Discredited HIV/AIDS origins theories: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Rejected AIDS origin hypotheses}}

Because the world-wide spread of [[AIDS]] has had such a tragic effect on millions of people world wide, a number of [[myth]]s, [[urban legend]]s, and [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]] have arisen surrounding the disease. Some theories may be [[psychology|psychological]] mechanisms for people to cope with the epidemic, or perhaps in some cases, as a device to lay blame on someone for the epidemic.

{{About|hypotheses not currently accepted by the majority of the scientific community|the majority view within the scientific community|History of HIV/AIDS}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}

Various fringe theories have arisen to speculate about purported alternative origins for the [[human immunodeficiency virus]] (HIV) and the [[acquired immunodeficiency syndrome]] (AIDS), with claims ranging from it being due to accidental exposure to supposedly purposeful acts. Several inquiries and investigations have been carried out as a result, and each of these theories has consequently been determined to be based on unfounded and/or false information. HIV has been shown to have evolved from or be closely related to the [[simian immunodeficiency virus]] (SIV) in West Central Africa sometime in the early 20th century. HIV was discovered in the 1980s by the French scientist [[Luc Montagnier]]. Before the 1980s, HIV was an unknown deadly disease.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Sharp | first1 = P. M. | last2 = Bailes | first2 = E. | last3 = Chaudhuri | first3 = R. R. | last4 = Rodenburg | first4 = C. M. | last5 = Santiago | first5 = M. O. | last6 = Hahn | first6 = B. H. | doi = 10.1098/rstb.2001.0863 | title = The origins of acquired immune deficiency syndrome viruses: Where and when? | journal = Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences | volume = 356 | issue = 1410 | pages = 867–76 | year = 2001 | pmid = 11405934 | pmc = 1088480}}</ref>

A number of conspiracy theorists have suggested that AIDS is actually a ''man-made'' disease. These theories often state that the disease was meant to deliberately wipe out a certain segment of the population in an act of [[genocide]].

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==Discredited theories==

Note that most of the theories listed below have found little or no approval among most medical professionals.

===Duesenberg hypothesis===

The [[Duesberg hypothesis]] was developed by American biologist [[Peter Duesberg]] who argued AIDS was caused by noninfectious factors, such as recreational and pharmaceutical drug use, and that HIV is merely a harmless passenger virus. This hypothesis is widely regarded as lacking supporting evidence, overlooking contrary evidence, and being conclusively refuted.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Galea P, Chermann JC | title = HIV as the cause of AIDS and associated diseases | journal = Genetica | volume = 104 | issue = 2 | pages = 133–142 | year = 1998 | pmid = 10220906 | doi = 10.1023/A:1003432603348| s2cid = 10793378 }}</ref><ref name="phenom">{{cite journal | doi = 10.1126/science.7992043 | last1 = Cohen | first1 = J. | year = 1994 | title = The Duesberg phenomenon | url = http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/cohen/266-5191-1642a.pdf | journal = Science | volume = 266 | issue = 5191| pages = 1642–1644 | pmid = 7992043 | bibcode=1994Sci...266.1642C}}</ref>

===Smallpox vaccination theory===

*[[Anti-Semitism|anti-Semitic]] overtones are featured in some theories. Some [[African-Americans]] in the US believe that [[HIV]] was invented by [[Jew]]s as a way to destroy the black race. Such theories have been propagated for years, first by [[Louis Farrakhan]]'s [[Nation of Islam]], and by the [[New Black Panther Party]], as well as by a number of professors in various small colleges. Conspiracy theorist [[Steve Cokely]] has made allegations that Jewish doctors have injected black babies with HIV.

