More From Dr. Bryan Fischer, Virologist

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Bryan Fischer, Virologist

AIDS Denialists Claim Copyright Violations To Take Down Critical YouTube Clips

AIDS denialists are filing takedown notices against a YouTube vlogger who uses their claims to shred their batshittery. Via Boing Boing:

Myles Power, a debunker who goes after junk science and conspiracy theorists, has gone after AIDS denialists and a terrible, falsehood-ridden, dangerous documentary called "House of Numbers," which holds that HIV/AIDS isn't an actual viral illness, but rather a conspiracy to sell anti-viral medication. The AIDS denial movement encourages people who are HIV-positive to go off the medication that keeps them alive. The producers of "House of Numbers" have used a series of bogus copyright takedown notices to get Youtube to remove Powers's videos, in which he uses clips from the documentary as part of his criticism, showing how they mislead viewers and misrepresent the facts and the evidence. It's pure censorship: using the law to force the removal of your opponents' views.

The above-linked article blames Google and YouTube for allowing abuses of the take down policy. Many of the most prominent AIDS denialists in America have died of the disease they claim does not exist. However the movement continues to fester, perhaps most notably in South Africa, thanks in part to former president Thabo Mbeki. (Tipped by JMG reader Dean)

Fischer: Drug Use Causes AIDS

Pastor Rick Warren Denounces AFA's Bryan Fischer For HIV Denialism

"For the past eight years we have worked with thousands of churches around the world and in America who have ministries to those infected and affected by AIDS. No one deserves this illness, and we must not ignore those among us who are infected or affected by HIV and AIDS. There are numerous ways to acquire the virus – sexual activity, blood transfusions, being born to an HIV positive mother, dirty needles – but what matters isn’t how a person became infected as much as how we will respond.

"People with living with the virus are people that Jesus created, loves, and died for. Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan teaches us that when you find someone bleeding on the side of the road, you don’t say 'Was it your fault?' You just help them in love! Let’s be very careful about what reality we deny; lives are at stake." - Pastor Rick Warren and his wife Kay, in a statement issued to Warren Throckmorton regarding Bryan Fischer's recent denial that HIV causes AIDS.

Warren's statement notes that many people have died in Africa due to the HIV denialism promoted by Peter Duesberg, the discredited scientist now embraced by Fischer.

RELATED: President Obama created a still-lingering firestorm of ill will when he tapped Warren to conduct the prayer at the 2008 inauguration. Warren is close friends with Uganda's Martin Ssempa, the chief proponent of his nation's still-pending "kill the gays" bill, although Warren has issued a statement condemning the legislation. While we welcome the above-linked statement to Throckmorton, critics maintain that Rick Warren's AIDS ministry in Africa may actually be worsening the situation due to his relationships with those who persecute homosexuals.

American Family Association's Bryan Fischer Joins Ranks Of AIDS Denialists

After years at screaming that "AIDS is a gay disease" and that gay men "die at an average age of 46," the AFA's Bryan Fischer has joined the ranks of AIDS denialists. According to Fischer, the entire HIV thing is a racket to make money. To "prove" his point, he brings on the globally discredited "researcher" Peter Duesberg. Fischer would probably interview some of the other famous AIDS denialists, but of course they've all died.

AIDS Denialists: Science Under Attack

In the first half of this BBC Science Under Attack special aired Sunday night, Nobel Prize winner Sir Paul Nurse examines the mindsets of folks who deny the science behind global warming. Interesting stuff, but skip forward to 43:00 where Nurse takes on a New Yorker who blithely denies that HIV causes AIDS.

(Via -Atheist Media Blog)

AIDS Denialists Release Film Of Lies

AIDS denialists, who claim that HIV either doesn't exist or doesn't cause AIDS, have released a film titled House Of Numbers. Already, doctors interviewed for the movie has issued a statement denouncing its "junk science."

A film about HIV and what causes AIDS has been attacked for being misleading and even dangerous. According to producer and director Brent Leung, House of Numbers is an objective and unbiased look at the question of what causes AIDS. But HIV charities and health experts have told PinkNews.co.uk it misrepresents the scientists featured and the ideas promoted perpetrate medical "myths". Since the film's release, 18 of the doctors interviewed have released a statement saying they had been "deceived" and that the film "perpetuates pseudo-science and myths". The statement, signed by all 18, added: "[The film] presents the AIDS denialist agenda as being a legitimate scientific perspective on HIV/AIDS, when it is no such thing." House of Numbers features interviews with a number of scientists and medical experts, along with campaigners who believe HIV medication causes the symptoms of AIDS and the disease can be cured through lifestyle choices. It has won an number of international awards and has been screened at several film festivals.

AIDS denialism, once a vigorously vocal movement of nutters, has dropped off the public's radar in recent years - in no small part due to the AIDS-related deaths of its most famous advocates, people who refused the "poisonous" HAART therapy. Last December, infamous denialist Christine Maggiore died two years after the death of her untreated infant daughter nearly brought her felony child abuse charges. My obituary for Maggiore brought her fellow denialists into the comments with claims that her death was not HIV-related. Years ago ACT-UP SF was taken over by denialists, prompting rational members to flee to ACT-UP Golden Gate.

AIDS Denialist Christine Maggiore Dies Of The Disease She Claimed Doesn't Exist

Christine Maggiore, the notorious AIDS denialist who barely escaped felony charges in 2006 after her baby died untreated for HIV, has herself succumbed to the disease she claimed did not exist.

Maggiore, 52, was founder of Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives, a nonprofit that challenges "common assumptions" about AIDS. Her group's website and toll-free hotline cater to expectant HIV-positive mothers who shun AIDS medications, want to breast-feed their babies and seek to meet others of like mind. She also had written a book on the subject, titled "What if Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?"

In 2006, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office decided not to file criminal charges against Maggiore, whose daughter died the year before in what the county coroner ruled was AIDS-related pneumonia. Los Angeles police had been investigating whether Maggiore and her husband, Robin Scovill, were negligent in not testing or treating Eliza Jane Scovill for the human immunodeficiency virus before her May 2005 death. Maggiore had said that she did not take antiviral medications during her pregnancy and that she did not have her daughter tested for the virus after birth.

Maggiore joins the sad list of dead denialists such as David Pasquarelli and Micheal Bellefountaine, both of whom campaigned vigorously and violently against the "AIDS myth." In 1998, Maggiore published What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Is Wrong?, a book heralded as "brave" and "groundbreaking" by the insane denialists. Poz.com blogger Peter Staley reacts to Maggiore's death:

What should we call it? A suicide? What should we call it when a woman dies because she refuses to believe she has a treatable illness? And what should we call it when a woman lets her baby daughter die because she refuses to believe the baby has a treatable illness? A murder? AIDS denialism has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths in South Africa (see my previous post explaining why), and now two more here in the U.S. Any other idiots want to kill themselves or their children today? Anyone else out there with an HIV diagnosis want to just believe it's a harmless virus?

The AIDS denialists do not merely endanger their own crackpot lives. Some of them actively campaign to reduce or end funding for AIDS research and treatment, sometimes testifying before legislatures that are already ill-informed about the disease.

There is no satisfaction in Christine Maggiore's death, even though she not only caused the death of her daughter as well as her own, and may have influenced others to an early grave. All we can do is hope, perhaps futilely, that her story finally convinces other denialists to give up their dangerous crusade.