The Origin, Persistence and Failings of HIV/AIDS Theory

Thanks to enormous funding for educational programs, the whole world “knows” that HIV causes AIDS. But is what we know compatible with the facts? This book challenges the conventional wisdom on this issue. Collating and analyzing, for the first time, the results of more than two decades of HIV testing, it reveals that the common assumptions about HIV and AIDS are incompatible with the published data. Among the many topics explored are the failings of HIV testing, statistical evidence that HIV is neither sexually transmitted nor increasingly prevalent, and problems caused by the differing diagnostic criteria for AIDS around the world.
But how could everyone have been so wrong for so long? This vital question, unaddressed in previous works questioning the HIV-AIDS connection, is central to this book. The author considers comparable missteps of modern science, and discusses how funding influences discovery in today’s scientific circles.

Henry H. Bauer is professor emeritus of chemistry and science studies and dean emeritus of arts and sciences at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech). The author of numerous books, including several that examine scientific heterodoxies, he lives in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Henry H. Bauer
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 296
Bibliographic Info: figures, tables, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2007
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3048-2
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments       v
List of Figures      xi
List of Tables      xiii
Preface      1
A Note on Sources and the Structure of the Book      9

Part I: Does HIV Cause AIDS?
1. MALES AND FEMALES      13
2. UNIFORM TRENDS      24
3. FALSE POSITIVES OR CONTAMINATED SAMPLES?      39
4. HIV IS NOT AN INFECTION      44
5. HIV DISCRIMINATES BY RACE      50
6. WHAT IS IT ABOUT RACE?      59
7. RACISM      74
8. WHAT DO HIV TESTS DETECT?      80
9. HIV AND AIDS ARE NOT CORRELATED      104
10. AIDS      117

Part II: Lessons from History
11. MISSTEPS IN MODERN MEDICAL SCIENCE      143
12. HOW SCIENCE PROGRESSES      154
13. RESEARCH CARTELS AND KNOWLEDGE MONOPOLIES      174

Part III: How HIV/AIDS Theory Took and Kept Hold
14. IT’S A VIRUS      183
15. MAINTAINING THE MONOPOLY      211
16. THE END OF THE BEGINNING      245

Sources      251
Index      275

“a credible critique…solid array of data”—C&RL News; “recommend[ed]”—Journal of Scientific Exploration; “heavily referenced…if you want to understand the HIV/AIDS story, read this one”—Quadrant; “discusses the correlation between HIV and race, examines the effectiveness of HIV testing, and posits that a research monopoly has resulted in widespread misconceptions”—SciTech Book News; “important…fact-filled, closely reasoned…Skillfully collating, summarizing and analyzing an extensive literature, including hundreds of scientific studies, published and unpublished, reports produced by government agencies and non-government organizations…Careful sifting of the existing body of research allows Bauer to propose alternative hypotheses about the origins and subsequent trajectories of HIV and AIDS…explores the myths of mainstream HIV/AIDS thinking…draws analogies to other areas of medicine, such as gastroenterology and cardiology, where theories lacking solid empirical support held sway for decades…discussion of the reasons underlying the hegemony of HIV/AIDS theory are especially congenial…a masterful attack on scientific orthodoxy…eye opening and worthy”—Springer; “I recommend the book very highly”—Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.