AIDS is so gay

Many Freepers either don't care about AIDS or think it is caused by irresponsibility, not some virus.

If I may be so bold....I hope that there is no vaccine.

Because, with all of the hype and hyperbole involved, the gov't would make it "mandatory". Or, would make, for instance, your employment contigent upon it.

Right now, I have a 0% chance of contracting the disease. That's good enough for me.

Who cares if people who aren't me are dying? And mandatory vaccines are just another example of nanny-stateism! If only we could have smallpox back like in the good old days.

Then there are the anti-scientific "lifestyle disease" people:

And yet prostitutes are plying their trade just like they have for millenia. If HIV were actually the cause of AIDS, they should all be dead by now.

Yeah! Same goes for Syphilis! And everybody breathes, if Tuberculosis were really caused by a bacterium, everyone should be dead!

HOW TO RESOLVE THE DEBATE

A relatively simple set of tests would quickly determine, once and for all, whether HIV (or any virus) causes AIDS:

1) The virus should be chemically active in more cells than the host can generate.

2) The symptoms of the disease should occur within weeks or months after infection.

3) The disease should spread relatively randomly among its potential hosts, rather than being confined to highly specific groups.

4) Antibodies produced by the immune system should be able to fight or completely neutralize the disease.

5) A controlled study, in which a group of people with the virus should be compared to a group without, to see whether those with the virus develop the sickness. The groups should be matched for all possible health risk factors: equivalent types and amounts of drug use, use of antibiotics, use of AZT, exposure to previous diseases, hemophilia, etc.

HIV, of course, already fails points (1) through (4), and we have little trouble anticipating the result of a controlled study.

1) so no viruses have a latency period, ever? Herpies, anyone?
2) See above. Also Lyme disease.
3) AIDS follows the standard STD transmission patterns, as far as I've heard
4) Cause Viruses never defeat the immune system! That's unpossible!
5) The latency issue would makes this a bit trickier, I'll bet no one without HIV gets AIDS...

The NIH keeps finding excuses as to why they won’t go along with Duesberg’s offer for them to inject him (and some other scientists, btw) with HIV to prove HIV does not cause AIDS. If Duesberg is so dangerous to public health, surely they should go along with his human experimentation proposal to put this thing to rest once and for all. But they won’t do it. Why am I not surprised?

Having a theory doesn't mean you ahve to be so convinced of it's correctness you'd stake your life on it! But I guess this issue is political enough, some people will do anything for publicity. If this Suesberg character really wants to, I'm sure he'd get enough press without the NIH.