The AIDS War

The AIDS War: Propaganda, Profiteering and Genocide from the Medical-Industrial Complex

Cover of the first edition
Author John Lauritsen
Country United States
Language English
Subject AIDS
Published 1993 (Pagan Press)
Media type Print (paperback)
Pages 479
ISBN 978-0943742083
LC Class 93-717178

The AIDS War: Propaganda, Profiteering and Genocide from the Medical-Industrial Complex is a 1993 work about the politics of HIV/AIDS by John Lauritsen, in which Lauritsen argues against the idea that HIV causes AIDS. Lauritsen calls the HIV theory of AIDS "preposterous" and "the most colossal blunder in medical history." The AIDS War consists partly of previously published articles; it includes an abridged version of a 1987 interview with molecular biologist Peter Duesberg, which had first been published in full in the New York Native. The AIDS War received several positive reviews, as well as some criticism.

Summary

The AIDS War consists partly of previously published articles. Lauritsen calls the HIV theory of AIDS "preposterous" and "the most colossal blunder in medical history." Lauritsen states that he began to research AIDS in 1983, and was "shocked by the incompetence with which the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) conducted survey research, my own profession since 1966."[1]

Lauritsen covers topics ranging from AZT to the death of ballet superstar Rudolf Nureyev from AIDS, and provides an abridged version of a 1987 interview with molecular biologist Peter Duesberg, which had first been published in full in the New York Native. Lauritsen is highly critical of AIDS scientist Robert Gallo, accusing him of being unable to defend the mainstream view that HIV causes AIDS. Lauritsen discusses AIDS activist Larry Kramer, giving him credit for exposing problems in the gay community with his "disgusting, and very funny" novel Faggots (1978), but criticizing him for inhibiting open discussion of AIDS science. He criticizes the idea that AIDS originated in Africa or that it reached the United States via Haiti, a view promoted for example by Dennis Altman.[2]

Reception

Positive

In Praxis, Jerry Terranova wrote that The AIDS War is "painstakingly documented and referenced", grounded in Lauritsen's "solid knowledge of survey research protocol", and "presented in a tone that is fair, sane, and reasonable." Terranova agreed with "the vast majority of material" in the book.[3] Jule Klotter wrote in the Townsend Letter for Doctors, "John Lauritsen's The AIDS War is journalism at its finest; it is well written, and shows a deep regard for digging up truth."[4]

In The Bloomsbury Review, Mike Chapelle credited Lauritsen with a "thorough investigation of an ugly (although, unfortunately, not unique) episode in the history of biomedical research" and wrote that no one who reads The AIDS War "will think about the 'dread disease' of our time in quite the same way ever again".[5] In The Cornell Review, Christopher DeCenzo wrote that Lauritsen "exposes the countless misleading statistics" which have driven the search for a cure for AIDS "far enough off course to render useless the astronomically huge amount of funding annually spent on AIDS research."[6] Author Henry H. Bauer wrote in Virginia Scholar that those wanting to read only one book on AIDS should read The AIDS War.[7] Duesberg credited Lauritsen with exposing "the cozy relationships between AIDS organizations and the pharmaceutical industry", commenting that most of The AIDS War is "a personal story, documenting the fight against HIV as seen by someone on the front lines."[8]

Negative

Neuroscientist Simon LeVay and author Elisabeth Nonas dismissed The AIDS War as one of many books that lump together the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry for purposes of blame, adding that like other books of the same kind its title is "sufficiently explicit to make further perusal unnecessary".[9]

See also

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

Books
  • Lauritsen, John (1993). The AIDS War: Propaganda, Profiteering and Genocide from the Medical-Industrial Complex. New York: Asklepios. ISBN 0-943742-08-0. 
  • LeVay, Simon; Nonas, Elisabeth (1995). City of Friends: A Portrait of the Gay and Lesbian Community in America. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN 0262121948. 
Online articles
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