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Durban Declaration Rebuttal
Commentary
AIDS, Robbie and the Minister
By Andrew Kenny
The Citizen, Johannesburg 13 September 2000
In the row between John Robbie of 702 and the Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, it is important to distinguish between two issues: one is press freedom and government accountability, the other is Aids.
The first is simple. Robbie was right and the Minister was wrong. In a democracy such as ours, the government is there to serve the people. We pay Tshabalala-Msimang over half a million rand a year to serve us, and she must be accountable to us.
Instead of answering a journalist's important question she was arrogant and evasive. I did not like Robbie's use of her first name nor his rude ending of the interview but these are minor details.
Robbie is a pussycat compared with the interviewers British and American politicians have to contend with. The ANC's demand for an apology was outrageous bullying.
The second is far from simple. I confess that my confusion about Aids grows by the day. Robbie asked, "Does HIV cause Aids?"
If he meant, "Do people found HIV-positive always get Aids?", the answer is certainly "No".
If he meant, "Are people suffering from Aids always HIV-positive, the answer is again "No". If he meant, "Does HIV sometimes cause Aids?", then my answer would be, "Perhaps, but I don't know."
Aids is a great terror not only here but all over Africa. There is anecdote after anecdote about babies and young people being struck down in multitudes. But I have never seen hard statistical evidence to support the scare.
In July, with screaming headlines. the Sunday Times displayed death figures for 1990 and 1999 to show the devastation of Aids. They were nonsense, showing, for example, a 100% increase in deaths among 90-year-olds.
Just before the Aids Conference in Durban this year, the orthodox side put out "The Durban Declaration" presenting their case that HIV is the single cause of Aids.
The dissidents have now put out a rebuttal. I must tell you, speaking from a position of medical ignorance, I found the latter more convincing. Check for yourself at www.thedurbandeclaration.org
The dissidents include some of the world's most distinguished scientists.
If the orthodox believers have good evidence to put forward, I wish they would do so instead of condemning anyone who dares to disagree with them as a "flat Earther" and making terrifying predictions that in the past have proved hopelessly wrong.
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