After reading about it at Dean's place, I went to the library and found 'Inventing the AIDS Virus', by Peter Duesberg. I'm about 150 pages in, and it's enlightening in some ways.
I admit, I do not like doctors as a general matter, and do not much trust them. There are exceptions. Dean made the comment that doctors are very, very smart people who want to help others. In most cases, I agree. That doesn't change the fact that all too many are arrogant, condescending jerks with God complexes. That would be tolerable, at least more so, if it weren't for a: the times they're wrong and refuse to acknowledge it/take responsibility, and b: the way so many act as if they know everything, and treat patients who question them like crap(and what medical school did YOU graduate from?)
What really bothers me is the way doctors and researchers so often pass on the Holy Writ from their Leader, and anyone who questions it is obviously either a fool or deluded. That's not the way science is supposed to work. It's a human failing, not wanting to hear/tolerate criticism or a flat statement that "this is wrong", but it's a failing that has no place in science. I can't remember who I read the statement from as a kid, some researcher said that a scientist has to be prepared to drop a theory as wrong at any time the facts show it to be so no matter how much time and work is invested in it. That impressed me greatly at the time, and still does. But it apparently doesn't happen enough. And there's no telling how much time and money, and how many lives, are lost because someone can't bear to change.
And how much misery is caused by it. A friend of my daughter was diagnosed a few months back with HPV, and basically told that because of it she had a good chance of developing cervical cancer down the road. Now that is enough to ruin your attitude at the least. But from what I'm reading there's actually no hard evidence that that is true; no proof that HPV causes this cancer. If so, then people are being scared bleepless for no good reason; instead of 'you have a problem that needs treatment' it is 'you have something that may kill you or sterilize you'.
It'll take a while to finish this book. And what I'm reading is not pleasant.
Side issue: a while back I was reading some stuff about BSE, 'Mad Cow Disease', at Tech Central Station. It was pointing out that there's little to no proof that BSE is transmittable to humans, and that there are big problems with blaming it on prions. But because that is what has been 'decided' is the culprit, little funding is available to study other possible causes. How much trouble and loss may be related to the decisions that 'we HAVE to act NOW' and 'this is what to study and think, don't bother us with other ideas'?
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