HIV on Trial in Australia: Court Weighs Evidence for Claims of Isolation, Transmission and Testing

A motion for appeal in a criminal hearing in Adelaide, Australia has become the focus of international attention as fundamental claims by orthodox AIDS researchers — including the infamous Dr Robert Gallo — come under vigorous cross-examination by an attorney demanding scientific evidence that the virus exists. Top AIDS industry spokespersons from around the world have appeared in person or by satellite in Adelaide to defend the HIV hypothesis against charges by a local team of scientific and medical experts known as "The Perth Group." The Perth Group asserts that two decades of AIDS research have failed to produce a purified isolate of HIV, validation of the accuracy so-called HIV tests, or proof that HIV is transmitted through bodily fluids.

Below are two news articles about the legal proceedings. Other information about the trial and actual transcripts of testimony can be found at http://aras.ab.ca/index.php

For this week's testimony by alleged HIV discoverer Dr Robert Gallo, go directly to Gallo-Transcript.pdf

Michael Geiger, a close observer of the events in Adelaide, reports being "stunned and amazed" by Gallo's statements to the court. Geiger says, "It's difficult to tell if Gallo was defending HIV or if his testimony is a public admission of guilt."

Geiger urges transcript readers to note:

• Page 1294 where Gallo agrees that he found evidence of HIV in only 40% of the AIDS patients in his original study, and that 40% is not enough to prove HIV is the cause of AIDS:
  
  Attorney to Gallo: "You had…48 out of 119, or 40%?"
  
  Gallo: "I agree"
  
  Attorney: "Do you agree that the isolation of HIV from only 40% of patients is not proof that HIV causes AIDS?"
  
  Gallo: "I would say of course, in and of itself, 40% isolation of a new virus, I would not say is the cause."
  
   
• Page 1300 where Gallo admits to finding low percentages of HIV positivity in people with AIDS symptoms:
  
  Attorney: "For…adults with KS, 30%; for adults…with AIDS opportunistic infections 47%. Do you accept your figures?"
  
  Gallo: "I accept the figures."
  
   
• Page 1317 where Gallo acknowledges finding no HIV in KS lesions or in T cells, and testimony on page 1318 in which Gallo admits that "viral load" tests cannot be used to prove infection with a virus.

The obvious bent of Australian coverage is at least one step up from the US media response: Not a single story on the uproar from down under has appeared in American news.

Does AIDS exist? Is HIV actually a virus? Incredibly, not everyone says yes. But never before has a scientific theory on HIV been tested like this in a court of law. In this landmark South Australia case, the verdict will decide if a man convicted of infecting his girlfriend with the virus can walk free.

Expert Attacks HIV Skeptics By Hendrik Gout

One of the world's top HIV researchers has branded as "wrong, mischievous and harmful" claims by an organized group of HIV deniers that the virus does not lead to AIDS. David Cooper, director of the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research at the University of NSW, said the evidence tendered to the Supreme Court of South Australia by the so-called Perth Group lacked "any scientific validity" and endangered lives in Australia and the developing world.

"Saying that HIV is not sexually transmissible is a tragedy for us in Australia who are trying to prevent people from getting sick," said Professor Cooper, who is cited within the top 10 experts on HIV in the world. "It is a tragedy for the people in the developing world who might think they will not get sick after they read about these claims."

Professor Cooper gave evidence yesterday for the Director of Public Prosecutions in an appeal launched by Andre Chad Parenzee, 35, who has been convicted for knowingly exposing three women to HIV by having unprotected sex with them.

For more than two weeks, representatives of the Perth Group have testified under oath that HIV does not lead to AIDS. Perth Group members Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos and Val Turner also claim HIV is not sexually transmitted and has never been properly isolated and identified in the lab. Professor Cooper, the first of up to eight prosecution witnesses, took the stand yesterday as part of a DPP move to debunk the claims. Up to six other HIV experts, including famous immunologist and former Australian of the Year Gustav Nossal, are expected to provide evidence.

Professor Cooper's facility leads clinical trials of new therapies and vaccines for HIV and he is head of the Immunology-HIV-Infectious Diseases Clinical Service Unit at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney. He has treated more than 2500 HIV-AIDS patients. He is author of more than 400 published scientific papers, mostly on HIV and AIDS, and is a past president of the International AIDS Society. Professor Cooper is also chair of the AIDS vaccine advisory committee of the World Health Organization and UNAIDS. He said he had read some transcripts of the evidence of the Perth Group in the appeal and was also familiar with their work as a HIV skeptic group dating from the late 1980s.