In 1987 there was some consideration given to the possibility that the "AIDS epidemic may have been triggered by the mass vaccination campaign which eradicated [[smallpox]]". An article<ref>{{Cite news | last = Wright | first = Pearce | title = Smallpox vaccine 'triggered Aids virus' | newspaper = [[The Times]] | ___location = London | date = 11 May 1987}}<!-- FYI there are some unofficial copies of it on the web, or you can search and pay for the official version at {{cite web

|url=http://www.newsint-archive.co.uk/pages/free.asp

|title=The Times and The Sunday Times Archive – Sample Search

|accessdate=2009-05-23

|url-status=dead

|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090913000403/http://www.newsint-archive.co.uk/pages/free.asp

|archivedate=13 September 2009

}} -->

</ref> in ''[[The Times]]'' suggested this, attributing to an unnamed "adviser to WHO" the quote "I believe the smallpox vaccine theory is the explanation to the explosion of AIDS". It is now thought that the [[smallpox vaccine]] causes serious complications for people who already have impaired immune systems<!-- this is taken from [[Smallpox vaccine#Post-eradication vaccination]] -->, and the ''Times'' article described the case of a military recruit with "dormant HIV" who died within months of receiving it. But no citation was provided regarding people who did not previously have HIV. Currently several professional publications describe HIV as a [[contraindication]] for the smallpox vaccine—both for an infected person and their sexual partners and household members.<ref>

{{Cite journal | last1 = Maurer | first1 = DM | last2 = Harrington | first2 = B | last3 = Lane | first3 = JM | title = Smallpox Vaccine: Contraindications, Administration, and Adverse Reactions | journal = American Family Physician | volume = 68 | issue = 5 | pages = 889–96 | date = 1 September 2003 |url= https://www.aafp.org/afp/2003/0901/p889.html |pmid= 13678138 |access-date= 20 June 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title = Questions and Answers About Smallpox Contraindications and Screening | work = Emergency Preparedness and Response | publisher = Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | url = http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/faq/screening.asp | access-date = 20 June 2010 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100609100515/http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/faq/screening.asp | archive-date = 9 June 2010 }}</ref> Some conspiracy theorists propose an expanded hypothesis in which the smallpox vaccine was deliberately contaminated with HIV.<ref>{{Cite news |last= Kalambuka |first= Angeyo |title= Kenya: Don't Discount Conspiracy Theories on Origin of Aids |newspaper= [[Daily Nation]] |___location= Nairobi |date= 1 December 2009 |url= https://allafrica.com/stories/200912011055.html |access-date= 20 June 2010}}

</ref>

In contrast, a research article was published in 2010 suggesting that it might have been the actual eradication of smallpox and the subsequent "ending" of the mass vaccination campaign that contributed to the sudden emergence of HIV. The theory was the possibility that immunization against smallpox "might play a role in providing an individual with some degree of protection to subsequent HIV infection and/or disease progression."<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Weinstein | first1 = RS | last2 = Weinstein | first2 = MM | last3 = Alibek | first3 = K | last4 = Bukrinsky | first4 = MI | last5 = Brichacek | first5 = Beda | title = Significantly reduced CCR5-tropic HIV-1 replication in vitro in cells from subjects previously immunized with Vaccinia Virus | journal = BMC Immunology | volume = 11 | issue = 1 | page = 23 | publisher = BioMed Central | date = 18 May 2010 | issn =1471-2172 | pmid = 20482754 | pmc = 2881106 | doi = 10.1186/1471-2172-11-23 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | last = Connor | first = Steve | title = Smallpox vaccine 'helped fight HIV' | newspaper = The Independent | ___location = London | date = 19 May 2010 | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/smallpox-vaccine-helped-fight-hiv-1976451.html | access-date = 20 June 2010 }}</ref> Regardless of the effects of the smallpox vaccine itself, its use in practice in Africa is one of the categories of un-sterile [[injection (medicine)#Infection|injections]] that may have contributed to the spread and mutation of the immunodeficiency viruses.<ref name=Marx2001>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Marx PA, Alcabes PG, Drucker E |title=Serial human passage of simian immunodeficiency virus by unsterile injections and the emergence of epidemic human immunodeficiency virus in Africa |journal=Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. |volume=356 |issue=1410 |pages=911–20 |date=June 2001 |pmid=11405938 |pmc=1088484 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2001.0867 }}</ref>

