention of ‘AIDS’.”
www.virusmyth.com/aids/news/mbeki.htm
In the absence of the mammoth PR budget
which no doubt accompanied the collection of signatures for the
Durban Declaration, in the three months since its initial
inception, this highly successful, yet little known grass-roots
initiative has collected over 2,000 signatures from a total of 68
countries!! Many of the signatories are scientists or doctors. But
unlike the elitist Durban Declaration, this grass-roots
petition acknowledges, validates and welcomes the opinions and
“common sense” of all global citizens, who possess a
fundamental, democratic right to have a say in important issues which
affect their personal health and well-being, and who are not simply
content to be dictated to by self-proclaimed “experts,”
especially “experts” who have now publicly exposed
themselves as having a contempt for open scientific discourse, and an
unquenchable hunger for silencing dissent.
When President Mbeki first announced his
courageous decision to convene a panel, we were told by the media
that the “AIDS dissidents” consisted of a microscopic
handful of “discredited quacks” -- Peter Duesberg and his
misguided band of “white Duesberg disciples,” hopelessly
and eternally tilting at windmills. President Mbeki was widely
condemned for “flirting” with the banished handful of
“dissidents.” In fact, one leading “AIDS expert”
actually stated that “pretty much everyone” who
“doubts that HIV causes AIDS” is ON this 36-member panel
(now expanded to approximately 60 members). But if all of this were
true, one might ask, “Where did all of these 2,000
signatures comes from??” Are Duesberg’s hypnotic,
cult-like powers that far-reaching? To 68 countries? Or is it perhaps
possible that amidst all the controversy, there truly is something
scientifically compelling here, that has been overlooked, either
intentionally or unintentionally, for over a decade and a half, by a
pharmaceutical-industry-worshipping, lap-dog media, who appear to
have been lulled into a semi-trance by the relentless release of
increasingly alarming “official” statistics and projections
about the severity and extent of this “modern day
plague”?
The list of countries represented on the
international petition in support of President Mbeki is in and of
itself extremely impressive and newsworthy (see list below), and
among other things, this list represents solid proof of the
widespread, growing, global skepticism surrounding the
prevailing beliefs concerning “HIV” and
“AIDS”.
Will this international petition and its
startling implications find themselves on the front pages of the
world’s newspapers? Will the media report on this growing and
difficult-to-ignore skepticism, coming from both inside and outside
the scientific community, with the same vigor that they have used to
hype and force-feed us the meaningless, trivial and nonsensical
smoke-screen referred to as the Durban Declaration?
~ Lynn Gannett ~
List Of Countries Represented On The
International On-Line Petition In Support Of President Mbeki:
Antarctica
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Botswana
Brazil
Cameroon
Canada
Chile
Columbia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Gabon
Gambia
Germany
Greece
Guadeloupe
Haiti
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Kenya
Korea
Lebanon
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Malawi
Malaysia
Mexico
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
Netherlands Antilles
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Paraguay
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
Spain
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Tanzania
Thailand
Turkey
Uganda
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Viet Nam
Zambia
Zimbabwe
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