More biology articles in the 'General' category

Here we go again. This year Peace Nobel Prize winner used her newly acquired icon status to say some crazy things about HIV-1. Apparently, western 'mad scientists' created HIV-1 to wipe out the black people of Africa. Reread the last line again. Yeah. Right. HIV-1 virions were discovered in plasma samples of a man taken in 1959 (Zhu, Tuofu, Bette Korber, Andre J Nahinias An African HIV-1 Sequence from 1959 and Implications for the Origin of the Epidemic Nature, 1998). According to this page : "Analysis in 1998 of the plasma sample from 1959 was interpreted as suggesting that HIV-1 was introduced into humans around the 1940s or the early 1950s, which was earlier than had previously been suggested. Other scientists have suggested that it could have been even longer, perhaps around 100 years or more ago." So I guess some mad scientist from the west (according to her) created HIV-1 out of boredom. Before the discovery of DNA's structure, restriction enzymes (1968) PCR (1983), and DNA sequencing (1975). Without these tools its impossible to 'engineer' a virus. Or maybe it was an evil government with a special agenda against black people living in Africa. Ignore the fact that SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus), EIV (equine), and FIV(feline) existed ages before that. I guess we could have used them as 'templates'? In the cold war, we would have targeted Africa, not the Russians or whoever else... because I guess we hate black people? Sufficient reason to invest billions of dollars to 'engineer' a deadly virus which we have no cure for. Damn good plan. Some facts used to 'support' her point of view : "Some say that AIDS came from the monkeys, and I doubt that because we have been living with monkeys (since) time immemorial, others say it was a curse from God, but I say it cannot be that." "It's true that there are some people who create agents to wipe out other people. If there were no such people, we could have not have invaded Iraq" "Us black people are dying more than any other people in this planet" "Why has there been so much secrecy about AIDS? When you ask where did the virus come from, it raises a lot of flags. That makes me suspicious" "AIDS (is) not a curse from God to Africans or the black people...It is a tool to control them designed by some evil-minded scientists, but we may not know who particularly did." "Why is the rest of the world just watching, doing nothing while Africans are being wiped out? The rest of the world has abandoned us" Sorry, but this kind of people make me sick. Kinda like when the South African Prime Minister didn't believe HIV-1 is causing AIDS when his country was the most affected by the epidemy, refusing international aid... very useful to your people, sir. Note to self : When I win the Nobel, don't babble crazy opinions about important stuff I know nothing about.

October 9, 2004 11:04 PMGeneral




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