*Dr. [[Alan Cantwell]], author of ''AIDS and the Doctors of Death: An Inquiry into the Origin of the AIDS Epidemic'' and ''Queer Blood: The Secret AIDS Genocide Plot'', believes that HIV is a genetically modified organism developed by US Government scientists; that it was introduced into the population through [[hepatitis B]] experiments performed on gay and bisexual men between 1978-1981 in Manhattan, Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Louis, Denver, and Chicago. Cantwell claims these experiments were directed by Dr. [[Wolf Szmuness]]; and that there is an ongoing government and media [[cover-up]] regarding the origin of the AIDS epidemic. Similar theories have been advanced by Dr. [[Robert B. Strecker]], [[Matilde Krim]] and by [[Milton William Cooper]], author of [[Behold A Pale Horse]]

===Hepatitis B vaccine (HBV) theory===

* [[Cold War]] [[Propaganda]]: Some theorists argue the [[Soviet Union]] planted [[disinformation]] suggesting the CIA or other agencies created AIDS, in a plot to destabilize the Western world. They believe this claim was originally disseminated in the West by [[KGB]] agents seeking to undermine the faith of citizens in their own government (see: [[propaganda]], [[black propaganda]], [[disinformation]]). According to KGB defector Vasili [Mitrokhin], the KGB originated the claim through an East German physicist, Jacob Segal, in the mid 1980s (see the Mitrokhin Archive, 1999 page 319). [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] once purportedly stated his regrets that the KGB had planted and actively supported such stories in the Western world.

*Dr.The dermatologist [[Alan Cantwell]], authorin ofself-published books entitled ''AIDS and the Doctors of Death: An Inquiry into the Origin of the AIDS Epidemic'' (1988) and ''Queer Blood: The Secret AIDS Genocide Plot'' (1993), believessaid that HIV is a [[genetically modified organism]] developed by USU.S. Government scientists;. thatThe itvirus was then introduced into the population through [[hepatitis B]] (via the [[hepatitis B vaccine]]) experiments performed on gay and bisexual men between 1978- and 1981 in Manhattan,major Los Angeles, San Francisco, StU.S. Louis, Denver, and Chicagocities. Cantwell claims that these experiments were directed by Dr. [[Wolf Szmuness]];, and that there iswas an ongoing government and media [[cover-up]] regardingof the originorigins of the AIDS epidemic. Similar theories have been advanced by Dr. [[Robert B. Strecker]],<ref>Archived at [[Matildehttps://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/5BSZ1vSf1co Krim]Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and bythe [[Miltonhttps://web.archive.org/web/20121018151456/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BSZ1vSf1co&feature=related WilliamWayback Cooper]Machine],{{cbignore}}: author{{cite ofweb |title=The Strecker Memorandum – AIDS is a man made disease |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BSZ1vSf1co |via=YouTube |access-date=27 June 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Matilde Krim, and [[BeholdMilton AWilliam Pale HorseCooper]].

*Dr. [[William C. Douglas]], among others, believes that the [[World Health Organization]] created the AIDS epidemic by administering contaminated [[smallpox]] [[vaccines]] to people in [[third world]] countries--including African locations--between 1966 and 1977. Dr. [[Robert Gallo]], famous for isolating HIV, lent conditional credence to this theory when he said, "the link between the World Health Organization [vaccination] program and the [AIDS] epidemic in Africa is an interesting and important hypothesis. I cannot say that it actually happened, but I have been saying for some years that the use of live vaccines such as that used for smallpox can activate a dormant infection such as HIV".

