BOOK REVIEW:
This is the book that all of us in the AIDS dissident movement have
been waiting for. After leaving his job as science editor at the Sunday
Times, the author, after a short period of time, took up residence in an
eastern religious retreat near Oxford University in England in order to
complete the manuscript for this book. It would appear that the benefits
of this period of reflection are manifested in the final work through a
balanced and well-reasoned argument that marks a turning point in the history
of AIDS as well as science. In the process of unraveling this web of deception
and fraud we are introduced to most of the principal AIDS dissidents-Michael
Callen, Joe Sonnabend, Jody Wells, John Lauritsen, Celia Farber, Peter
Duesberg and ultimately the author himself in an autobiographical account
of his own awakening to the errors of modern science and medicine. The
process has been difficult; so difficult that at times he felt he was not
going to complete the book. The world can be grateful that he was able,
through the encouragement of his friends, to find the courage to finally
regurgitate this enormously diabolical and perfidious story of a biomedical
establishment that has run amok, betraying the trust that we have historically
bestowed upon them. I doubt if science and medicine will ever be the same
again within our lifetimes.
Coupled with Peter Duesberg's book, Inventing the AIDS Virus (Washington,
D.C., Regnery Publishing, 1996) the dissidents have raised issues which
can no longer be ignored by the bastions of conservatism and reductionistic
science along with their myopic and increasingly ineffective stepchild-modern
science-based medicine. This revolution is long overdue. Everyone should
look into this overarching problem facing us in order to take an intelligent
stand in the midst of the chaos which is bound to ensue when the truth
finally comes out. Neville Hodgkinson first burst upon the dissident scene
as the Science Editor of the Sunday Times. His now legendary revelations
about AIDS, and how we have been deceived, were published in one of the
most important newspapers of the western world, resulting in a controversy
which still has not abated, although the AIDS "epidemic" in the
United Kingdom is now almost a thing of the past, especially in the heterosexual
world. With the full support of the paper's editor, Andrew Neil, he was
able to continue his expose until circumstances would not allow either
himself or Andrew Neil to continue in their positions.
Perhaps one of Hodgkinson's greatest accomplishments during this period
was to expose the African AIDS hoax. By traveling in Africa he was able
to get a firsthand account of what was supposedly one of the greatest pandemics
of all time and found it to be without substance. The racial and economic
reasons for the construction of this "pandemic" become clear.
Having said all this, I, as a gay man, must take exception with the
author's leaving us with the impression that anal intercourse is a contributing
factor to the syndrome. On page 377 at the beginning of the chapter, "A
Better Fit" (no pun intended) he qoutes to us the following: "Eleopulos's
oxidative stress theory, however, both accommodates and explains the data.
Aids can be sexually acquired by a homosexual man who is a frequent passive
recipient of sperm. The risk could come from the challenge to the immune
system presented by the seminal fluid and sperm itself, synergistically
increased by repeated exposure to sperm heavily infected with known microbes
such as cytomegalovirus, which became hugely prevalent in promiscuous gay
men during the 1970s 'gay lib' sexual revolution. But the theory predicts
that sex in itself will not put at risk a gay man who never has sex as
a PASSIVE PARTNER [emphasis mine]." Although he is somewhat ambiguous
on this point throughout the book, the casual reader will get the impression
that anal sex can cause AIDS. Not only is this far from the truth; it is
also based on the wrong idea that anal sex, as with homosexuality itself,
is only a matter of choice. There are those who are anally oriented who
can ONLY get sexual fulfillment in this manner-it is not a matter of choice.
They will be driven to it by their psychological compulsions (which may
even be BIOLOGICAL) and to tell them that they might die in the process
is nothing short of diabolical. I will not believe that any kind of human
sexuality should be thought of as unwholesome or pathogenic-that idea itself
is pathological. Lamentably, many of the other key players in this drama
have adopted this argument and Hodgkinson takes the trouble to point this
out. "Buggerphobia" is so deeply ingrained in western consciousness
that it was almost inevitable that this anomaly should appear in an otherwise
impeccably constructed manuscript. It is based on two faulty ideas: (1)
that anal intercourse is largely restricted to gay men, and (2) that some
of these men engage in it with uncontrolled lasciviousness and as a matter
of choice. Let us look at number one first. For all those genuinely wanting
to become informed on this subject, I would recommend they read the chapter
"Heterosexual anal intercourse" in AIDS and sex, ed. by Bruce
Voeller, et al., New York, etc., Oxford University Press, 1990 (The Kinsey
Institute series, vol. IV). Some very interesting facts emerge from this
study, viz. "Based on the review of the research presented in this
chapter, a conservative figure of at least 10% seems an appropriate lower
limit for the number of sexually active American women who engage in anal
intercourse with some regularity." (ibid.,p. 296). That is a very
large number of women which this source estimates at around 8 million.
The total number of those who practice regular anal intercourse in the
U.S. is placed at around 16 million the other 8 million, of course, being
men. Where are the bodies and the AIDS cases? There is no evidence that
gay men engage, or have engaged in, more anal sex than any other group
of people past or present. Furthermore, there is no AIDS to speak of in
China and Japan. China has a population of well over 1 billion, most of
them extremely virile as we all know. As the librarian for the Asian Art
Museum of San Francisco, where we had a large collection of erotica, I
can assure you from what I have seen in that collection, anal intercourse
is not unknown to the Chinese or the Japanese. And not only do we have
whole populations largely free of AIDS, we have an historical record of
anal intercourse going back to prehistoric times. Yes, semen was discovered
in the anus of the man from Neolithic times found frozen in the Alps a
few years ago. Anthropologically also we have very interesting studies
that would tend to indicate that anal intercourse in and of itself does
not constitute a health threat. "Selected other cultures also differ
in the extent and sort of homosexual activity. Among the Siwan of Africa,
'all men and boys engage in anal intercourse...and males are singled out
as peculiar if they do not indulge in these homosexual activities'"
(ibid., p. 299). So far as I know, they have not died out, and there are
many other anthropological studies indicating active anal intercourse amongst
"straight" males. Of particular interest is the almost universal
acceptance of this in prisons. This is not a new phenomenon by any means.
The case for gay men screwing themselves to death rests largely on the
confessions of Michael Callen, who was a self-confessed "pig bottom."
He admits that by the age of 27 he had had "3,000 different sex partners"
and goes on to further attribute his AIDS to all the diseases he contracted
during that period. (See: AIDS Inc., by Jon Rappaport. San Bruno, CA, Human
Energy Press, 1988, p. 341). There is no doubt that all of us get sick
for multiple reasons-that is the emerging medical paradigm-but Michael
took no responsibility for his own health. He relied almost exclusively
on his doctors and traditional western medicine based on pharmaceuticals.
When I heard him lecture, he downplayed the role of diet, admonishing us
to eat a whole box of chocolates if we so desired. What Michael needed
was a thorough detoxification, a good diet, including dietary supplements,
exercise in the fresh air, etc. and he might have been still with us. His
doctors, apparently, did not recommend this course of action. With regard
to point two above, I would like to point out that the straight world's
prejudice against gay men and their perceived wanton sexual practice has
blinded them to the real causes of AIDS and allowed this aberration to
creep into the dissident argument. I too was a participant in the sexual
revolution of the '60s and '70s and seldom saw the supposed gangbang phenomenon
that, according to this theory, is supposed to have led to our acquiring
AIDS. Gay men, even at the height of the sexual revolution were always
looking for "Mr. Right" in the midst of it all and still showed
some discrimination and judgment in their sexual practices. I did not know
many who really wanted "sloppy seconds." At least I never did,
nor did all the others I associated with. This charge leveled against us
is based on blind prejudice, misunderstanding about sexual practices in
general and gay sexual practices in particular. Furthermore, one person
who has studied this research has come to the conclusion that one episode
of "anal insemination" is no more injurious to the immune system
than "a glass of wine" (Paul Philpott of "Reappraising AIDS").
If that be the case, how can one make a correlation with AIDS and anal
sex when there are so many other such pernicious influences on us? I could
go on, but it just is not so, and I believe the research, based on preconceived
ideas about us, and remaining only a THEORY, should be totally discarded
as a major contributing factor in AIDS. It has been my observation that
those who are most opposed to the gay lifestyle have taken up this theory
and used it against us. Having said this, however, I do believe that there
probably is some evidence that EXCESSIVE anal sex (as well as all other
forms of sex with unknown partners because of the diseases they may carry)
can contribute to the decline of an already stressed immune system. Dr.
Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos and her colleagues at the Royal Perth Hospital
have demonstrated this is a possibility through their research. For anyone
who is physically stressed out and on the edge it would be advisable to
restrict this activity to a minimum just as they should eliminate all other
presumed immune suppressers, including recreational drugs, alcohol, lack
of sleep, environmental toxins, etc. Peter Duesberg, in his analysis of
the situation (See his, "Inventing the AIDS virus."), argues
that recreational drugs together with prescribed drugs are the principal
cause of the problem and I must agree with him based on my experience in
the fast-lane lifestyle for over twenty years. Although initially caused
by lifestyle and drugs, AIDS has now become largely an iatrogenic disease
caused by prescribed drugs, and to go back and try to reconstruct what
took place almost fifteen to twenty-five years or more ago is futile. (N.B.
One must go back this far to explain drug illness, because it is not only
the quantity used, but also the LENGTH OF TIME, as with cigarettes. Although
Peter Duesberg's drug-AIDS hypothesis seems the most logical explanation
of AIDS to me, there is also no doubt in my mind that there were other
factors that contributed to our downfall.)
AIDS is a construct-"invented," as Peter Duesberg says, for
political and monetary reasons. It is for this reason alone that we should
not look for a single cause or group of causes. There are probably as many
"causes" as there are sick people, so that each one of us became
ill for a different set of reasons. Those of us who have survived have
used a combination of orthodox and alternative medicines. Hodgkinson, with
his background in science reporting, does an excellent job of deconstructing
this chimera along with the other abominations it has spawned such as "viral
load" and the Ho and Wei study. The split in the dissident camp between
Peter Duesberg, who believes that HIV exists as a harmless retrovirus,
and the others, principally the Perth research group who believe that it
does not even exist, is adequately explained here in a popular book for
the first time. As of this writing, the debate goes on-largely in the pages
of Continuum magazine. As an AIDS activist I have been struck by the underlying
unity of feeling suffusing those of us who dare to question. This is a
feeling based on love and a genuine desire for a better and more humane
medicine and a science based less on reductionism and more on the macro
level of humans and the environment. The situation is urgent, so that we
must rally around those who have formulated the argument in order to bring
about fundamental change. It is long overdue. Hodgkinson's last chapter,
"Shedding the illusions" points us in the right direction. He
quotes Professor Richard Strohman, Professor Duesberg's colleague at the
University of California, Berkeley, as saying that the model "DNA
-> RNA -> Protein -> Everything else, including disease"
has led us nowhere, and it has become especially pernicious in the case
of AIDS. The book ends with this poignant report: [begin quotation] Mullis
was aware, Farber said that his view of AIDS-one that encompasses each
person's history or 'lifestyle'-was rejected by virtually all AIDS organizations,
researchers, and activists, who considered it 'blaming the victim.' 'It's
not blaming the victim,' he argued. 'It's not anybody's fault. They just
did something that didn't work, that's all.' Later in the interview, as
Mullis pondered on the lives ruined by the HIV diagnosis and AZT (and other
'scary' medical practices seen 'through the glasses that you've developed
through looking at this thing'), Farber realized that on the other end
of the phone, this Nobel laureate, pioneer of the DNA revolution, had started
to cry. Mullis told her: God, I hate this kind of crap...Sometimes in the
morning, when it's a good surf, I go out there, and I don't feel like it's
a bad world. I think it's a good world, the sun is shining. I'm really
optimistic in the mornings. But, you know, it's not because of you calling
me. It's just thinking about this issue, it just drives me to-I'm making
tears thinking about it. I don't see how to deal with it. I can't possibly
write a book that will describe it to somebody. You can't do a damn 22.8-minute
TV thing that is really going to have any effect except to get somebody
to shoot through my window and hit me. I feel like I'm on a hostile planet.
I have felt a bit like that too, at times, when under attack on all sides,
over a protracted period, for my reporting on the HIV/AIDS debate. Even
if it achieves nothing else, writing this book has helped me gain a sense
of perspective. Not necessarily into the molecular mechanisms I have tried
to explore, but at least into the fundamental goodness of those on all
sides of the controversy who, despite their differences, and despite their
failings, ultimately wish to do what is right by their fellow human beings.[end
of quotation] Wisdom comes through a marriage of the heart and intellect.
Those of us who have taken this tiger by the tail and cannot let go must,
in the process, also evolve and thus contribute to a solution of this problem
by manifesting more love and understanding. The broader picture must be
looked at in order to find a solution and, with the world beginning to
change exponentially, I am sure we will come out of this dark tunnel sooner
than later. Hodgkinson has contributed mightily to this process by writing
this book. *