Image via WikipediaIs the AIDS epidemic just a profitable business project developed by the largest pharmaceutical companies and corrupt officials of international medical organizations Or is it a biological weapon intended to cull selected populations? Whatever it is there is a growing number of doctors with decenting opinions as to whether pharmaceutical companies are truly pursuing a cure.
HIV and AIDS have been a plague on society for over 30 years now. Although the disease wasn’t originally discovered in the early eighties, that is the period that it came to prominence as a potential mass killer. Almost immediately after it’s awareness came stigmatization toward the communities that it seemed to inflict the most. Gays, Black, and drug Addicts bore the brunt of that stigmatization. That is mainly because the rates of infections in those communities were statistically higher.
In the Gay community the disease seemed to spread like a wild fire. So did far fetched explanations as to the reasons. People quickly attributed it to the wrath of God instead of analyzing the free wheeling lifestyle practices of most Gays. Intravenous drug users experienced a similar fate also. Since I am neither Gay or a drug user I will focus on that which I am familiar with which is the Black experience.
In the Black community HIV and AIDS was spread rapidly due to ignorance of its severity and a lack of access to proper health care. Blacks became stigmatized as the originators of the disease by way of Africa when mainstream media began to report that researchers working in the jungles of Africa stumbled upon the deadly virus.
They reported that the HIV virus must have been passed from monkeys to humans through sexual contact. If it was passed from monkeys to human it most likely occurred by the consumption of the animal’s meat but I guess that was too logical and quickly dismissed for more sensational and racist reasons.
Blacks counteracted by accusing the government of trying to kill them off. A claim that is totally unfounded but not discounted due to many examples of past indiscretions.
Perhaps the most famous of which being the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, a 40-year government study in which 399 Black men from Macon County, Alabama were deliberately denied effective treatment for syphilis. In fact, the United States Public Health Service went to extreme lengths to ensure that they would not receive any treatment, in their words, "in order to document the natural history of the disease."
The Public Health Service leaders excuse was that with the advent of antibiotics, no one would ever again be able to trace the long term effects of the disease. The affects of Syphilis was able to be studied on how it affected the entire community over the 40-yr period. On May 16, 1997, President Bill Clinton apologized in a White House ceremony for the experiments.
Another incident occurred in 1963 when the United States Public Health Service, the American Cancer Society, and the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital of Brooklyn, participated in an experiment where physicians injected live cancer cells into twenty-two chronically ill and debilitated African American
patients. The patients did not consent, nor were they aware that they were being injected with cancer.
During the 1970s, the government collected blood samples from seven thousand Black youths. Parents were told that their children were being tested for anemia, but instead, the government was looking for signs that the children were genetically predisposed to criminal activity.At least eighty-two "charity" patients were exposed to full-body radiation at the University Of Cincinnati Medical Center. The patients were exposed to
radiation ten times the level believed to be safe at the time twenty-five patients died. Three-quarters of the patients in the study were Black men and women. The consent signatures were forged.
Countless other experiments have been carried out within the prison system also. One unscrupulous doctor was even over heard saying,
'Criminals in our penitentiaries are fine experimental material and much
cheaper than chimpanzees."
Given the history of deceit between Blacks and the “system” it is not hard to imagine why many people continue to believe that AIDS is just another conspiracy.
HIV and AIDS have been a plague on society for over 30 years now. Although the disease wasn’t originally discovered in the early eighties, that is the period that it came to prominence as a potential mass killer. Almost immediately after it’s awareness came stigmatization toward the communities that it seemed to inflict the most. Gays, Black, and drug Addicts bore the brunt of that stigmatization. That is mainly because the rates of infections in those communities were statistically higher.
In the Gay community the disease seemed to spread like a wild fire. So did far fetched explanations as to the reasons. People quickly attributed it to the wrath of God instead of analyzing the free wheeling lifestyle practices of most Gays. Intravenous drug users experienced a similar fate also. Since I am neither Gay or a drug user I will focus on that which I am familiar with which is the Black experience.
In the Black community HIV and AIDS was spread rapidly due to ignorance of its severity and a lack of access to proper health care. Blacks became stigmatized as the originators of the disease by way of Africa when mainstream media began to report that researchers working in the jungles of Africa stumbled upon the deadly virus.
They reported that the HIV virus must have been passed from monkeys to humans through sexual contact. If it was passed from monkeys to human it most likely occurred by the consumption of the animal’s meat but I guess that was too logical and quickly dismissed for more sensational and racist reasons.
Blacks counteracted by accusing the government of trying to kill them off. A claim that is totally unfounded but not discounted due to many examples of past indiscretions.
Perhaps the most famous of which being the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, a 40-year government study in which 399 Black men from Macon County, Alabama were deliberately denied effective treatment for syphilis. In fact, the United States Public Health Service went to extreme lengths to ensure that they would not receive any treatment, in their words, "in order to document the natural history of the disease."
The Public Health Service leaders excuse was that with the advent of antibiotics, no one would ever again be able to trace the long term effects of the disease. The affects of Syphilis was able to be studied on how it affected the entire community over the 40-yr period. On May 16, 1997, President Bill Clinton apologized in a White House ceremony for the experiments.
Another incident occurred in 1963 when the United States Public Health Service, the American Cancer Society, and the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital of Brooklyn, participated in an experiment where physicians injected live cancer cells into twenty-two chronically ill and debilitated African American
patients. The patients did not consent, nor were they aware that they were being injected with cancer.
During the 1970s, the government collected blood samples from seven thousand Black youths. Parents were told that their children were being tested for anemia, but instead, the government was looking for signs that the children were genetically predisposed to criminal activity.At least eighty-two "charity" patients were exposed to full-body radiation at the University Of Cincinnati Medical Center. The patients were exposed to
radiation ten times the level believed to be safe at the time twenty-five patients died. Three-quarters of the patients in the study were Black men and women. The consent signatures were forged.
Countless other experiments have been carried out within the prison system also. One unscrupulous doctor was even over heard saying,
'Criminals in our penitentiaries are fine experimental material and much
cheaper than chimpanzees."
Given the history of deceit between Blacks and the “system” it is not hard to imagine why many people continue to believe that AIDS is just another conspiracy.