===Oral polio vaccine (OPV) theory===

*Dr. [[Boyd E. Graves]] postulates that AIDS was the culmination of [[biowarfare]] research conducted by the U.S. Government (and later, by the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] government) throughout the [[20th century]]. He believes AIDS was developed and proliferated for the primary purpose of wiping out [[blacks]], [[homosexuals]], and other social groups considered to be "excess population." Dr. Graves has also suggested that [[Gulf War syndrome]] may be related to AIDS which was spread by contaminating soldiers with vaccines, and that an effective cure for AIDS has already been developed and patented (1997 United States Patent 5,676,977) by a company called [[Antelman Technologies Ltd., Providence, Rhode Island]], but is being withheld. The evidence Graves cites that AIDS was developed in U.S. was based on a 1971 Special Virus Cancer Flow Chart that he obtained through the [[Freedom of Information Act]]. Graves claims to have contracted AIDS, but was cured by a single injection of a special form of [[colloidal silver]]. Under the U.S. patent it is claimed a 100% destruction of AIDS using only 20 ppm of silver. The production of the product is based on 1994 United States Patent 5,336,499 by reacting silver nitrate with sodium or potassium peroxydisulfate. The company that makes the product is Weizmann Institute in Israel or Antelman Technologies, POB 382, Rehovat, Israel and Marantech is currently supplying the Imusil.

In the 1999 version of his [[OPV AIDS hypothesis]], journalist [[Edward Hooper (journalist)|Edward Hooper]] proposed that early batches of the [[oral polio vaccine]] (OPV) grown in cultures of chimpanzee kidney cells, infected with a chimpanzee virus, were the original source of HIV-1 in Central Africa. A small number of scientists thought this a plausible hypothesis, but later studies found no corroboration.<ref name= Lancet>Sarah Ramsay 28 April 2001 [https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(00)04536-0/fulltext "Cold water downstream from The River"] ''The Lancet'' '''357''' (9265) p.1343 {{doi| 10.1016/S0140-6736(00)04536-0}}</ref> Other [[molecular biology]] and [[phylogenetic]] studies also contradict the hypothesis, and [[scientific consensus]] regards it as disproven.<ref name=Science>{{cite journal |author=Hillis DM |title=AIDS. Origins of HIV |journal=Science |volume=288 |issue=5472 |pages=1757–1759 |year=2000 |pmid=10877695 |doi=10.1126/science.288.5472.1757|s2cid=83935412 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Birmingham K |title=Results make a monkey of OPV-AIDS theory |journal=Nat Med |volume=6 |issue=10 |pages=1067 |year=2000 |pmid=11017114 |doi=10.1038/80356|s2cid=10860468 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="cohen2">{{cite journal |author=Cohen J |title=AIDS origins. Disputed AIDS theory dies its final death |journal=Science |volume=292 |issue=5517 |pages=615a–615 |year=2001 |pmid=11330303 |doi=10.1126/science.292.5517.615a|s2cid=70625478 }}</ref><ref>[https://www.cdc.gov/od/science/iso/concerns/archive/aids_and_vaccines.htm Origin of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV/AIDS)] [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]] website, Accessed 30 January 2007</ref> A 2004 article in the journal ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' described the hypothesis as "refuted".<ref name="worobey">{{cite journal |vauthors=Worobey M, Santiago M, Keele B, Ndjango J, Joy J, Labama B, Dhed'A B, Rambaut A, Sharp P, Shaw G, Hahn B |title=Origin of AIDS: contaminated polio vaccine theory refuted |journal=Nature |volume=428 |issue=6985 |pages=820 |year=2004 |pmid=15103367 |doi=10.1038/428820a |bibcode=2004Natur.428..820W |s2cid=4418410 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

*Dr. [[Gary Glum]] claims in his book ''Full Disclosure'', that he received top secret information that AIDS was made in the laboratory at [[Cold Spring Harbor, New York]]. The virus was spread by putting the AIDS viruses into the smallpox eradication program by the [[World Health Organization]], and that AIDS did not exist before 1978. AIDS, he claims, was created for population control--especially of Blacks, Asians, and other colored people. The people who control the project were people known as the Olympians (another name for the [[Illuminati]]), who are also supporting [[eugenics]]. Organizations such as [[Red Cross]] are, according to Glum, complicit in the conspiracy by not testing blood properly. Glum reports that AIDS can be transmitted through kissing, mosquito bites and casual contact.

