“Denying AIDS”

A mini book review

I recently obtained a copy of the book Denying AIDS: Conspiracy Theories, Pseudoscience, and Human Tragedy by Seth Kalichman, a Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Connecticut. He is also the developer of the Sexual Compulsivity Scale, which is evidently used to help “predict a range of health outcomes.”

I had been aware of this book since it was released in 2009 but I never bothered to read it, although I had heard through the grapevine that my name was mentioned (it was; in an appendix listing some well known “denialists”). I was knee deep in early motherhood at that time, but one thing I do recall was that one of my cousins blocked me on social media after reading that book.

I will give Dr. Kalichman credit for having taken a novel approach. Rather than trying to debunk “denialist” arguments (for the most part—more on that momentarily), he instead attempts to use his skill as a psychologist to psychoanalyze the entire “HIV AIDS denialist” movement as though it were a monolith. He must not be aware that “denialism” takes many forms. Some people think HIV does not exist (heck, some people think no viruses exist, but this has less to do with HIV than you’d imagine—topic for a future post), some think it is a harmless passenger virus, some believe it is pathogenic but needs cofactors for progression to AIDS, and even some merely reject the drugs.

Nevertheless, we are apparently paranoid conspiracy theorists with “suspicious minds” and that politically we are almost certainly “socially far right conservatives” or libertarians (these two things are not the same). There is also the suspicion that we might be homophobic, although I wonder how Dr. Kalichman explains the fact that many members of the gay community are themselves “denialists.”

There is an entire chapter on Peter Duesberg, and it says about what you think it would say.

I will mention one last oddity before I close. In the first chapter, Dr. Kalichman attempts a little debunking. Specifically, he reproduces a slightly changed version of an appendix from The Real AIDS Epidemic in which I list the failed predictions of HIV AIDS, and attempts to debunk said debunking (on my part) of said predictions. He lists the prediction as “Historical Prediction,” my analysis “Denialist Myth,” and his “debunking” as “Scientific Fact.” It is fascinating to me because in every case he fails to debunk my argument in one of two ways. He either makes some sort of vague statement like “HIV AIDS is becoming medically manageable with antiretroviral medications, and one day, there may be a cure. However, today there remains no cure for HIV AIDS,” or he subtly changes my statement to something that doesn’t reflect my original intention and then debunks that changed statement. It is very peculiar.

Overall, I will admit that this was an entertainingly written book. Of course, I disagree with its thesis, but as a fierce advocate of freedom of speech, I am grateful to live in a time when Dr. Kalichman’s book and my book can sit together on the same shelf, as it were. Let’s hope that doesn’t change.

In The Real AIDS Epidemic, I present an analysis of data that falsify the HIV/AIDS hypothesis and warn about the toxic drugs being given to people in the name of that falsified HIV/AIDS hypothesis. In the afterword, I offer constructive suggestions for a paradigm shift in AIDS research and treatment that emphasize the recognition of the massive Non-HIV AIDS epidemic in the general population.

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