Gentlemen,
It recently came to my attention that my name appears as an
interesting AIDS dissenter on web pages such as the following:
http://www.physics.smu.edu/~pseudo/AIDS/
http://www.rethinkingaids.com/challenges/Crowe-Scalise-et-al.html
As an occasional SF writer, and holder of a physics degree,
I can see the humor in citing my name as an attractive guest lecturer/stooge in
an AIDS dissent debate. “Isn’t it true that as a science
fiction writer, your job is to make fiction sound like actual science?”
LOL. However, this cherry-picking of names was not fair, especially since
no one has ever tried to contact me regarding my views. I did sign a
dissent list over a decade ago, but not because I hold the beliefs of a typical
dissenter. The fact was that I was curious about AIDS, and deeply
concerned, having lived in
My curiosity and truth-seeking prompted me to sign a dissent
list, but I was never an HIV denier, and never held the extreme views by the
vocal minority. On the contrary, it was obvious to me, from a first-hand
perspective, that AIDS was not just a collection of extant diseases. On
the other hand, it is easy to see why that may have seemed the case for a time;
there was no testing, and there continues to be medical ignorance and panic
associated with AIDS where I lived. “A new name for old diseases”
was anecdotally believable.
If you have any links that address the issues I outlined, I’d
love to see them, and I’d appreciate my name not being propagated with
the dissent crowd, insofar as it’s within your ability to remove it.
Finally, the question raised at the bottom of your “AIDS
Denial is Pseudoscience” web page may be partly answered by this
email. Why do dissenters dissent? In my case, it was none of the reasons
listed, though they may well apply to others. I simply felt that there
was a rush to action with some significant holes in research. I’m also
skeptical of quantum string theory, and other such things, but that doesn’t
make me irrational, I hope.
Respectfully,
David Bartell