John Lauritsen on AZT in the 1990s
John Lauritsen on AZT in the 1990s
This has aged incredibly well
The late journalist John Lauritsen has long been one of my absolute heroes among HIV AIDS critics. He was one of the earliest critics to sound the alarm on AZT, and time has proven him correct—only one or two of thirty plus “anti-HIV” medications even contains AZT anymore, and the fact that it is toxic is basically understood—if not admitted to—even among the AIDS establishment shills. In many ways, my work on Truvada and PrEP is inspired by Lauritsen’s courageous work, decades ago.
Below you will find a YouTube video of Lauritsen being interviewed on WYBETV Philadelphia in the early 1990s. (I’m sorry I don’t know the exact date, but it must have been before The AIDS War was published in 1993, from the content of the interview.) The first thirty minutes consist of Lauritsen making his case against AZT and against the official HIV AIDS story. The second half of the video has Lauritsen answering phone-in questions. It’s really worth watching the whole thing. The callers are interesting as well—two asked about the possibility that “HIV” might have been created in a laboratory (foreshadowing of the COVID lab leak controversy!), and one lady calls in describing her friend with AIDS that she helped nurse back to health via positive lifestyle changes. What amazes me about this interview is how friendly it was—never mind the fact that it happened at all. Certainly, the chokehold of media censorship hadn’t quite reached the levels we see today, though it was certainly germinating.
If you watch this interview, what do you think? In my opinion, one of the striking things about his points is that, thirty or so years later, this has absolutely aged incredibly well. (At one point, Lauritsen points out that NRTI drugs will eventually cause cancer; it’s important to remember that the primary active ingredients in current popular “anti-HIV” drugs remain NRTIs as well as NNRTIs—we’re not using “new and improved” drugs today, and the toxicities and lack of specificity remain the same.) Sadly, I imagine that in time, Truvada and PrEP will be consigned to the same dustbin of pharmaceutical history in which AZT resides.
Another interesting thing. At about the 12:00 mark the host describes what physicians are supposedly telling people put on AZT, and it's eerily similar to what people are told now about PrEP. The 'short term' nausea, headache, etc. that the body will adjust to it. I do think that PrEP is less toxic in an acute sense than AZT was, but this focus on some short term discomfort that'll supposedly pass is really deceptive as its the long term effects that are devastating.
That was a great interview. I love his no-bs attitude.