Saturday, November 25, 2006
The NIH re-writes AIDS history:
Here's the white-wash website: NIH Re-Write of AIDS History.
"Dr. Anthony S. Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recalls, it “was like living in an intensive care unit all day long.” The patients were very sick, and despite the best efforts of NIH’s dedicated doctors and nurses, most patients eventually died."
First: Tony Fauci is a research scientist, (and an asshole,) not a clinician. The idea of Fauci spending any amount of time with an AIDS patient is a joke, unless the patient might win him an award. Until Robert Gallo started looking at AIDS Tony Fauci didn't give us the time of day. Fauci doesn't see patients, and no patient with an ounce of self-respect would spend any time or energy on this arrogant prick.
This is a real insult to the AIDS researchers like Dr. David Ho, (inventor of the Protease Inhibitor.) But as Randy Shilts pointed out in; "And The Band Played On," his book on the early days of the epidemic – guys like Fauci and Gallo didn't take any interest in fags dying until the French started stealing their thunder. Both Fauci and Gallo were focused on Cancer and were the last horses to cross the finish line.
But let's go back to this "new" history of the AIDS Pandemic:
"By the fall of 1984, not only had a retrovirus been identified as the cause of AIDS, it also had been shown to have properties that would make it very difficult, if not impossible, to make a conventional vaccine against AIDS. As reports of AIDS also arrived from other parts of the world—Africa, Haiti, Europe, and Asia— Dr. Thomas C. Quinn of NIAID and others visited these areas and began conducting research. They returned to the United States sounding warning bells of what the epidemic could become.."
They were warning us about Africa by 1984? Could you show me where that was published? Exactly where did NIAID publish this clarion call?
Yeah. Good luck finding that. In 1984 Ronald Reagan was trying to keep all federal health agencies from looking at the epidemic through threats and cuts in funding. The real heroes at the CDC were denied plane fare to San Francisco to study this new disease, and many were threatened with termination if they did anything to call the public's attention to the epidemic. Reagan didn't want the public caring about a bunch of godless faggots dying in horrible ways.
This is just one of the frustrating things about the recent canonization of Ronald Reagan, as if he were some sort of American political saint. Reagan let people die and he let the epidemic spin out of control because he was a mean old bastard with an agenda that did not include the poor, the weak, or the dying. Ronald Reagan single-handedly caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa – because he let the AIDS epidemic become a world-wide Pandemic unchecked.
Back to the Disney, I mean, NIH version of the AIDS epidemic:
"When Dr. Anthony S. Fauci became NIAID director in 1984, he came to the job with a strong personal involvement and interest in AIDS research. In addition to maintaining his own research laboratory and clinical duties devoted to AIDS, he established a special AIDS division within the Institute. NIAID staff oversaw the allocation of most AIDS grants, conducted outreach activities with community groups concerned about AIDS, started long-term studies of people with AIDS, collaborated with the National Cancer Institute to set up a drug discovery process for AIDS drugs, and inaugurated nationwide networks of clinical trial sites to test the most promising drugs and vaccines.."
What planet was this? Tony Fauci "conducted outreach activities with community groups concerned about AIDS"(?) What total and complete bullshit! Tony Fauci never worked with "community groups" unless they had research dollars for him or it was a chance for some favorable press, and I doubt it happened even then.
Tony Fauci is not a "community groups" kind of guy.
This white-wash of the terrible early days of the epidemic is an insult to every ACT-UP member, every American who died because of the apathy from guys like Fauci, Gallo and Reagan, and every AIDS patient who has been forced to fight for decent medical care and access to the drugs that keep them alive.
It's also an insult to the families who watched their sons and daughters die in terrible ways while Washington fiddled. Don't let them get away with it! I urge you to send email to this insult of a web site stating your disgust at this outrageous re-write of history. The email for these liars is: history@nih.gov
Footnote:
I fear these "re-writes" of recent history, designed to make shameful men look like valiant warriors, will be popping up more and more often over the next few years. If we let these go unchallenged we do a disservice to those who suffered under the policies they are trying to sugar-coat, and to future generations who might end up learning a version of history that might as well be written by Hobbits.
We've seen this already with the White Supremacists denial of the Holocaust, and the Russian denial of Stalin's crimes against humanity. For the sake of truth, for the sake of justice, for the sake of honoring the victims – we must fight these raciest and elitist actions, lest their lies be spread like a virus that will end up doing more harm than AIDS ever could.
Don't let them get away with it!