"We believe that their statements are wrong, mischievous and harmful," he said. Professor Cooper was asked to respond to the Perth Group's central claim that HIV has never been properly identified, or "does not exist".

"To say that it doesn't exist is just scientific mis-truth," he said.

He said HIV had been identified by three methods since its discovery in the 1980s and the most effective modern method was using molecular biology to identify its genetic sequence.

The case continues.

______________________________________________

For some reason this news has failed to make any headlines: professional boxer and outspoken AIDS skeptic Tommy Morrison inexplicably tests HIV negative 10 years after testing HIV positive and being forced out of the sport at the height of his career. In fact, reports by Fox News on Morrison's return gave more attention to his injured hand than to his change of HIV status.

Here's the story from www.NotAIDS.com, a cool new web site offering the sort of news about AIDS that ought to make the news:

Tommy Morrison, Boxing Champ, "Rocky V" Co-star, Tests HIV Negative

Boxing star Tommy Morrison, two-time world champion, actor, known to many as The Duke - a reference to his being the great-grand nephew of Marion Morrison, aka John Wayne - has just tested negative for HIV.

Ordinarily, a negative test result wouldn't be a major newsmaker, but for Mr Morrison and his fans, this is big news.

It was a little over 10 years ago in a room at a smoky Las Vegas hotel before a tournament of boxing matches that would have netted him millions that Tommy Morrison, rising boxing star, was taking a Nevada state-mandated HIV test before the match, and his life changed forever. The test was positive for the erstwhile "human immunodeficiency virus."

For these past 10 years, Tommy Morrison has claimed that the test was bogus, suggested that HIV does not cause AIDS, refused antiretrovirals, was fired as a patient by famed AIDS expert, Dr. David Ho, and has proposed that a government-funded debacle perpetuates the great lie of HIV.

Mr Morrison estimates he lost about $100 million in cancelled fights because of what he and many others consider to be a flawed test for an imagined killer virus.

Flawed or not, the HIV test that came back positive one fateful day in Las Vegas ended an illustrious but short career of 46 wins out of 50, a movie, and two world titles: the WBO belt in 1993, and the IBC title in 1995. Many may remember his co-starring role Rocky V (1990) as the fighter Tommy Gunn, who dukes it out with Sylvester Stallone's legendary, imaginary Rocky Balboa.

Not only did Tommy Morrison lose a lot of money from the fights cancelled because of the positive HIV test 10 years ago, but he lost a lot "friends" - many turned their backs on the boxing star because of the positive HIV test result.

Through the years, many newspaper reporters described Morrison's doubt of the validity of the HIV test and of the HIV/AIDS killer theory itself, as quackery. Calling Morrison's opinion bizarre, some internet pundidts went so far as to moralize, saying he messed up his life and is paying the consequences. The press often wrote that he had fell under the spell of Internet fiction and conspiracy fantasyland, and ridiculed as "denial" his belief that no such killer virus as HIV afflicted him.

When Mr. Morrison received the positive HIV diagnosis, he was first seen by Dr. David Ho, promoter of the AIDS drug "cocktail" regimen that many scientists now question but eschewed the AZT and other pills prescribed for him in favor of good nutrition, exercise, and rest. Not music to Dr. Ho's ears, and unwilling to wander off the track of convention even for a minute, Ho dropped Morrison as a patient. Morrison was fine with being fired as a patient.

"All Dr. Ho did was my blood work," Morrison said in a 1997 interview with POZ Magazine "And then he tried to give me the damn medication. The top guy in the field doesn't even understand..."

Morrison's wife read all the same literature as he has, and is familiar arguments on both sides. The couple had frequent unprotected sex, she remains negative, and they both remain healthy.

Morrison feels the decision to avoid ARVs saved his life. He knows of many people who were healthy and started getting sick on the ARVs. He's become a personal advocate for those who opt out of the drug regimens.

Now, 10 years after he was first diagnosed with HIV, Morrison, AIDS-drug free, healthy, energetic, and willful in his accidental role as anti-AIDS establishment celebrity endorser, is causing a commotion again. He has tested negative for HIV and awaits a decision by the Arizona Boxing Commission to license him. He was hoping to get into the ring for a boxing tournament held in Phoeinix.

Peter McKinn, a boxing promoter out of Phoenix said that the latest test is not a fluke: it's the third negative test Mr. Morrison has taken recently.

___________________________________________________

A brief meeting at a Studio City hotel late last year with veteran journalist Ricardo Rocha, host of Reporte 13, a popular news program on Mexico's national network Television Azteca, turned into a three part series on the AIDS controversy that has all of Latin America talking. Each one-hour segment of the series features scientists, medical doctors and HIV positives engaging in uncensored discussion of information and experiences that bring all aspects of orthodox AIDS views into question.

