RFKJ’s “Whopper of the Week”

Very quick post for you today. From Defend Public Health (why does this sound vaguely Orwellian?):

Whopper of the Week: RFK Jr. Has Plainly Stated His Belief in the Falsehoods of AIDS Denialism

As a reminder, all emphasis is mine.

“There are much better candidates than HIV for what causes AIDS” -- RFK Jr., New York Magazine, June 30, 2023

[…]

The above quote from the current HHS Secretary represents a clear statement of his views on a subject he has sometimes equivocated about, depending on the audience. He has also promoted denialist misinformation about HIV extensively in his 2021 book attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci. The book cites and quotes the intellectually dishonest writings of AIDS denialist figurehead Dr. Peter Duesberg and acknowledges input from longtime acolytes Celia Farber and John Lauritsen. Consistent with his proclivity for whoppers, contrast what he said to New York Magazine in 2023 to how he hedged about his beliefs in the book: “I want to make clear that I take no position on the relationship between HIV and AIDS.” And yet RFK Jr’s book includes the prominent AIDS denialists Peter Duesberg, David Rasnick and Harvey Bialy in a list of people he describes as “heroic healers.”

I have wondered myself as to the meaning of his bolded statement, which sits incongruously in his book that devoted approximately half of its content to the HIV AIDS scandal.

The next section asks the question “Why is this a whopper?” Well, according to the “contributors” to this article (Benedicte Callan, Ph.D., Bruce Mirken, Richard Jefferys, Tara C. Smith, Ph.D.):

AIDS denialism is a deadly threat to the health of people living with HIV and those at risk of exposure. When South African President Thabo Mbeki embraced Peter Duesberg’s falsehoods about HIV in the early 2000s, it led to delays in implementing treatment and prevention that are estimated to have led to over 330,000 avoidable deaths and more than 35,000 avertable cases of HIV acquisition in infants. The total lost benefits of delayed access to ART amounted to at least 3.8 million person-years of life for the period 2000-2005. It was popularized in the U.S. by local and national groups and even promoted by the popular rock band the Foo Fighters.

I love how they throw these numbers about. Luckily, we are well aware by now that mathematical models cannot prove anything, so whatever model they used to come up with the figures of “330,000 avoidable deaths” and “35,000 avertable cases of HIV acquisition in infants” necessarily assumed a level of pathogenicity and infectivity for the “virus” that may have little to no basis in reality. So the numbers are nonsense. You know when they start discussing “person-years” that they’re reaching. Also, shoutout to the Foo Fighters, who as far as I know have never publicly disavowed their earlier positive interest in AIDS criticism.

Here are some blatant scare tactics with little basis in reality but which are good at sounding scary:

The toll of AIDS denialist internet propaganda on the well-being of people with HIV can’t be fully measured, but we’ve seen it in cases of individuals stopping prescribed treatment that have played out publicly (see Brian Deer’s 2012 reporting for The Guardian). Here at Defend Public Health, we have personal experience with this: One of our Coordinating Committee members, who followed the subject as a journalist in the 1990s and early 2000s, knew at least six people who got swallowed up by the AIDS denialist cult, refused treatment for HIV, and eventually died of AIDS-related causes.

I wonder at the veracity of this statement regarding “at least six people”—how convenient that no names or details have been mentioned, and the article doesn’t even have an actual author, just “contributors.”

The causative role of HIV has been incontrovertibly established by scientific research. Tools now exist to pinpoint the exact location where the virus has integrated its DNA into an infected cell, and the disruptions to the immune system that lead to AIDS if HIV replication is unchecked involve accumulations of dysfunctional, exhausted T cells that specifically recognize HIV proteins. The design of antiretroviral therapies targeting deeply researched steps in the HIV life cycle has allowed for the complete suppression of viral replication and restoration of immune function – preventing progression to AIDS, eliminating the risk of transmission, and a life expectancy increasingly similar to comparable HIV-negative people. This life-saving impact has been thoroughly documented, and we saw it in the real world – the “Lazarus effect” when effective ART began to be widely available in 1995-96. The only rebuttal AIDS denialists have to this reality is frantic handwaving and falsehoods.

Actually, no, that isn’t the only rebuttal we have. First, AIDS deaths began to decline in 1993, two years before the availability of HAART. Furthermore, only about 65-70% of “HIV” positives are even “retained in care” on ARVs, which leads to confusion as to where the massive AIDS epidemic among the 30-35% of “HIV” positives that are not retained in care. And, again, among those that are retained in care and “virally suppressed,” a full 10-40% of these patients do not mount a significant immune response or increase in T cells and are referred to as “immunological non-responders.” How do the “contributors” explain this conundrum? Where is the real AIDS epidemic in all this? (Hint: look beyond “HIV” positivity.)

Finally, Why does this matter?

During RFK Jr’s tenure as HHS Secretary, both domestic and global HIV funding are being cut and placed under unprecedented threat, and HIV-related research grants have been preferentially targeted for termination by the current administration.

Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, the highly qualified and recently appointed Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) who has a background in HIV research, was an early target for removal. News has just emerged in the past few days that Dr. Carl Dieffebach, the highly respected Director of the Division of AIDS at NIAID, has also been relieved of his duties by RFK Jr’s HHS. Among a broad portfolio, Dieffenbach was currently leading the renewal process for the four large NIH-funded HIV research networks (ACTG, HPTN, HVTN, IMPAACT).

Shockingly on November 25th, a memo to CDC staff was shared online that states: “The U.S. Government will not be commemorating World AIDS Day this year.”

I have a sincere question. If our treatment and prevention strategies for AIDS are so miraculous and at the apex of medical knowledge, why do we need to throw more money at it? Isn’t it good enough already? Apparently not.

How much of this stems from RFK Jr’s support for AIDS denialism is unclear, but we’re suspicious, given his abuse of government resources to promote his similarly anti-science views on vaccines. In his 2021 book he even goes beyond AIDS denialism, arguing against germ theory and promoting the long-discredited “terrain” theory (which he erroneously calls “miasma” theory), claiming that infectious microbes aren’t the real culprit.

There has been, since Covid in particular, a tendency for people to fall into one camp or another—germ theory or terrain theory—without recognizing the possibility that both can be true at once.

These false and fundamentally eugenicist claims underpin a recent appalling opinion piece on responding to pandemics authored by NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and principal deputy director Matthew Memoli.

RFK Jr’s promotion of the lies of AIDS denialism and endorsement of terrain theory join a growing list of problematic statements and behavior that should have disqualified him from ever being considered for the position of HHS Secretary.

How are these claims “fundamentally eugenicist?” Can someone clarify this for me, because it seems to have been pulled out of the sky?

Finally, a not so subtle call for RFKJ’s firing. If I were one of these “contributors,” I wouldn’t be holding my breath.

That’s all for today—let me know what you think in the comments.