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Example research essay topic: Does Hiv Cause Aids The Controversy - 1,765 words

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"Science is nothing but perception" -- -Plato -- - In the first part of my discussion on the HIV/AIDS controversy, I discussed some of the reasons some people were unwilling to believe that HIV causes AIDS. I did not focus on the scientific community nor did I explain how the science handles data that conflicts with accepted scientific theory. This essay will explore these themes. It will concentrate on the scientific establishment and how it formulates its theories and the HIV/AIDS controversy within that context. Specifically, it will examine how shifts in current theories happen and how this is relevant to the HIV/AIDS situation. WHAT IS THE HIV/AIDS CONTROVERSY?

The HIV/AIDS controversy centers around the premise that in spite of the seemingly overwhelming evidence that HIV causes AIDS, there is an impressive audience of scientists who contend that HIV does not cause AIDS. The grounds these scientists give for refuting HIV's role in AIDS are quite persuasive. These grounds range from innocuous banter to claims that HIV is harmless. In order for a scientific revolution to take place, as will be discussed later, only empirical evidence is acceptable as grounds for change. To determine weather or not enough evidence exists to constitute a controversy, I had to research the role of the HIV virus. In my research I found one article that claims Gallo, the co-founder of the HIV virus, never proves that HIV isolation is possible let alone that it has a specific role in the AIDS virus.

It states, "The data and arguments that have been presented by Gallo and his colleagues do not constitute proof of HIV isolation or an unambiguous role for HIV in the pathogenesis of AIDS. " (Gallo Article, P. 11) The article further states, " while the HIV antibody tests are useful prognostic markers in the high risk groups, their use as diagnostic and epidemiological tools for HIV infection is questionable. " (Gallo Article, P. 11) This is important, because if isolation of HIV is dubious, then all of the research efforts connected with and an AIDS treatment and cure are fruitless. Another important question to ask is if this information is correct, how will the scientific community handle it? Will the community choose to ignore the proof as trivial or will it find some way to explain it so that it can be incorporated into entrenched existing theories? THE SCIENTISTS BEHIND THE CONTROVERSY One person who feels that the HIV/AIDS connection needs to be questioned is Key Mullis. He won the Nobel prize for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction. His main complaint regarding the HIV/AIDS hypothesis is that he can not find valid proof which states HIV causes AIDS.

He states, "I started looking at the scientific literature, and I began to notice that nobody ever quoted a scientific paper to back up the notion that HIV causes AIDS. " (California Monthly, p. 20). Mullis claims that even in 1994, he has yet to discover one paper to support the theory that HIV causes AIDS. During part of an interview he claims, "People keep asking me 'You mean you don't believe that HIV causes AIDS?' and I say, Whether I believe it or not is irrelevant! I have no scientific evidence for it. " (California Monthly, P. 20) Later in the article he claims that people who have AIDS and do not have HIV die from the AIDS treatment.

He states, "there's the fact that most people who have HIV don't ever get AIDS, although people who have HIV and no symptoms and take AZT die. There's no doubt about that... they die from the poison AZT not from AIDS. (California monthly p. 21) The significance of Mullis's claims is that they represent problems with the current theory associated with HIV and AIDS. From this information it is understandable how the HIV/AIDS controversy became established in the scientific community. Mullis is not saying that there is no HIV/AIDS connection, he would just like to see the proof. He also believes that if HIV is indicated as a cause, it may not work alone.

He is not alone in this assumption. As an article in Science states, "Many researchers who once believed all the damage caused by HIV could be explained by the virus's direct killing of cells now think indirect mechanisms must also be at work. " (Science, Vol. 260, p. 1254). Mullis also believes AZT is not the miracle it was once thought to be. This view is also gaining wider acceptance in the scientific community. Science magazine states, "AZT... was once assumed to be helpful for infected people...

new data suggest the drug is probably of little help to that group. " (Science, Vol. 260, p. 1254). Another example of a noted scientist refuting the HIV/AIDS claim is Dr. Robert E. Willner. To prove his point that HIV "absolutely does not cause AIDS, " Dr. Willner injected himself with HIV positive blood.

I do not know how Dr. Willner is doing today. He claims that "the HIV/AIDS hypothesis was based on the fact that only 40 % of AIDS cases were confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control to have antibodies to HIV and not the virus itself... This means that 60 to 93 % of all AIDS patients... were HIV negative. " (Sumeria, Medical Doctor interview, p. 3) He also contends that HIV is harmless and that there is not one reference paper that proves HIV causes AIDS. Willner points out that HIV is rarely found in T-cells.

