AIDS denialists
November 10, 2018 at 10:23 am
(This post was last modified: November 10, 2018 at 10:24 am by Fake Messiah.)
We had a topic about Anti-Vaxxers so here is one about AIDS denialists. These are people who "think" that AIDS is not caused by a virus.
I can not think of a better example of an AIDS denialist than the ex South African president Thabo Mbeki who, because of his ignorance, is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, maybe more.
He not only proclaimed that AIDS is not caused by the HIV retrovirus but that the alternative "cures" such as cow urine are effective. Or another "cure" in SA is known as ubhejane which was invented not by the ex-trucker, Zeblon Gwala, himself but by his long-dead grandfather, who appeared to him in a dream and gave him instructions on how to produce two herbal stews that would cure AIDS. Needles to say Gwala was supported by prominent members of the Mbeki administration and he did a roaring trade.
Mbeki's stance on people who claimed that AIDS is caused by HIV was that there is a link between HIV and AIDS and that is a plot by the CIA, and that the medicines being offered to South Africa by the West might be designed not to counter HIV but for a far different purpose: harming innocent Africans.
In response to Mbeki's statements and conspiracy theories Conference was held in Durban where over five thousand relevant scientists, including eleven Nobel laureates, signed a statement that said how there is no doubt that HIV causes AIDS which Mbeki's administration called "elitist". After which someone created the notorious "The Castro Hlongwane Document" that said how number of prominent South Africans who'd died of AIDS had, rather, been poisoned by the antiretroviral drugs they'd been taking. Its primary claim was that AIDS is really a cluster of traditional African diseases exacerbated by poverty and malnutrition. That document also backfired at Mbeki and he had to moderate his stance.
But also there were some other important figures in South Africa that denied AIDS, like German vitamin seller Matthias Rath, who claims huge doses of his products can be substituted for antiretroviral drugs and who also has articles on his webpage with titles like "THE PHARMACEUTICAL DRUG CARTEL LAUNCHES WORLD WAR III TO PREVENT THE CONSTRUCTION OF A HEALTHY WORLD"
Needles to say Rath enjoyed the kind of market dominance in South Africa that the average corporation can only dream about.
The result of Mbeki’s policies are that in 1990 the rate of HIV infection in South Africa was approximately zero and in 2017 there is 7.2 million people with AIDS.
One other president who is an AIDS denialist is also from Africa and that is Yahya Jammeh who was president of Gambia until the last year. He was known by claiming his ancestors had revealed to him in a dream the true, nonviral cause of AIDS and a means of curing it, an herbal concoction comprising "a green herbal paste, a bitter yellow liquid and eating bananas". He then expelled Fadzai Gwaradzimba (member of UN) for criticizing him on his "cures".
I can not think of a better example of an AIDS denialist than the ex South African president Thabo Mbeki who, because of his ignorance, is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, maybe more.
He not only proclaimed that AIDS is not caused by the HIV retrovirus but that the alternative "cures" such as cow urine are effective. Or another "cure" in SA is known as ubhejane which was invented not by the ex-trucker, Zeblon Gwala, himself but by his long-dead grandfather, who appeared to him in a dream and gave him instructions on how to produce two herbal stews that would cure AIDS. Needles to say Gwala was supported by prominent members of the Mbeki administration and he did a roaring trade.
Mbeki's stance on people who claimed that AIDS is caused by HIV was that there is a link between HIV and AIDS and that is a plot by the CIA, and that the medicines being offered to South Africa by the West might be designed not to counter HIV but for a far different purpose: harming innocent Africans.
In response to Mbeki's statements and conspiracy theories Conference was held in Durban where over five thousand relevant scientists, including eleven Nobel laureates, signed a statement that said how there is no doubt that HIV causes AIDS which Mbeki's administration called "elitist". After which someone created the notorious "The Castro Hlongwane Document" that said how number of prominent South Africans who'd died of AIDS had, rather, been poisoned by the antiretroviral drugs they'd been taking. Its primary claim was that AIDS is really a cluster of traditional African diseases exacerbated by poverty and malnutrition. That document also backfired at Mbeki and he had to moderate his stance.
But also there were some other important figures in South Africa that denied AIDS, like German vitamin seller Matthias Rath, who claims huge doses of his products can be substituted for antiretroviral drugs and who also has articles on his webpage with titles like "THE PHARMACEUTICAL DRUG CARTEL LAUNCHES WORLD WAR III TO PREVENT THE CONSTRUCTION OF A HEALTHY WORLD"
Needles to say Rath enjoyed the kind of market dominance in South Africa that the average corporation can only dream about.
The result of Mbeki’s policies are that in 1990 the rate of HIV infection in South Africa was approximately zero and in 2017 there is 7.2 million people with AIDS.
One other president who is an AIDS denialist is also from Africa and that is Yahya Jammeh who was president of Gambia until the last year. He was known by claiming his ancestors had revealed to him in a dream the true, nonviral cause of AIDS and a means of curing it, an herbal concoction comprising "a green herbal paste, a bitter yellow liquid and eating bananas". He then expelled Fadzai Gwaradzimba (member of UN) for criticizing him on his "cures".
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