Here's the white-wash website: NIH Re-Write of AIDS History.
"Dr. Anthony S. Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recalls, it “was like living in an intensive care unit all day long.” The patients were very sick, and despite the best efforts of NIH’s dedicated doctors and nurses, most patients eventually died."
First: Tony Fauci is a research scientist, (and an asshole,) not a clinician. The idea of Fauci spending any amount of time with an AIDS patient is a joke, unless the patient might win him an award. Until Robert Gallo started looking at AIDS Tony Fauci didn't give us the time of day. Fauci doesn't see patients, and no patient with an ounce of self-respect would spend any time or energy on this arrogant prick.
This is a real insult to the AIDS researchers like Dr. David Ho, (inventor of the Protease Inhibitor.) But as Randy Shilts pointed out in; "And The Band Played On," his book on the early days of the epidemic – guys like Fauci and Gallo didn't take any interest in fags dying until the French started stealing their thunder. Both Fauci and Gallo were focused on Cancer and were the last horses to cross the finish line.
But let's go back to this "new" history of the AIDS Pandemic:
"By the fall of 1984, not only had a retrovirus been identified as the cause of AIDS, it also had been shown to have properties that would make it very difficult, if not impossible, to make a conventional vaccine against AIDS. As reports of AIDS also arrived from other parts of the world—Africa, Haiti, Europe, and Asia— Dr. Thomas C. Quinn of NIAID and others visited these areas and began conducting research. They returned to the United States sounding warning bells of what the epidemic could become.."
They were warning us about Africa by 1984? Could you show me where that was published? Exactly where did NIAID publish this clarion call?
Yeah. Good luck finding that. In 1984 Ronald Reagan was trying to keep all federal health agencies from looking at the epidemic through threats and cuts in funding. The real heroes at the CDC were denied plane fare to San Francisco to study this new disease, and many were threatened with termination if they did anything to call the public's attention to the epidemic. Reagan didn't want the public caring about a bunch of godless faggots dying in horrible ways.
This is just one of the frustrating things about the recent canonization of Ronald Reagan, as if he were some sort of American political saint. Reagan let people die and he let the epidemic spin out of control because he was a mean old bastard with an agenda that did not include the poor, the weak, or the dying. Ronald Reagan single-handedly caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa – because he let the AIDS epidemic become a world-wide Pandemic unchecked.
Back to the Disney, I mean, NIH version of the AIDS epidemic:
"When Dr. Anthony S. Fauci became NIAID director in 1984, he came to the job with a strong personal involvement and interest in AIDS research. In addition to maintaining his own research laboratory and clinical duties devoted to AIDS, he established a special AIDS division within the Institute. NIAID staff oversaw the allocation of most AIDS grants, conducted outreach activities with community groups concerned about AIDS, started long-term studies of people with AIDS, collaborated with the National Cancer Institute to set up a drug discovery process for AIDS drugs, and inaugurated nationwide networks of clinical trial sites to test the most promising drugs and vaccines.."
What planet was this? Tony Fauci "conducted outreach activities with community groups concerned about AIDS"(?) What total and complete bullshit! Tony Fauci never worked with "community groups" unless they had research dollars for him or it was a chance for some favorable press, and I doubt it happened even then.
Tony Fauci is not a "community groups" kind of guy.
This white-wash of the terrible early days of the epidemic is an insult to every ACT-UP member, every American who died because of the apathy from guys like Fauci, Gallo and Reagan, and every AIDS patient who has been forced to fight for decent medical care and access to the drugs that keep them alive.
It's also an insult to the families who watched their sons and daughters die in terrible ways while Washington fiddled. Don't let them get away with it! I urge you to send email to this insult of a web site stating your disgust at this outrageous re-write of history. The email for these liars is: history@nih.gov
Footnote:
I fear these "re-writes" of recent history, designed to make shameful men look like valiant warriors, will be popping up more and more often over the next few years. If we let these go unchallenged we do a disservice to those who suffered under the policies they are trying to sugar-coat, and to future generations who might end up learning a version of history that might as well be written by Hobbits.
We've seen this already with the White Supremacists denial of the Holocaust, and the Russian denial of Stalin's crimes against humanity. For the sake of truth, for the sake of justice, for the sake of honoring the victims – we must fight these raciest and elitist actions, lest their lies be spread like a virus that will end up doing more harm than AIDS ever could.
Don't let them get away with it!
# posted by Phillip T. Alden @ 3:33 PM 