These are the cells that when destroyed lead to AIDS. Willner states, "HIV is rarely found in T-cells (1 virus per 10, 000 to 100, 000, 000 cells) and when it is found it is doing absolutely nothing. In cases of full blown AIDS... the virus is extremely difficult to find; and in 50 percent of the cases it cannot be found at all. " (Sumeria, Medical Doctor interview, p. 3) This is in direct opposition to how Gallo reported the HIV virus behaved. Willner believes HIV to be a dead piece of tissue that normally exist in our bodies.

In order for the HIV/AIDS theory to be valid, he claims that the body would kill the virus before it ever had a chance to reproduce. He states, "T- lymphocytes (our white blood defensive cells) reproduce 500 times faster that the HIV virus is supposedly reproduced. This simply means that even if the HIV/AIDS hypothesis were correct it is impossible for HIV to ever win the battle. " (Sumeria, Medical Doctor interview, p. 6) I am not a scientist and do not fully understand all the technical jargon. However, if Willner's conviction that HIV does not cause AIDS is correct, he might be able to force the scientific community to rethink the entrenched HIV/AIDS axiom. These are just two examples of respected scientists questioning an accepted scientific theory. The third and probably the most notable critic of the HIV/AIDS controversy is Peter Duesberg.

A respected virologist and cancer researcher who in 1985 was awarded the prestigious Outstanding Investigator Grant, Duesberg claims that "factors such as illicit drug use and AZT... actually cause the disease" (Science, Vol. 266, p. 1642). He also claims that "HIV is nothing more than a benign passenger virus... and that there are uncertainties about the pathogenesis -- the precise way HIV causes disease and death -- [and that] there isn't yet a cure or a vaccine. " (Science, Vol. 266 p. 1643). He uses these arguments to promote suspicion regarding the HIV/AIDS connection.

He contends that drugs, specifically nitrite inhalants and injectable drugs are the potential culprits that cause AIDS. Another factor that Duesberg feels is responsible for AIDS is contaminated factor VIII. He believes that when hemophilia patients receive blood transfusion, the blood "is frequently contaminated with foreign proteins from blood donors... and suggests that these contaminants cause the immunodeficiency seen in AIDS... He contends that hemophiliacs infected with HIV are simple the ones who have received the most factor VII -- with accompanying contaminants. " (Science Vol. 266 P. 1645).

Finally, he claims that HIV fails the Koch's postulate, the test that proves a disease is cause by a specific microbe and points to the fact that many people are HIV positive and have lived over ten years without developing AIDS or AIDS related diseases. Like Mullis and Willner, Duesberg states that "there is not even one study in the vast AIDS literature that shows an HIV positive group of 20 to 50 year old people who do not use drugs and do not have congenital disease, ... have more AIDS than an HIV negative control group. " (Science Vol. 266, P. 1647). These were Duesberg's claims in 1994. Below is his response to an article from June of 1995 which shows he is still not convinced that HIV causes AIDS in spite of this new evidence. Duesberg and Bialy respond to the current issues surrounding the AIDS debate as presented by Wei et al and Ho et al, and claim that paradoxes still exist.

First, Duesberg and Bialy refute the argument that retrovirus's kill their hosts. The article states, "retroviruses can only replicate as long as the host survives integration and remains able to express integrated viral genes. Therefore a cytocidal retrovirus would be suicidal. " (Duesberg and Bialy, P. 2) Duesberg and Bialy claim that the papers have resolved the confusion by shifting a paradigm. Duesberg and Bialy state, "According to Maddox, T-cells 'that harbor the virus will be killed... not by HIV -- but by the immune system. " (Duesberg and Bialy, p. 2). They claim that this creates a bigger paradox than what they had in the first place.

He claims, "However, if T-cell killing via anti-viral immunity were the cause of AIDS, we would have a bigger HIV-AIDS paradox than before, Since only 1 in 500 T-cells are ever infected, and most o these cells contain latent HIV not making viral proteins, only less than 1 in 500 could ever be killed by anti-viral immunity. " (Duesberg and Bialy p. 3) The next issue they address has to do with the low incidence of HIV infected cells. They believe that the erratic ranges of HIV proliferation prove that HIV is a passenger virus rather than the cause of AIDS. They also believe that their passenger virus theory explains why such a long time span exists from HIV infection to full blown AIDS. As has already been mentioned, the estimated time for AIDS to appear is ten years. Duesberg and Bialy claim, "the hot...


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