Wyz_sub10

Not to digress, but on the money-making note, high-end A.S.A. and ibuprofen, and the like always been cash cows for pharmaceuticals because its about volume.

I agree with scigirl, AIDS drugs are not where the $$$ are.

RoddyM

AIDS certainly provides employment for hundreds of thousands of people and earns hundreds of millions of dollars profits. Sure, it is a net cost, a loss, some of it paid by the taxpayer.

But so what? America has a national debt in the trillions. A war on drugs, AIDS or terrorism costs. The dollar costs become so huge as to become meaningless. America doesn't need money anymore, it can take whatever it wants anytime. It's got a triple AAA credit rating, or else.

AIDS is a lever to get control over Africa. The US can "rescue" the citizens of African nations hopefully without bombing them. If the South African president doesn't start co-operating with the drug companies soon it might be time for a regime change.

Dr Rick

The rest of RoddyM's post was refuted by charlie d, so I'll just address this last part.

How can we know if a certain agent cause a specific disease? The answer was formulated by a microbiologist, Robert Koch, and his definitions are still the standard* for confirming that a specific bug causes a distinct illness in what has come to be known as Koch's postulates

1)The agent must be present in every case of the disease;

2)It must be isolated from the host and grown in the laboratory.

3)The disease must be reproduced when a pure form of the agent is inoculated into a healthy susceptible host; and

4)The same agent must be recovered again from the experimentally infected host.

HIV has been determined to be the cause AIDS as certainly as gonorrhea has been demonstrated to cause "the clap" because Koch's postulates have been fulfilled, specifically refuting Duesberg's contention that HIV is not the infectious agent that causes AIDS

*Koch's postulates have been modified over time to encompass organisms that were not known when Herr Koch was alive. For instance, his original postulate 2) was "The specific microorganism should be isolated from the diseased animal and grown in pure culture on artificial laboratory media," but viruses and many other germs can only grow inside of living cells such as hosts and tissue cultures, so the postulate was changed to allow for viruses and similar intracellular organisms after they were discovered.

Rick

MadKally

hmmm, just off the top of my head at this moment, how about Magic Johnson? If he were to stop his medication regimen, he would most likely have full blown AIDS in a week or two.

tronvillain

*chuckle* Well, I did say that I could be wrong.

scigirl

Um, riiiight.

AIDS was first an epidemic here, right? Then it spread to Africa. If we wanted to use an epidemic disease to control the African population, we sure as hell didn't need to invent one. Malaria, rotavirus, every single parasite. . . don't see it here, see it there.

So RoddyM, which is is? The gov't invented AIDS to subjugate the gay people in the US, or the heterosexuals in Africa? I'm so confused - but then again I never did understand conspiracy theories that made about as much sense as 6-day creationism.

scigirl

MadKally

from World Health Organization (WHO) a child dies every 30 seconds of Malaria alone. Mostly in Africa.

scigirl

So does every disease. Do you doubt the existence of heart disease or cancer, then, for the same reasons? I suspect since you can't refute the scientific data, you are resorting to making up shit now. How about insulting the NIH's mother? That *might* be as convincing as your arguments so far.

I still don't understand your premise. Are you saying now that AIDS *is* in fact a disease, but it was *created* or somehow spread by the government to make money?

Who is in on the conspiracy? The patients who clearly have symtomology of low CD4 counts and opportunistic infections and cancers? The health care workers who treat them? The basic scientists, on a salary, who study the virus? The people involved in this conspiracy would have to be a huge huge group of people.

I am still waiting for the denyers explanation for what AIDS *is* caused by, if it isn't HIV.

scigirl

Bubba

uhhhh...Sin?

Bubba

Bubba

Please turn up the irony meter for the above post...

Bubba