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Title: The River : A Journey to the Source of HIV and AIDS by Edward Hooper, Bill Hamilton ISBN: 0-316-37261-7 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: September, 1999 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (39 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A word of caution
Comment: A wonderful book which clearly explains some intriguing, if unproven, theories. As much a cautionary tale as a scientific work.
In reference to the Clinical Infectious Diseases article (2001;32:1068-1084), it should be noted that the author of this article was one of the scientists possibly implicated by this book.
Hooper experienced many roadblocks during his research for the book and many of them were placed before him by eminent scientists who preferred not to get involved in a book which might harm the reputation of their profession by suggesting that it may have been responsible (accidentally or otherwise) for disastrous wrongdoing during the development of the OPV.
In the article, the author acknowledges the assistance and input from many of his colleagues in the scientific profession. Personally, I believe this is further proof that the medical/scientific community are more than happy to work together to protect the reputation of their profession but are less inclined to involve themselves in a project aiming to reveal the truth, no matter how horrifying and sinister that truth may turn out to be.
Rating: 3
Summary: Well written and extrememly convincing, but . . .
Comment: While this book was well written and very convincing, it has since been proven wrong.
Modern experimental evidence conducted and obtained since the book was published (and because it was published) has all but debunked Hooper's theory.
For those interested, I suggest going to a medical or collge library and reading the following paper for a good review of the scientific data:
"CHAT oral polio vaccine was not the source of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 group M for humans."
Clinical Infectious Diseases 2001;32:1068-1084
Hooper's work is an excellent example of how, if one is not careful, one can interpret data to mean anything one wants it to.
Rating: 5
Summary: Compelling and frightening
Comment: Is it possible that an experimental vaccine against polio gave HIV to the world and resulted in the death of millions of people (and millions more yet to come)?
Edward Hooper argues this theoretical possibility and backs it up with exhaustive research, years of travelling around the world interviewing the chief protagonists, other scientists and eyewitnesses and provides a compelling (if circumstantial) case that this may, indeed, have been how HIV was visited upon the human race.
The sciences of virology, molecular biology and genetics are broken down into bite-sized pieces so that the untrained reader is able to follow the theory to its logical conclusion.
However, the greatest value in this book is that it gives a frightening picture of what goes on behind the scenes in science labs everywhere and in the minds leading scientists at times when there is a race to find a cure for some human disease - the competitiveness which sees scientists fudging the reporting of experimental methods and results in order not to give too much away to their opponents and of leaping forwards too fast and often unethically, to be the first to "come up with the goods".
There are many lessons to be learned in this book, the most pertinent of which is that we haven't learned from our mistakes of the past - xenotransplantation involving tissues and whole organs from other animal species are still being used experimentally in humans, and the potential is there to perhaps unleash something even more frightening than HIV onto the human race in the future.
Also, the closing of scientific ranks behind the scientists involved (especially the use of the law to stifle debate) is an unwelcome development. If the theory is impossible or highly unlikely, then prove it scientifically - from what I have seen and read, many spurious arguments are being used to counter this theory and all of them fail to hold up under close scrutiny.
We may never know for sure the origins of HIV, but all theories need to be debated rationally and examined in critical detail. I suspect that after this, the OPV theory will be the one that holds up the best.
Highly recommended.
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Title: And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts, William Greider ISBN: 0312241356 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 09 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Shots in the Dark: The Wayward Search for an AIDS Vaccine by Jon Cohen ISBN: 0393322254 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: December, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: History of AIDS by Mirko D. Grmek ISBN: 0691024774 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 June, 1993 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett ISBN: 0140250913 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Big Shot: Passion, Politics, and the Struggle for an AIDS Vaccine by Patricia Thomas ISBN: 1891620886 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: 18 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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