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AIDS: What the Discoverers of HIV Never Admitted - Is AIDS really caused by a virus, 3rd edition, by Lawrence Broxmeyer, MD, Softcover, 5.5" x 8".
New Century Press, 1055 Bay Boulevard, Suite C, Chula Vista, CA 91911, phone: (800) 519-2465, (619) 476-7400, www.newcenturypress.com. E-mail:MEDAMERICA1@cs.com: Publication Date 2003. vi + 81 pages, ISBN 1-890035-29-7. Price $11.95
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The AIDS epidemic is a brutal reality. Thanks to sensitisation programmes today even school children in India know about the dangers posed by AIDS, though this of course, does not mean that all citizens have become doubly careful about taking preventive steps. But that is another issue altogether.
When the first whiff of the AIDS epidemic was scented, we, the people asked, "What is AIDS?" "Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome," came the prompt answer. "What is the causative organism," we asked? "HIV or the Human Immunodeficiency Virus," came the confident reply from established laboratories manned by the men in white lab-coats. A small aside assured us that only certain high-risk behaviour would endanger us. We breathed a sigh of relief. At least the enemy had a name. And many basked in the glow of smug self-righteousness.this was surely a 'punishment' for deviating from the straight and narrow! It would pass us by, we thought in blissful ignorance. And even if it didn't, surely we would have a vaccine soon and the AIDS epidemic would be behind us, just as the scourge of small pox is. Or perhaps a magic bullet would be devised. After all penicillin had stopped the silently spreading syphilis in its tracks. That was the age of innocence.
As the years went by, the bad news billowed out.AIDS spread its tentacles across the globe. Man, woman, child it spared none. Neonates, patients/accident victims requiring blood transfusions, haemophiliacs, innocent housewives.surely these were not groups who needed to be thus 'punished.' And the vaccine was nowhere in sight! The world held its breath.
But still the bad news kept coming. People began to ask, "What was happening? Why were the scientists unable to fix HIV?" First the disquiet, then whispers, then the open publications such as the book under review.did HIV really cause AIDS? Or have we just been fed a tissue of lies and half-truths just so that the research grants would keep flowing in while millions died. It is the author's premise that, " a small group of politically powerful scientists rammed a flawed theory on the origin and cause of AIDS down America's and then the world's throat." It is this theory he has tried to prove in the slim eighty-one-page book. It is not a something that can be dismissed lightly.
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However, as a reviewer, I cannot say I stand totally convinced though some of the observations did raise a tremor of doubt in a mind that had till now accepted without reservation that HIV causes AIDS. Reading the book was not easy.not because it jarred previously held beliefs but because of the style of writing. Broxmeyer has opted for a jerky style.rather like the flash forward, cut, flashback style adopted in movies. Or perhaps it would be better to say it reads a bit like the notes one writes under bulletized points. It may work for some subjects, but in the reviewer's opinion science writing needs lucidity more than it needs flashy style.
One must pause to ask who the readers are. Obviously this book is not meant for the scientists for, if what Broxmeyer says is true, they have their own camps anyway. So that leaves, us. The common people.the laymen. those who take the words emanating from the mouths of the white lab-coated scientists as being the gospel. The common man needs a little more elaboration of matters scientific. He doesn't need to be told about inter-lab rivalries and pettiness. All he wants is the unvarnished truth.both versions if the truth is being debated. Where AIDS is concerned the common man doesn't want a racy whodunit. He wants facts. He is confused enough as it is.
The book had promise. It has enormous scope. Perhaps had the author had the opportunity to flesh it out, it would have won him more converts. William Russell (1852-1940) who spent a significant part of his professional life in the pursuit of the "microbial origins of cancer," once aptly observed, "It seems almost needless to add that there remains abundant work to be done in this important and attractive field." The reviewer couldn't have put it better!
-Sukanya Datta
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-Sukanya Datta Sukanya Datta is a prominent writer of Asia, having written several books on various subjects. She has been on the editorial panel of a leading science monthly of India. She has reviewed more than one thousand books in various newspapers, magazines and journals. She can be contacted at sukanyadatta@hotmail.com |
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