Sundance Channel airs: The Origins Of Aids

[mzmolly]

http://www.sundancefilm.com/docday/index.php?ixContent=7439

Startling in its thesis, compelling in its argument and chilling in its measured presentation, this award-winning documentary by Peter Chappell and Catherine Peix delves into the possible origins of AIDS in the jungles of Zaire (formerly the Belgian Congo). Investigating a theory detailed in journalist Edward Hooper's controversial book The River, THE ORIGINS OF AIDS looks into the possibility that the deadliest disease known to mankind came as a result of a risky, mass inoculation of an experimental polio vaccine during the late 1950s. TVPG

This documentary explores a controversial theory. Sundance Channel presents this documentary as a theory, not as a factual account.


Schedual is as follows: I believe this is Pacific time? The schedual changes daily so I would check to be sure there isn't a change.


Monday 02.07.2005
09:00PM - 7:00PM Central Time.

Tuesday 02.08.2005
05:00PM

Saturday 02.12.2005
11:30AM

Monday 02.14.2005
01:00PM

Sunday 02.20.2005
02:30PM

[progressiveBadger]

1. Have I mentioned how much I love the Sundance channel? n/t

[mzmolly]

2. It's an amazing station. This month is full of great documentary's

:hi:

[progressiveBadger]

3. At least once a month I go through and set my Tivo

to record everything that looks interesting. Love it.

[pmbryant]

4. Lots of contrary articles linked to on the Sundance website

I hadn't been aware of this debate.

Here's one contrary article from Reuters last spring:

New Evidence: HIV Not Linked to Polio Vaccine

Reuters NewMedia - April 21, 2004
Patricia Reaney

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists reported new research Wednesday which they say is further proof that the AIDS pandemic was not sparked by polio vaccines used in Africa in the 1950s that were contaminated with a chimpanzee virus.

The controversial theory on the origins of AIDS has been dismissed by many medical experts who say there is no scientific evidence to support it.

But doubts about vaccine safety have persisted and have been blamed for hampering World Health Organization efforts to stamp out polio in countries where it is still a problem.

A team of researchers led by Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona have discovered a new strain of chimpanzee virus near Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that is very different from HIV and which, they say, is further evidence that the animals could not have been the source of human AIDS.

"The locally circulating strain (of the chimpanzee virus) is very distantly related to HIV. It is not a virus that could have been the progenitor and therefore HIV did not come from that region," Worobey said in a telephone interview.

(snip)

Three states in northern Nigeria have suspended a polio immunization program because of fears its could contain HIV and cause infertility. The WHO launched an initiative to eradicate polio in 1988 but people in Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Afghanistan, Niger and Somalia still suffer from the illness.

[mzmolly]

5. I'd watch the film as it goes into some of the "evidence" against this

case and gives both sides a voice.

Also, check this website from the author of the book in question:

http://www.aidsorigins.com/

The scientific battle over this issue is far from over as you can see:

http://www.aidsorigins.com/badscience/bm7b.shtml

"Conclusion:

The latest historical evidence (especially about local vaccine preparation in Stanleyville) is revelatory, and demonstrates beyond reasonable doubt that live polio vaccines prepared in chimpanzee tissue cultures (at least some of which were almost certainly contaminated with chimpanzee SIV) were administered to up to one million African "volunteers" in the 1957-1960 period. The specific populations where the vaccine was given were the first in the world to experience HIV-1 infections and AIDS some five to twenty years later.

This latest scientific evidence is also strongly supportive of the OPV theory. Significantly, it is now apparent that every one of the alleged "disproofs" of the OPV theory, which were so loudly trumpeted at the Royal Society meeting and in the pages of Nature and Science, is either false or inherently flawed.

This raises questions about the integrity and motivation of some of the scientists who have so eagerly announced such claims. One of these questions has to be: are senior members of the scientific establishment engaged in a deliberate cover-up in order to protect the good name of vaccination (as well as certain professional and financial vested interests)?

If so, let them be reassured on one score, at least. The safety of vaccination per se is not in question here, for there is little doubt that vaccination has saved more lives than any other public health measure ever introduced.

It is the safety of one particular polio vaccine (the African version of CHAT) which is being questioned, together with the activities (both in the fifties and more recently) of the scientists who prepared and tested it.

Edward Hooper. Original article completed: February 29th, 2004. This updated version completed: January 27th, 2005."

Additionally, it's amazing how few people are aware of the controversy surrounding this issue and others like it.

The domentary is well worth watching if only to entertain the possibilities ...

[pmbryant]

6. Not a good sign

Anyone alleging a "deliberate cover-up" by the "scientific establishment" automatically knocks themselves down four or five notches of credibility in my book.

Alas, I can't watch the film as I don't have access to cable TV.

--Peter

[mzmolly]

7. Well, you did say that you never heard of the controversy.

Smacks of coverup to me. ;)

Here is the quote you take issue with:

This raises questions about the integrity and motivation of some of the scientists who have so eagerly announced such claims. One of these questions has to be: are senior members of the scientific establishment engaged in a deliberate cover-up in order to protect the good name of vaccination (as well as certain professional and financial vested interests)?

Scientists are merely human beings.

It's too bad you can't watch though because it's very interesting.

[pmbryant]

8. This entails a world-wide conspiracy

Scientists are human beings, yes. And if the only ones involved worked at an organization whose financial well-being was dependent upon covering this information up (e.g., the company or organization that made the vaccine in question), then this might be a plausible theory .

But the "scientific establishment", especially in a field as large as AIDS research, is world-wide. Tons of scientists in this field have no vested interest in this whatsoever.

A deliberate cover-up is simply not a credible assertion. Nothing is even being covered up, as this fellow's theory is apparently quite well-known amongst people familiar with the field. (It's been addressed in the most prominent scientific publications around.)

--Peter

[mzmolly]

9. I don't think "cover up" is as much about suppression as it is denial?

Do check out the documentary somehow if you can, I don't think you'll regret it regardless of any conclusion you might draw in the end.

[pmbryant]

10. I'll have to wait for the DVD

Yes, it does look interesting. Hopefully I'll be able to rent it someday soon. Thanks for posting about it.

--Peter

[mzmolly]

11. Your welcome.

Thanks for being open minded and interested.

:hi:

[Up2Late]

12. I recently heard that it might have been developed by the CIA

and may or may NOT have been released on purpose, in Africa.:smoke: