AIDS conspiracy theory
AIDS conspiracy theories suggest that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), was deliberately engineered by the government to eliminate nonwhite populations, particularly African Americans. During the 1980s and 1990s, media polls indicated that about one-third of African Americans subscribed to this belief, with many others uncertain about its validity. The roots of this suspicion are partially attributed to historical injustices, such as the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, where treatment was withheld from African American subjects for unethical research purposes.
Proponents of these theories have used various claims, including the alleged development of HIV as a biological warfare agent and the idea that it was tested on marginalized populations. However, health officials and researchers have dismissed these conspiracy theories, emphasizing that there is no scientific basis for them and that the technology to create such a virus did not exist at the time in question. Additionally, the misconceptions surrounding HIV can hinder public health efforts, as individuals who believe in these theories may be less likely to seek testing or treatment, undermining efforts to control the spread of the virus.
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AIDS conspiracy theory
Various media polls taken during the 1980s and 1990s showed that approximately one-third of African Americans believed in the AIDS conspiracy theory—that acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is caused by a virus intentionally engineered to eliminate nonwhite populations. Another third of those polled were not sure, and the remainder did not believe in a conspiracy. Stories of accidental or deliberate development of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and its dissemination among nonwhite populations have been dismissed by health officials and scientific researchers.
African Americans’ suspicions were fueled, in part, by public scrutiny of the Tuskegee experiment (1932–1972), in which treatment for syphilis was withheld from poor black men in order to study the natural consequences of the disease. A leading doctor for the Nation of Islam also promoted the idea that the US government invented HIV/AIDS to eliminate blacks. In 1997, a black American biochemist attempted to stop a polio vaccination campaign in Ghana by claiming that the polio vaccine and other drugs being shipped to Africa from the United States might contain the virus. He claimed the West wanted to wipe out black Africans in order to obtain the many rich resources found on the African continent. Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai also allegedly made statements supporting such theories, but later recanted.
AIDS conspiracy theorists cite as evidence the similarities between HIV and other viruses and testimony by a Pentagon official to Congress in 1969 requesting funding for development of a biological warfare agent to attack the human immune system. One version of the conspiracy theory is that a new virus was developed and tested on prisoners who participated in the experiment in exchange for early release. The researchers did not recognize the long incubation period for HIV infection and released the apparently healthy prisoners. Many went to New York City, where they later became ill. The former prisoners passed the virus to others through homosexual activity. Another version of this story is that the virus was deliberately released among the poor and disenfranchised as a form of genocide.
HIV is, in fact, quite similar to a number of viruses, including HTLV-1 (a leukemia virus) and SIV (a virus that infects monkeys). Genetic and HIV/AIDS researchers refute the conspiracy theory on a number of grounds. First, they say it was not technologically possible nor was it practical to engineer as complex a virus as HIV in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Second, given what is known about the sequence of genes in HIV, it is not possible to splice known viruses together to produce this sequence. Finally, the thrust of research into biological weapons in the 1970s was not on splicing viruses but on other techniques.
Public health officials are concerned that people who believe in the conspiracy theory are less likely to get tested for HIV or to take appropriate precautions to avoid exposure to others’ body fluids. Early identification of HIV carriers allows them to be started on medications that prolong the period before they develop symptoms of AIDS.
Bibliography
"Conspiracy Theories: The CIA and AIDS." Time. Time, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
Fears, Darryl. "Study: Many Blacks Cite AIDS Conspiracy." Washington Post. Washington Post, 25 Jan. 2005. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
Lapidos, Juliet. "The AIDS Conspiracy Handbook." Slate. Slate Group, 19 Mar. 2008. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
Mikkelson, Barbara. "The Origin of AIDS." Snopes.com. Urban Legends Reference Pages, 25 June 2013. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
"Origin of HIV & AIDS." AVERT. AVERT, 2014. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.