===Additional theories===

:Glum claims a number of substances are valuable in preventing or treating aids: (1) [[Licorice]] extract taken in large amounts; (2) a [[lecithin mixture]] called AL 271 or x-plaque;(3) [[Essiac Tea]], an Indian folk medicine Glum claims can also treat [[cancer]]; (4) an olive leaf extract based on U.S. patent no. 6,117,844; (5) oleuropein; (6) allantoin.

These theories generally attribute HIV's origin to the [[US government]] or its contractors:

====Created at Fort Detrick====

:Glum reports that [[Upjohn Pharmaceuticals]] tested a number of substances that can treat AIDS, but that the results have been suppressed. Much of Glum's evidence is based upon anecdotal claims, and critics have reported a complete absence of medical evidence to support his claims.

*[[Jakob Segal]] (1911–1995), a biology professor at [[Humboldt University]] in the former then-[[East Germany]], proposesproposed that HIV was engineered at a USU.S. military laboratory inat [[Fort Detrick]], Maryland by splicing together two other viruses, [[Visna-maedi virus|Visna]] and [[Human T-lymphotropic virus|HTLV-1]]. According to his theory, the new virus, created between 1977 and 1978, was tested on prison inmates who had volunteered for the experiment in exchange for early release. ItHe further suggested that it was through these prisoners that the virus was spread to the population at large, starting with the gay community. Segal was accused of being a Soviet [[disinformation]] agent by KGB defector Vasili [Mitrokhin].

At the end of the [[Cold War]], former [[KGB]] agents [[Vasili Mitrokhin]] and [[Oleg Gordievsky]] independently revealed that the Fort Detrick hypothesis was a propaganda operation devised by the KGB's [[First Chief Directorate]] codenamed "[[Operation Denver]]". This revelation was later supported by officer Günther Bohnensack of section X of East Germany's [[Main Directorate for Reconnaissance]].

*Dr. [[Leonard G. Horowitz]], author of [[Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola. Nature, Accident or Intentional?]] and [[Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare]], has advanced the theory that the AIDS virus was engineered by such US Government defense contractors as [[Litton Bionetics]] for the purposes of bio-warfare and "population control." Dr. Horowitz believes that Jews, blacks, and Hispanics are prime targets in these attempts at "population control." He cites the historical preoccupation with [[eugenics]] on the part of the American medical establishment as evidence of a greater conspiracy to commit genocide.

It is known that Segal was in close contact with Russian KGB officers and Mitrokhin mentioned him as a central asset of the operation.<ref name="Andrew 1999 319">{{Cite book |last=Andrew |first=Christopher |author2=Vasili Mitrokhin |title=The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB |publisher=Basic Books |year=1999 |isbn=0-465-00310-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/swordshieldmitro00andr/page/319 319] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/swordshieldmitro00andr/page/319}}</ref><ref name="spiegel.de">Johanna Lutterroth: [https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/ddr-verschwoerung-aids-aus-dem-labor-a-947607.html ''Aids-Verschwörung. Das Propaganda-Virus des KGB'']. Spiegel Geschichte, 2012-06-26 (German)</ref> It is not entirely clear whether Segal pursued the hypothesis independently on his own accord or whether he was simply following orders. Segal himself always denied the latter and kept pursuing the hypothesis even after the operation had been canceled and the Cold War had ended.

*[[Matilde Krim]], a cancer virologist, AIDS expert, and the co-chairperson of the [[American Foundation for AIDS Research]], has also suggested that Dr. Wolf Szmuness' hepatitis B vaccination experiments of the late 70's caused the AIDS epidemic. Unlike Cantwell, however, she attributes this to accident rather than conspiracy.

====Conspiracy to decrease the population====

*[[Thabo Mbeki]], President of [[South Africa]], and other prominent members of the ruling [[African National Congress]] party have made numerous public statements to the effect that AIDS is caused by poverty and not HIV, and that people who supposedly die of AIDS have actually been poisoned through antiretroviral medication by white-owned drug companies that wish to experiment on Africans. Mbeki and others frequently interfered with government AIDS drug distribution programs through the legal system. Nonetheless, after massive public outcry, the ANC government announced in [[2003]] that it will begin distributing antiretroviral AIDS drugs to infected citizens.

