The Unending Human Tragedy—and Scientific Scandal—of HIV/AIDS. How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS by David France

Abstract

Scientific explorers are familiar with and perpetually frustrated by the refusal of organized science to look at the tangible evidence for the occurrence of apparently psychic phenomena, the well attested reports of unidentified, apparently flying objects, the range of evidence that supposedly extinct or unidentified animal species are present in various parts of the world, and other such situations. The refusal even to glance at the evidence stems from an entrenched belief that the asserted phenomena must be spurious because “science” says so.

What few people have so far realized is that the same dysfunctional circumstance of refusing to look at evidence exists within the accepted subject matter of science itself: researchers who venture unorthodox interpretations, or who take seriously observations or experiments that seem to contradict established theory, are treated just as dismissively as are anomalists; indeed,  such maverick mainstream researchers may be treated even worse, being positively persecuted rather than simply ignored. One such case is that of the established theory that HIV causes AIDS.

Only recently did I come to know about the 2012 documentary film and 2016 book, “How to Survive a Plague” ¹. Book and film both garnered rave reviews. For example, “David France managed to simultaneously break my heart and rekindle my anger in just the first few pages of his breathtakingly important new book… Riveting.” ²