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the Mayor of San Francisco Urging Willie Brown to Question Popular AIDS Beliefs |
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Compiled By GayToday
The activists presented what they considered compelling evidence that AIDS is not an epidemic, that it is not caused by a virus, that antibody testing cannot reliably predict illness or impending death, and that toxic drugs like AZT and protease inhibitors harm and kill those designated HIV antibody positive. Mayor Brown listened intently as Christine Maggiore, Executive Director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Health Education AIDS Liaison, along with David Pasquarelli and Michael Bellefountaine, from ACT UP San Francisco, outlined point-by-point their opposition to the theory that AIDS is an epidemic caused by a virus. The historic half-hour meeting began with Maggiore, former AIDS educator for AIDS Project Los Angeles, speaking about her experiences as a woman who has endured several HIV-positive, negative then indeterminate test results.
Maggiore called attention to the February 6th trial of parents in Eugene, Oregon charged with negligence and, ironically, intent to harm for refusing to give the toxic drug AZT to their HIV-negative infant son. The mother of the boy happened to test HIV-positive in a routine screening while his father and sister remain HIV-negative. "This isn't public health policy," Maggiore warned, "this is madness." Next, Michael Bellefountaine provided moving personal testimony of losing a lover to AZT poisoning and argued that AIDS simply doesn't qualify as an epidemic. Bellefountaine informed Brown that according to the November 1997 article in the Journal of AIDS and Human Retrovirology entitled Projected Incidence of AIDS in San Francisco: The Peak and Decline of the Epidemic new HIV infections inexplicably peaked at 7,600 in 1982, years before the initiation of any comprehensive safe sex campaigns. According to the article's author, San Francisco Public Health Director Mitch Katz, also present at this meeting, "...our analysis shows that San Francisco would have experienced a significant decline in AIDS cases due to the decrease in HIV seroconversions even if combination antiretroviral therapy had not been developed." Last, Pasquarelli presented Brown with two large graphs entitled "AIDS in Perspective" -- the first of which illustrated the extraordinarily small number of cumulative AIDS deaths (390,000) from 1981 to 1997 when compared to fatalities from heart disease (16,150,000) and cancer (8,500,000) during the same period. The second graph showed a comparatively minute number of total AIDS diagnoses (633,000) from 1981 to 1997 when compared to truly contagious cases of sexually transmitted diseases like chlamydia (68,000,000), gonorrhea (13,600,000), and herpes (6,000,000). Activists ended the meeting by demanding a voice for those who reject HIV treatment in health department literature and on government bodies that make decisions about AIDS funding. They also called for an immediate public hearing on the controversy surrounding the cause, identification and treatment of AIDS. |
Mayor Willie Brown 
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