AUGUST 20, 1993

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 5

'In obliterating one disease, another was transformed'

Continued from Page 1

those receiving unscreened blood product transfusions. According to World Health Organization statistics, 75 percent of the total AIDS cases worldwide are of heterosexual people yet in America and Europe, only six percent of the cases are linked only to heterosexual sex.

In fact, there are other examples of striking evidence that suggest the AIDS epidemic can be traced to its very origin-if anyone is interested in knowing the truth. Whether or not the smallpox vaccination theory is a large or small part of that truth, another question arises. Why have so few of our so-called experts been curious? Over the last decade, we've endured the avalanche of hundreds of books and thousands of articles about AIDS-and almost none have addressed seriously, or even mentioned, the basic question of origin. That includes the work of some gay authors who are now selling movie rights to books that don't tell us anything we don't already know.

Unfortunately, he did it on the condition of anonymity, and that made it easier for those who wanted the story shut down to accomplish it. No doubt, the advisor was worried about his future in the conservative health and medical research fields. Yet, like some unnamed sources in stories like the Watergate scandal, at least he offered more than silence.

"I thought it was just a coincidence until we studied the latest findings about the reactions which can be caused by Vaccinia," the advisor told the Times of London. "Now I believe the smallpox vaccine theory is the explanation to the explosion of AIDS."

The article also reported the case of a nineteen-year-old American soldier, apparently heterosexual and in good health, who was given a number of immunizations, followed by his first smallpox vaccination. Three

United Press International, and Reuters in New York, and AP in Washington," Rappoport wrote. "No one heard of this story. Finally, New York AP said they had gotten a dispatch on it from their London desk, but only, apparently, forwarded it to Boston. Bill Ahern, AP's managing editor in New York asked me, 'Why do you think it's a big story?” “

Too stunned to answer a question that revealed both ignorance and non-interest, Rappoport kept investigating until he found his answer. "Then Paul Rayburn, at AP's science desk in New York, told me the reason they hadn't forwarded the story [all over the U.S.] was that they checked

back

THE TIMES

er will

The truth matters, and that includes the truth about the origin of AIDS. Considering the toll of this worldwide epidemic, it matters far more than some recent big lies-for example, the Parks Department undercount of the April 25 Gay Rights March on Washington-despite the contradicting reports of the DC Convention and Visitors Association and the Transit Authority. Or the lie about gays amounting to one percent of the

ection

today

expected

population even though the publishers t meeting tute, New York and San Francisco) now lay. The alone and, as she did after

of that recent survey (Guttmacher Instidealer

admit that the Battelle Corporation researchers deliberately avoided gay urban centers, and their figures are an undercount of gay people not to mention bisexuals. Too late: right-wing homophobes will use such undercounts until their own judgment day. Silence reigns about the origin of AIDS simply because the most plausible theory ever advanced was nipped in the bud and covered up before a half-asleep print media knew what happened. In short, within twenty-four hours of the shocking Times of London story, top World Health Organization officials convinced the Associated Press to kill the story. And by its own admission, AP did kill it, as of May 12, 1987 (reported in the New York Native, June 29, 1987). On May 15, the World Health Organization's ruling body in Geneva, the World Health Assembly, unanimously adopted a short resolution that stated that AIDS was "caused by one or more naturally occurring retroviruses of undetermined geographical origin" (reported in the Los Angeles Times, August 9, 1987).

Yet, look at the facts reported in the story that was squelched. Between 1967 and 1980, the World Health Organization, a branch of the United Nations, administered millions of vaccinations in Central Africa and Brazil. Some 14,000 Haitians on United Nations deployment in Central Africa also received the vaccinations-and many returned home when Haiti was a popular vacation spot for American gay men.

According to the Times of London article, "The smallpox vaccine theory would account for the position of each of the seven Central African states that top the league table of most-affected countries; why Brazil became the most affected Latin American country; and how Haiti became the route for the spread of AIDS to the U.S. "It also provides an explanation of how the infection was spread more evenly between males and females in Africa than in the West, and why there is less sign of infection among fiveto eleven-year-olds in Central Africa." That last reference is to children who were born after the vaccination program ended in their area—but before the AIDS outbreak began.

Crucial to the very appearance of the Times of London piece was the testimony of an advisor to the World Health Organization who came forth with his conclusion.

MONDAY MAY 11 1987

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weeks

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talized with many symptoms of AIDS, and died after a short time. The Walter Reed Army Hospital medical team which handled the case, led by Dr. Robert Redfield, published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine in April, 1987, recommending against modified use of the smallpox vaccine to fight other Third World diseases.

Science Editor Pearce Wright wrote, "Other doctors who accept the connection between the anti-smallpox campaign and the AIDS epidemic now see answers to questions which had baffled them. How, for instance, the AIDS organism [HIV], previously regarded by scientists as 'weak, slow and vulnerable,' began to behave like a type capable of creating a plague."

