Peter Duesberg and the "HIV does not cause AIDS" crowd

[HopkinsMedStudent]

When laypersons go off on their ridiculous tangents, I'm not that surprised, but it really irritates me when we have so-called "scientists" like Peter Duesberg who give fire to these "causes"

If you go to his website (www.duesberg.com) you'll notice that his rhetoric has toned down quite a bit since the early 90s. He seems to have focused his energy on the role of aneuploidy vs mutation in cancer genesis.

In case you dont know his stance, he claims that AIDS is caused by anti-HIV drugs (specifically AZT) and illicit drug use.

My guess is that since now we have a much wider variety of drugs used for HIV that he cant explain the new data, so therefore he doesnt have much to say anymore. If you read his latest rantings, they are all about AZT and dont address the newer classes such as protease inhibitors at all.

How is this quack still able to retain his post at an institution like UC Berkeley? Its OK to be wrong as long as you follow the science. But Duesberg isnt following the science, he's following philosophical dogma.

If one of my professors started following dogma instead of science, he'd get laughed out of this institution and be a disgrace.

[eri]

Why do I always read 'Duesberg' as 'Douchebag'?

It's harder to get rid of a tenured professor then you would think. Even being a laughing stock isn't enough. I'm just assuming here that he has tenure if he IS still at Berkeley.

There was that psyciatrist at Harvard who was convinced that people were being abducted by aliens - John Mack. Mean as it is, I heard they were really happy when he died.

[Chris Haynes]

Duesberg is the prime reason that Christine Maggiore had for discontinuing any precautions after testing HIV+... especially after becoming pregnant. The subject of this thread: http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=45105

I am occasionally slowly reading this very long essay on the HIV/AIDS dissidents: http://yarchive.net/med/aids_heresies.html

[Deetee]

The HIV/AIDS dissidents are as active as ever. Unfortunately it seems that reponding to them merely gives them the oxygen of publicity, very much in the same way as debating creationists or MMR-autism woo-woos lends them and their theories the aura of scientific equivalence.

I have previously engaged with them in a protracted online debate in the British Medical Journal.
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/326/7387/495#88307
(If your browser doesn't crash under the load, you may see many of the arguments played out here.)

Duesberg is not the prime current offender, as you say. At least he accepts HIV exists, he just happens to think it is harmless. In this he is at odds with many other dissidents, including the "Perth Group", who have their own unscientific slant on the problem. http://www.theperthgroup.com/

Somewhat in line with the JREF paranormal $1mill challenge, one of the HIV dissidents tried to set up a prize for proof of the isolation of HIV, up to the level of £10000. Of course there was no proof the money actually existed, and no-one would ever win as the judge of whether there was proof was the person who was "volunteering" the cash prize.

Interestingly, Duesberg tried to claim the prize, demonstrating that the virus did exist, but was judged to have failed. http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/pdreplyep.htm

[epepke]

I have previously engaged with them in a protracted online debate in the British Medical Journal.
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/326/7387/495#88307


Thank you for the link. I find it truly disturbing. I thought the quality of argument from woos here was bad!

[Belz...]

In case you dont know his stance, he claims that AIDS is caused by anti-HIV drugs (specifically AZT) and illicit drug use.

He should have tea with Tom Cruise, then. They'd get along fine.

[Pragmatist]

You ought to introduce him to our old friend Roger Coghill who has the "proof" that AIDS is caused by watching TV...!

For a fine example of that stunning idiocy see this:

http://web.archive.org/web/20040608170414/www.cogreslab.co.uk/aids.htm

Or if you don't mind risking serious brain damage, you can see his performance on here: http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=22595