In ''Behold a Pale Horse'' (1991), radio broadcaster and author [[Milton William Cooper]] (1943–2001) proposed that [[HIV/AIDS|AIDS]] was the result of a conspiracy to decrease the populations of [[Black people|blacks]], [[Hispanics]], and [[homosexuals]].<ref name="Carroll">{{cite book |last=Carroll |first=Robert Todd |title=The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions |year=2003 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |___location=Hoboken, New Jersey |isbn=9781118045633 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6FPqDFx40vYC |author-link=Robert Todd Carroll |access-date=17 January 2013 |page=175 |chapter=Illuminati |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6FPqDFx40vYC&pg=PA175}}</ref>

==Prevalence of conspiracy beliefs==

*[[Jakob Segal]], a biology professor at Humboldt University in the former East Germany, proposes that HIV was engineered at a US military laboratory in [[Fort Detrick]], Maryland by splicing together two other viruses, [[Visna]] and [[HTLV-1]]. According to his theory, the new virus, created between 1977 and 1978, was tested on prison inmates who had volunteered for the experiment in exchange for early release. It was through these prisoners that the virus was spread to the population at large, starting with the gay community. Segal was accused of being a Soviet [[disinformation]] agent by KGB defector Vasili [Mitrokhin].

According to Phil Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles, conspiracy theories are becoming a barrier to the prevention of AIDS since people start to believe that no matter what measures they take, they can still be prone to contracting this disease. A 2005 study suggests this makes them less careful when engaging in practices that put them at risk because they believe there is no point.<ref name=Fears2005>{{cite news |last1=Fears |first1=Darryl |title=Study: Many Blacks Cite AIDS Conspiracy |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33695-2005Jan24.html |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=12 June 2017 |date=25 January 2005}}</ref> "Nearly half of the 500 African Americans surveyed said that HIV is man-made. More than one-quarter said they believed that AIDS was produced in a government laboratory, and 12 percent believed it was created and spread by the CIA&nbsp;... At the same time, 75 percent said they believed medical and public health agencies are working to stop the spread of AIDS in black communities."<ref name=Fears2005 />

==Prominent endorsers of discredited theories==

*Nobel laureate [[Wangari Maathai]] reportedly believes that the biological agent causing AIDS is not natural [http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/article/0,13005,901041018-713166,00.html].

=== Nation of Islam ===

Some critics claim that the US Government has an established history of performing experiments on its own citizens without their knowledge or consent. These critics argue that the [[Tuskegee syphilis study|Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male]] and [[MKULTRA]] demonstrate a willingness and capability to mount a large scale, covert biowarfare campaign. Conspiracy theorists of this persuasion sometimes attempt to bolster their cases for one conspiracy theory by appeals to other conspiracy theories, such as [[chemtrails]].

The [[Nation of Islam]] endorses the view that governments and pharmaceutical companies have pursued genocidal racist policies including the creation and spread of HIV. Consequently, the group called for a boycott of U.S.-sponsored vaccination programs for children. Leonard Horowitz has been cited as influential in the boycott decision.<ref>Knight, Peter, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=2y0domliGh8C&q=Leonard%20Horowitz&pg=PA201 Conspiracy Culture: From the Kennedy Assassination to the X-files]'', p. 202 {{isbn|9780415189781}}</ref>

=== Wangari Maathai ===

Whether the conspiracy theories are valid or not, the [[military-industrial complex]] has an interest in the development of [[biological warfare|biological weapons]] that can target genetically similar groups of people. From the September [[2000]] white paper ''Rebuilding America's Defenses'', published by the [[Project for the New American Century]], comes the statement: ''"[...]advanced forms of biological warfare that can "target" specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool."''

