Emerging Viruses-Aids & Ebola - By Leanard ... - preterhuman.net

it up to here with this goddamn disease." [9]But that was only about eighteen months after the CDCannounced there may be an epidemic brewing. I recalled that itwas in June 1981 that the CDC reported in 'Morbidity andMortality Weekly Report' (MMWR) the first cases of what wouldsoon be called GRID - Gay-Related Immune Deficiency disease -the first acronym given AIDS.It also struck me as odd that Gallo suspected a retrovirus - hiscareer's passion - and then he decided to quit. Shilts wrote that"AIDS had always created some discomfort for Gallo, who hailedfrom traditional Italian - Catholic stock in New Jersey. There wasall this dirty talk of 1,100 partners, fist-fucking, and other exoticsexuality; frankly, Gallo found it embarrassing to talk about."[10]Again, my mind flashed back to Strecker's hypothesis and thenquestioned - If the NCI began taking over Fort Detrick in 1970for the expressed purpose of developing defenses againstretrovirus attacks and immune deficiency epidemics, then whydid they not respond to this suspected retrovirus crisis over adecade later? Was it because the disease was principally strikingAfricans and homosexuals?Brilliance, Treachery, or BothBetween 1978 and 1983, Gallo's lab continued to pay littleattention to AIDS at the "lethargic NCI." In those days, the NCI'schief retrovirologist allegedly perceived the cause to be morefrustrating and distracting than legitimate. [11]During this period of AIDS research, Gallo's behavior appearedat best erratic and at worst contemptuous. Shilts recorded a seriesof suspicious interactions in which Gallo all but sabotagedinternational research efforts to isolate the AIDS retrovirus.One episode involved Dr. Max Essex, a Harvard researcher whohad flown in to Atlanta to discuss with Gallo the results of a testhe conducted on behalf of the CDC The CDC had sent a cell lineteeming with viruses to Essex to determine if HTLV-I or HTLV-II - the viruses Gallo's lab initially discovered and then reportedas AIDS suspects - was involved. To find out, Essex used"monoclonal antibodies" that had come from samples Gallo hadpreviously supplied. But when Gallo learned the group was stillusing his materials, he blew up."How can you collaborate with me and you're doing stuff behindmy back?" Gallo exploded. "If you're using my materials onanything, I need to know about it in advance. You need myapproval."Gallo spent the better part of an hour berating Essex andembarrassing CDC doctors. "This was the ugly side of theNational Cancer Institute that the CDC researchers sometimestalked to each other about," Shilts wrote.The NCI appeared to be "a repository for researchers concerned