One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison. – Bertrand Russell Times obituary of man dead of “AIDS” is science propaganda
The New York Times has an odd little obituary today (Sun Oct 16), which might be viewed as a kind of propaganda or little ad for the established view of AIDS and its medications. The story seems intended to undermine the scientific review which questions the benefits of the standard HAART drug regime.
LeRoy Whitfield, a journalist who used a magazine column to chronicle the everyday struggles of people with H.I.V., died last Sunday at North General Hospital in Harlem. He was 36.
It seems to be written not so much as a memory of the life of the individual who has departed as around the theme that questioning HIV?AIDS drugs contributed to his death.
The cause was AIDS-related complications, said his brother, Crofton Whitfield.
Mr. Whitfield learned that he was H.I.V.-positive when he was 19, and he decided to forgo taking the powerful AIDS drugs that have extended the lives of many people with H.I.V. It was a choice that he stood by till the end, even though his doctors advised him to take the medicines, his brother said.
Most readers will take this at face value and as one more lesson in the authority of HIV?AIDS ideology and the dire penalty of not taking AIDS drugs, but we wonder how the story would stand up to scrutiny.
In the first place it took fifteen years for Whitfield to die of “AIDS related complications” from an infection with HIV which occurred that long ago, or earlier, assuming the test was accurate. While this may fit with the theory that HIV takes on average ten years to make itself felt and launch AIDS proper, it leaves open a huge window of time for other health influences to play a part.
Like any anecdotal case, one would have to know far more to accept it as evidence of the penalty paid for abjuring AIDS drugs. In fact, prima facie it seems that Whitfield actually lived longer than the average AIDS patient after the point he tested “positive” for HIV antibodies, a point which initiates drug treatment for many now. Reportedly 40-45% of those who test positive nowadays progress to AIDS proper within a year or less.
In this case there is an unusual amount of information available, since he wrote about his experience in a column since 2004.
The magazine’s editor, Michael W. E. Edwards, said that Mr. Whitfield’s column was one of the magazine’s most popular features because of the candor with which he shared his own fight against H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.
Poring over those columns might answer the question of what other factors caused a young man of 36 to die of “AIDS-related complications.
Short of that the average reader will naturally take the obituary as evidence of the danger of flouting the established prescription. However, there is no doubt that it contradicts the findings of the best scientific review literature, which states that the theory is baseless and the drugs harmful.
If the Times editors wish to print an obituary with a moral, as they apparently did in this case, they should make it longer so that there is some evidence for their inherent claims. Especially since the obituary is rather oddly by “The New York Times” and not signed by an individual reporter.
Come to that, what in the world is the New York Times doing endorsing any viewpoint in a sophisticated scientific controversy over the basic assumptions of a field, and in an obituary, no less. Have the paper’s reporters or editors suddenly developed a capacity to read and understand the review literature in AIDS, which they have hitherto almost completely ignored?
This looks extremely unlikely, since the rote phrase “HIV, the virus that causes AIDS” is once again repeated in this item, just as it is in every news story on AIDS in the Times.
What is it that qualifies the news editors and reporters of the New York Times to dismiss the challenge to this notion, and its adamant rejection, in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, when the best scientists in the field of AIDS research were unable to fault it after every one of their substantive objections was dealt with in the peer review process?
The political endorsement of the theory that HIV causes AIDS , which the scientific review literature rejected and which is maintained as a global belief only by political support, of which the Times’ incessant repetition of this mantra in its news columns is a major pillar, is an example of inaccuracy and propaganda which belies the paper’s claim to be the paper of objective record.
If the New York Times does not wish to be blamed in the future for the artificial prolongation of a hypothesis which has according to the review literature led to mammoth global misspending of public funds, and the shortening of many lives, then it should revert to the scientifically and politically accurate phrase “said to be the cause of AIDS, “generally believed to be the cause of AIDS, “claimed to be the cause of AIDS”, or something similar, and not the properly scientifically reviewed and rejected statement “HIV, the virus that causes AIDS”.
In this respect in particular in reporting HIV?AIDS, the Times should clean up its act.
The New York Times
October 16, 2005
LeRoy Whitfield, 36, Dies; Wrote of AIDS Battle
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
LeRoy Whitfield, a journalist who used a magazine column to chronicle the everyday struggles of people with H.I.V., died last Sunday at North General Hospital in Harlem. He was 36.
The cause was AIDS-related complications, said his brother, Crofton Whitfield.
Mr. Whitfield had written a column titled “Native Tongue” since May 2004 in HIV Plus, a national magazine distributed at doctors’ offices and organizations offering services for people with AIDS. The magazine’s editor, Michael W. E. Edwards, said that Mr. Whitfield’s column was one of the magazine’s most popular features because of the candor with which he shared his own fight against H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Mr. Whitfield learned that he was H.I.V.-positive when he was 19, and he decided to forgo taking the powerful AIDS drugs that have extended the lives of many people with H.I.V. It was a choice that he stood by till the end, even though his doctors advised him to take the medicines, his brother said.
Mr. Whitfield was also a frequent contributor to Vibe magazine and a former senior editor at Poz, another magazine intended for people with H.I.V.
LeRoy Whitfield was born in Chicago on Sept. 19, 1969. In addition to his brother, he is survived by a sister, LaRonya Whitfield.