AIDS post-HIV : beat of a different drummer - AltHeal

taken place over the last ten to fifteen years in
Europe and the United States could take place in
this country."
Fiala said that today perhaps for the first time
there was official recognition that there are open
questions about AIDS. He criticised science by
majority reminding us that it was only very
recently that the Pope "officially accepted that
the world was round. And this is a very nice
example of where you get if you accept science
by majority."
I asked Fiala how he felt about the criticism of
Mbeki. "President Mbeki is apparently a very
s t rong personality who doesn't take a decision
easily. From everything I have learned, it appears
is no."
But this evening Magkoba look relaxed and
content. He said he felt excited and optimistic, "I
think we have reached a decision that nobody
expected us to reach. I think a lot of people were
predicting gloom and doom and I think we have
acquitted ourselves very well, re s p o n s i b l y, and
have tried to face the challenges that were posed
by the President in this matter."
Magkoba then mentioned his MRC collaborative
studies idea put to Peter Duesberg and some of
his team "in order to illuminate the dark shadows
that surround this very same issue and I have to
explain it to a lot people why I made this
decision. I am confident that the theory that HIV
causes AIDS is correct and I think if I am confident
of that, I should have no fear to explore any
other issues that challenge that theory. But I do
hope that the experiments that we would be able
to do would illuminate something that I can also
be proud to learn from and something that also
Peter Duesberg can learn from. And I think it's by
l e a rning from each other, by collaborative work,
rather than by ignoring or silencing each other
that we are likely to bring a broader perspective
around this issue."
And then the light faded and everyone went off to
have dinner.
l - r Senior SA Gov’t represenative with Dr
Christian Fiala (Germany), Dr Roberto Giraldo
(USA)
that he took quite some months to inform himself
about the subject and then he decided that he
should get even more information."
Fiala was pleased "That finally we are back to a
p u re scientific discussion of what should have
taken place 15 years ago". He said it hadn't
always been a very polite discussion, "There's a
lot at stake. There's a lot of political powerplay
still involved, but at least there is some discussion
going on."
It was as the light was beginning to fade that Dr
William Magkoba agreed to speak to us. He has
been an outspoken critic of President Mbeki's
continuing flirtation with dissident AIDS theories,
as South Africa's Sunday Independent put it (18
March, 2000). The same article quotes Magkoba
as saying, "It's a national scandal... Somebody
h e re has to decide that the dissident group is
wrong or right, and the only way you make this
decision is if the dissidents have ever provided a
theory or hypothesis that is testable. The answer
But whirring in my mind were the word s
P resident Mbeki had spoken to me a month
earlier in his interview. Words that explained his
motivation in convening the panel and which may
lead to the real truth about AIDS emerging from
South Africa one day soon.
"We have to respond correctly, and urgently, and
you can’t say respond correctly by closing your
eyes and ears to any point of view, any scientific
evidence that is produced. A matter that is
seems to be very clear, in terms of the alternative
view that is being presented, is what do you
expect to happen in Africa with regard to immune
systems, where people are poor, subjected to
repeated infection, and all of that Surely you
would expect these immune systems would
collapse, and I’ve no doubt that that is
happening. But then to attribute such immune
deficiency to a virus produces a specific
response, and what we are discussing here as
the South African government is that it seems
i n c o r rect to respond to this AIDS challenge,
within a narrow band. If we only said there‚s a
virus - safe sex, use a condom, end of story, we
won’t stop the spread of AIDS in this country."
CONTINUUM vol 6, no 1/2 22