In the same article, Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute commented, "The link between the World Health Organization program and the epidemic in Africa is an interesting and important hypothesis. I cannot say that it actually happened, but I have been saying for years that the use of live vaccines such as that used for smallpox can activate dormant infection such as HIV." And, in fact, it could result in a new, virulent form of retrovirus which could be spread in a secondary wave of infection, as has happened in the United States and Europe.

As a former reporter for Gannett, this reporter doesn't believe a worldwide newspaper conspiracy of silence is possible. But it is not hard to show how this story was shut down.

Except for fires and natural disasters and accidents, broadcast media gets its stories from the newspapers. And newspapers depend heavily on wire services. How the smallpox vaccine story was shut down was explained by Jon Rappoport in his article "AIDS Blackout" in the June 29, 1987 New York Native. "I phoned the Associated Press,

25p

Smallpox vaccine 'triggered Aids virus'

By Pearce Wright, Science Edber The Audy epidemic may have bore triggered by the mase vaccination campaign which orde cord smallpos.

The World Health Organization, which

masterminded the 13-year sting thes

ing new scientific evidence

considered the domain of medical experts.

Upon contacting the Times of London, this reporter found that the new science editor, Nigel Hawkes, did not want to defend the story because he was not with the paper in 1987, and because since that time there has been no corroboration. Yet it is hard to corroborate a story which no one seems willing to discuss. In fact, the mainstream media has asked absolutely no questions after the World Health Organization's May 15, 1987, flashcard pronouncement that AIDS was "caused by one or more naturally occurring retroviruses of undetermined geographical origin."

But while the Western media covered its eyes, ears and mouth in May of that year, the Chinese news agency, Xinhua, picked up at least part of the story on May 12. it quoted more damage control statements by Dr. Jonathan Mann: "In Asia, where millions of smallpox vaccinations were given from 1962 to 1972, AIDS remains rare. The United States is experiencing a major AIDS epidemic, yet smallpox was eradicated there many years ago." Today AIDS is rampant in Asia, and while the media assumes prostitution is the mode of transmission, that has not been the case in the West. The second part of Dr. Mann's statement was totally disingenuous. Surely he was well aware of the obvi-

immunization with the smallpos vacine Varrinie awakened the unsuspected, dormant heman immune defence virus infection AVI Some experts fear thas in obliterating one dricase, another disease was transformed from & minur endemic illness of the Third World Into the current pandemic. While doctors now accept that l'accinia ena activate other viruses, they are divided about whether it was the main catalyst to the Aide epidemic. But an adviser to WHO who disclosed the problem, told The Times: "I thought it was Just a concidence until we studied the latest findings about the reactions which can be cause by l'acting. Now I believe the smallpos vacrine theory is the caplanation to the explosion of Arda

6 in obliterating one disease, another was transformed 9 Further evidence comes from the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington. While smallpos vaccine is no longer kept for public health purposes, new recruns to the American armed services are immunized as a

with

London first: AP London then sought a confirmation from, of all people, Jonathan Mann, the World Health Organization's own public relations man on AIDS.

"Mann," said Rayburn, "remarked that the Times of London article 'was unproven, speculative, and could cause confusion.' On that basis, the most powerful news agency in the world killed the story. They consulted with the spokesperson for WHO, the agency linked with triggering AIDS, and killed the story."

When this reporter contacted the Associated Press office in New York over a year ago, a spokesperson, Wendell Wood Collins, replied, "According to our London bureau, the Times story relied on an unidentified person at the World Health Organization." In other words, that fact, the anonymous nature of the source-although the World Health Organization never questioned the existence of their own advisor-was enough to make the AP retreat from a story they

ous, secondary, modes of transmission in the United States. To say that the U.S. epidemic was not caused by vaccination is a straw man argument, and does not refute the question about the origin of AIDS. While the smallpox vaccine theory has been silenced in the mainstream press over the last six years, the alternative media has kept it alive. In America, this includes the L.A. Weekly; New York Native; Playboy

"News Forum"; Screw; Amsterdam News; Tony Brown's Journal; and a piece by myself in QW magazine. In his January 8, 1990 column entitled "WHO Cares?" in Screw, longtime gay activist Jack Nichols noted that former World Health Organization director Haldan Mahler did admit in late 1986 that his people were late in mobilizing against the epidemic. "The smallpox vaccine theory offers the most likely explanation yet for the worldwide distribution of the virus," Nichols wrote. And he added, "What is the World Health Organization anyway? Is it a religion, to be followed blindly, to be shielded from critics?"

The World Health Organization, representing 182 member nations, maintains its headquarters in Geneva and has influence far outweighing its 1.8 billion dollar annual budget. As reported in New York Newsday (February 16, 1993), the organization is currently beset by executive squabbles and spending priority disputes, as well as the runaway AIDS crisis and a number of Third

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