The 2004 [[Nobel Peace Prize]] laureate and environmental activist [[Wangari Maathai]] was asked by a [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] interviewer if she stood by a previous alleged claim that "AIDS is a biological weapon manufactured by the developed world to wipe out the black race". Maathai responded, "I have no idea who created AIDS and whether it is a biological agent or not. But I do know things like that don't come from the moon.&nbsp;... I guess there is some truth that must not be too exposed."<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Faris, Stephan |title=10 Questions: Wangari Maathai |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=10 October 2004 |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,713166,00.html |access-date=2007-03-19}}</ref> Maathai subsequently issued a written statement in December 2004: "I neither say nor believe that the virus was developed by white people or white powers in order to destroy the African people. Such views are wicked and destructive."<ref>[http://greenbeltmovement.org/wangari-maathai/key-speeches-and-articles/challenge-of-AIDS from the Green Belt Movement website- Wangari Maathai's "The Challenge of AIDS in Africa"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006082858/http://greenbeltmovement.org/a.php?id=30 |date=6 October 2011 }}.</ref>

=== Manto Tshabalala-Msimang ===

There have been conspiracy theories about earlier epidemics, such as blaming Jews or some [[monarch]]al orders for the [[Black Death]].

In 2000 [[Minister of Health (South Africa)|South Africa's Minister of Health]] [[Manto Tshabalala-Msimang]] received criticism for distributing the chapter from Cooper's book discussing this theory to senior South African government officials.<ref name="BBC News">{{cite news |title=SA Government steps into Aids row |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/924927.stm |access-date=17 January 2013 |publisher=BBC News |date=14 September 2000}}</ref> [[Nicoli Nattrass]], a longtime critic of AIDS denialists, criticized Tshabalala-Msimang for lending legitimacy to Cooper's theories and disseminating them in Africa.<ref name=Nattrass>{{cite book |last=Nattrass |first=Nicoli |title=The AIDS Conspiracy: Science Fights Back |year=2012 |publisher=Columbia University Press |___location=New York |isbn=9780231149129 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/aidsconspiracysc0000natt/page/4 4], 23–27 |url=https://archive.org/details/aidsconspiracysc0000natt |url-access=registration |author-link=Nicoli Nattrass |access-date=17 January 2013}}</ref>

==See also==

{{AIDS}}

* [[Category:History of HIV/AIDS]]

** [[Timeline of HIV/AIDS]]

* [[HIV/AIDS denialism]]

* [[HIV/AIDS denialism in South Africa]]

* [[Operation INFEKTION]]

* [[Oral polio vaccine AIDS hypothesis]]

* [[SV40]]

* [[Zoonosis]]

==References==

{{reflist}}

==External links==

* {{cite web |url=https://www.straightdope.com/21342103/is-aids-a-manmade-disease |title=Is AIDS a manmade disease? |author=Cecil Adams |date=4 June 1993}}

* [http://www.avert.org/childrapesafrica.htm HIV/AIDS and child rape in South Africa]

* [http://www.deepblacklies.co.uk/pentagon_aids.htm Did The Pentagon Manufacture AIDS As A Biological Weapon?, by David Guyatt]

[[Category:{{Conspiracy theories]]}}

* [http://mindgallery.com/hiddenroom/biowarfare.html AIDS: Biowarfare Experiment Out Of Control?, by Sean MacKenzie]

* [http://www.sonic.net/~doretk/ArchiveARCHIVE/Aids/Aids.html The AIDS Conspiracy]

{{HIV and AIDS}}

* [http://www.boydgraves.com/ Dr. Boyd E. Graves]

* [http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/aids_origin.htm True Origin of AIDS]

[[Category:AIDS origin hypotheses]]

* [http://www.conceptual.net.au/~jackc/ebola-aids.htm The Kissinger and Rockefeller links to the CIA and the origins of AIDS and Ebola, by Leonard G. Horowitz]

[[Category:Biological warfare]]

* [http://www.marantech.com The company that supplies the product Imusil]

[[Category:Health-related conspiracy theories]]

* [http://www.positivehealth.com/permit/Articles/Antioxidant/jack21.htm General Properties of Olive Leaf Extracts and its antiviral properties]

[[Category:HIV/AIDS denialism]]

* [http://educate-yourself.org/ct/ Some basic information on chemtrails and protection]

[[Category:Conspiracy theories]]

[[Category:HIV/AIDS]]