It is absolutely not correct that the group made the decision to present the awards at a private ceremony because members of the group disagreed with Farber or Duesberg. (To be fair, some at the meeting had concerns, but they did not assert this was a reason to revoke the awards.) Michael Geiger, as quoted here, is correct. The major concern, as I heard it at the planning meeting and reported later that night to Geiger, was that the AIDS issue was indeed so big that it would "overshadow" the other awardees' stories at these ceremonies. Farber and Duesberg graciously agreed to a more private awards ceremony, knowing first-hand the kind of attention this issue attracts. In spite of pressure from outside groups, Semmelweis and APS stood firm and honored these true "whistleblowers."
I know. I am the "girl from Rethinking AIDS" mentioned by Geiger, and I was proud to be there supporting these two very worthy award recipients.
Please visit our site and find out more, and support integrity in science and health in any way you can. We are the oldest, and as far as I know the only, scientists' and laypersons' group challenging AIDS science.
The HIV dissent “movement,” has no particular political tint, but one can readily state that it has been attacked almost exclusively by the haute left--the Voice, Nation, CJR, etc.
The conservative media mostly haven’t weighed in, while the Libertarian media have more or less joined in the drubbing of dissidents as “denialists.” (Brian Doherty at REASON is one notable exception.)
The left love government and more or less love Pharma, as an extention of Nanny State. They love sick people because sick people allow them to pump indignation, moral superiority, and facile notions about how and why sickness occurs, which places blame squarely at the feet of Daddy (which is a fusion of State, Corporations, Politicians, etc--never the individual who might wish to heal him or herself.)
The left love genetic determinsim and the concept of Viral Plagues, a la Laurie Garrett’s unending glut of never fulfilled Plague scenarios.
The left essentially created the AIDS PR zeppelin as we know it, and their hatred of dissidents reflects this.
The right, I would say, are more open to the anti-pharmaceutical movement as they realize how much Big Pharma is morphing into Big Brother, and desecrating human freedoms. Ferocious attacks on HIV Rethinkers from the right are limited to Michael Fumento, and a few others here and there.
The HIV Rethinking movement is steeped in humanist values: An opposition to state coersion, “science” that is rogue and unproven and limits personal freedom starting with the freedom not to be killed, the importance of parental rights in the face of pharma/state violence, the importance of open debate and a free media, and last but not least, a rejection of the lurid racism implicit in the HIV paradigm.
For this reason, you will find people of all political persuasions, colors, ages, stripes in the HIV Rethinkers ever expanding tent--from conservative writer Tom Bethell to radical Olympic gold medalist Lee Evans.
Anybody who hopes to use it for political gain will be disappointed; It is the intersection of Lysenkoist science and whole new freedom movement in the pharmaceutical age.
The media have failed the story catastrophically, and been the driving force in the 24 year pogrom of censorship, violence, shaming, and professional assassination that has been the plight of every single journalist who tried to approach this as a story to simply be reported.
It has all been documented.
This is the big story here--how media managed to keep an elephant of a story in the room, invisible, for a quarter of a century, inside western democracies.
Fortunately, mass media is itself the shot and sagging elephant Orwell gave us to depict Colonialism in his famous essay. Going down slowly, unable to comprehend why.
"Clean Hands" Awards
23 Jun 2008
Date Edited: 23 Jun 2008 10:41:25 PM
I know. I am the "girl from Rethinking AIDS" mentioned by Geiger, and I was proud to be there supporting these two very worthy award recipients.
Please visit our site and find out more, and support integrity in science and health in any way you can. We are the oldest, and as far as I know the only, scientists' and laypersons' group challenging AIDS science.
Elizabeth Ely
Public Relations Chairperson
Rethinking AIDS
www.rethinkingaids.com
e-mail: publicrelations (at) rethinkingaids.com
Comments
Re: "Clean Hands" Awards
25 Jun 2008
The HIV dissent “movement,” has no particular political tint, but one can readily state that it has been attacked almost exclusively by the haute left--the Voice, Nation, CJR, etc.
The conservative media mostly haven’t weighed in, while the Libertarian media have more or less joined in the drubbing of dissidents as “denialists.” (Brian Doherty at REASON is one notable exception.)
The left love government and more or less love Pharma, as an extention of Nanny State. They love sick people because sick people allow them to pump indignation, moral superiority, and facile notions about how and why sickness occurs, which places blame squarely at the feet of Daddy (which is a fusion of State, Corporations, Politicians, etc--never the individual who might wish to heal him or herself.)
The left love genetic determinsim and the concept of Viral Plagues, a la Laurie Garrett’s unending glut of never fulfilled Plague scenarios.
The left essentially created the AIDS PR zeppelin as we know it, and their hatred of dissidents reflects this.
The right, I would say, are more open to the anti-pharmaceutical movement as they realize how much Big Pharma is morphing into Big Brother, and desecrating human freedoms. Ferocious attacks on HIV Rethinkers from the right are limited to Michael Fumento, and a few others here and there.
The HIV Rethinking movement is steeped in humanist values: An opposition to state coersion, “science” that is rogue and unproven and limits personal freedom starting with the freedom not to be killed, the importance of parental rights in the face of pharma/state violence, the importance of open debate and a free media, and last but not least, a rejection of the lurid racism implicit in the HIV paradigm.
For this reason, you will find people of all political persuasions, colors, ages, stripes in the HIV Rethinkers ever expanding tent--from conservative writer Tom Bethell to radical Olympic gold medalist Lee Evans.
Anybody who hopes to use it for political gain will be disappointed; It is the intersection of Lysenkoist science and whole new freedom movement in the pharmaceutical age.
The media have failed the story catastrophically, and been the driving force in the 24 year pogrom of censorship, violence, shaming, and professional assassination that has been the plight of every single journalist who tried to approach this as a story to simply be reported.
It has all been documented.
This is the big story here--how media managed to keep an elephant of a story in the room, invisible, for a quarter of a century, inside western democracies.
Fortunately, mass media is itself the shot and sagging elephant Orwell gave us to depict Colonialism in his famous essay. Going down slowly, unable to comprehend why.