Beginning with part one, "All The Truth About AIDS," scientists from the US and Mexico share little known facts about the inability of HIV tests to detect the actual virus or accurately identify the infected through antibody response; healthy HIV positives speak openly about never taking AIDS drug treatments or stopping them due to ill effects; and medical doctors reveal they are healing and preventing AIDS diseases without resorting to the use of harmful chemicals.

Part two explores a vital question never before raised by mainstream media, "Has Anyone Seen HIV?" and part three goes further into unexplored media territory with 60 minutes of evidence for the bold statement, "AIDS is Curable."

Despite angry accusations from AIDS industry spokespersons and calls by AIDS activists for Television Azteca to halt further broadcast, the series aired three times in the past several weeks to increasing numbers of viewers.

In response to charges of murder and misinformation, Television Azteca invited critics of the program to engage in a televised debate with featured speakers from the Reporte 13 series. After agreeing to meet face to face to discuss the facts for a fourth segment called "The AIDS Debate," the once vocal representatives of the AIDS orthodoxy retreated from the opportunity for a direct confrontation, apparently preferring to launch verbal attacks from the internet or the editorial pages of newspapers.

Now it seems the challengers will not only boycott the debate but try to stop the show from taping. Here's the inside story on the controversy surrounding "The AIDS Debate" which will be broadcast in two parts on Television Azteca starting the week of February 19:

"On the morning of Friday February 9th, the head of media services for the Ministry of Health, Mr. Jorge Herrera, informed Reporte 13 that physicians and researchers from the ministry will not be participating in the debate, in spite of the fact that they had confirmed the names of Dr. Juan José Calva, head of Censida, and Dr. Carlos Federico Arias, head of the Institute of Biotechnology at UNAM, and after stating that they would give us the names of two other experts to participate in the debate with them.

"Everything seems to indicate that AIDS orthodox activists are keeping their position of boycotting the debate, so much so that they have threatened to organize a demonstration to prevent access to the facilities of TV Azteca on the day we have arranged to hold the debate.

"After consulting with heads of the network, our position is very clear and uncompromising: TV Azteca and Reporte 13 will not be intimidated by this group. The debate will take place with our guests: Christine Maggiore and Drs Roberto Giraldo, Charles Geshekter and Roberto Stock, in front of four empty chairs bearing the names of those who had accepted to participate and now refuse to come without rational explanation.

"The program will begin with a statement about the controversy caused by the first programs and we will show the press articles in which AIDS activists have called us "criminals" who "practice journalism without investigating." After this, we will present our guests with the most fierce questions that derived from such articles, as well as with the good faith concerns expressed by the public during these weeks."

"Guinea Pig Kids," a two year-old documentary about AIDS drug experiments conducted on infants and children at a foster home in New York City became a hot new issue when angry AIDS activists led by researcher Dr Mark Wainberg suddenly demanded that the British Broadcast Corporation remove all reference to the film from its web site and post an apology from producers.

Based on the chilling details of an article by independent journalist Liam Scheff, the BBC film reveals how the Incarnation Children's Center (ICC), a home for kids who had lost or been forcibly separated from their parents, enrolled its residents into experimental drug trials. As the film shows, infants, children and teenagers -- some of whom had never tested HIV positive, and all with no voice of their own or advocates to speak on their behalf -- were used as guinea pigs in a variety of studies ranging from toxicity tolerance tests to experimental vaccines.

Thanks to the BBC expose, the disturbing practices at the ICC came to the attention of human rights organizations and local government agencies, prompting hearings, investigations and media coverage that continue to this day. The February 2007 issue of Essence magazine contains a special report inspired by the BBC film, "The New York City AIDS Experiment."

Interestingly, Wainberg and others in the group calling for censorship of "Guinea Pig Kids," receive funding from manufacturers of some of the very drugs used in the ICC experiments.

In response to the AIDS activists' demand that the film disappear, a new web site has appeared where visitors can watch "Guinea Pig Kids," read comments from producers, hear director Jamie Doran interviewed on National Public Radio, read original reports by journalists Liam Scheff and Celia Farber, and listen to unedited audio files of ICC personnel who speak unflinchingly about how they used surgically implanted feeding tubes to deliver drugs directly into the stomachs of children who had problems with "compliance" or "adherence."

One visit to http://www.GuineaPigKids.com and you'll see why AIDS activists want this information to go away.

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