Most people read the more than 3.000 pages of emails from and to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in the context of the Wuhan lab hypothesis of SARS-CoV2.
However, in an email from February 5, 2020, Dr. Robert L. Knobler, MD, PhD, informs Dr. Fauci that he, Dr. Knobler, has some “novel ideas how HIV becomes AIDS”, cf. ibid
“For another time, I also have some novel ideas on how HIV becomes AIDS, as well.”
Novel ideas on how HIV becomes AIDS are needed indeed, as this is the state of research. The experts do not know how HIV causes AIDS, as can be read among others in the following publications, cf.
- Coffin, Swanstrom, “HIV Pathogenesis: Dynamics and Genetics of Viral Populations and Infected Cells”, Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2013 Jan; 3(1), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3530041/
“HOW DOES HIV-1 CAUSE AIDS? As is apparent from this article and the rest of the collection, in the 25+ years since its discovery, we have learned an enormous amount about HIV, but we still cannot answer the one big question: How does HIV-1 cause AIDS?”
“Even if we knew the mechanism of HIV-mediated cell killing, we would not know how HIV-1 causes CD4+ T-cell decline and AIDS in humans. The observation that virus and cell turnover rates in various SIVs in their natural hosts (such as SIVsm in sooty mangabeys), which do not progress to AIDS, are essentially identical to those in humans, who do progress, implies that cell killing alone cannot account for AIDS pathogenesis. Indeed, this result is consistent with the high natural turnover rate of activated effector memory helper T cells, the primary target for HIV-1 infection, on the order of 1010 cells per day, of which only a small fraction are infected after the initial primary infection phase.”
- Garg, Joshi, „Host and Viral Factors in HIV-Mediated Bystander Apoptosis.”, Viruses. 2017 Aug 22;9(8), 237, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5579491/
“With a limited number of infected cells and vastly disproportionate apoptosis in HIV infected patients, it is believed that apoptosis of uninfected bystander cells plays a significant role in this process.”
“The number of HIV infected cells in patients is relatively low and cannot solely account for the loss of CD4 cells in vivo. Hence, it is believed that the loss of CD4 cells during HIV infection is due to the process of bystander apoptosis induction.”“Apoptosis mediated by HIV infections is more complex than previously thought. A role of both host and viral factors in this phenomenon is becoming increasingly evident.”
Dr. Knobler wrote to Dr. Fauci already on February 4, 2020 (pages 3047 and following). But that email apparently did not go through. However, the email from, February 5 got through and was answered by Dr. Fauci on February 6 by addressing the topic to Cristina Cassetti, with the request to get in contact with Dr. Knobler to discuss research opportunities.
This is the state of the HIV=AIDS pandemic since 1984, a discussion of research opportunities. On the other hand there are almost no results.
When did the media ever report on the open question, how does HIV cause AIDS? This question is open since 37 years, i.e. since 1984 and the press conference of Heckler and Gallo.
- Margaret Heckler & Robert Gallo – Press Conference, April 23, 1984, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6zd3gdDKG8
The best answer to someone saying “HIV causes AIDS” is, until this day, “How?”.
This is an important question as nobody knows if the tissue damages in people treated with highly toxic substances for HIV are caused by a virus or the lifelong therapy, cf.
- Hart et al. “Inflammation-Related Morbidity and Mortality Among HIV-Positive Adults: How Extensive Is It?”, J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2018 Jan 1;77(1):1-7, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5720921/
“A shift from AIDS-related causes of morbidity and mortality to non-AIDS causes such as non-AIDS malignancy, liver cirrhosis, end stage renal disease and serious cardiovascular events occurred in HIV patients nearly one decade ago due to use of potent antiretroviral therapy.”
“Consistent with two other reports which included participants with lower CD4+ counts, we show that grade 4 events are a major source of morbidity among participants with HIV [26, 27]. Among the participants in our cohort, all of whom had CD4+ counts ≥ 300 cells/mm3 at study entry, the rate of grade 4 events was 3 to 6 times higher than AIDS, CVD (expanded to include less serious events and CVD events that did not meet ERC criteria) or non-AIDS cancer considered separately and was higher than the rate for these three outcomes considered as a single composite outcome.”
“Everyone in our investigation was taking suppressive ART. Thus, we can only speculate whether the grade 4 events are due to underlying HIV disease or to ART.”
See also,
• The Guardian, „Growing old with HIV: ‘I’m in my 30th year of sickness. For the last 23, I’ve thought about death almost every day’“, 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/society/video/2014/aug/14/hiv-america-us-aging-video
We are in 2021 and Dr. Fauci does not know, how HIV causes AIDS, and he cannot distinguish between the damages of an assumed slow virus, supposed to damage the human immune system 15 – 20 years after an infection and after the virus was neutralized by antibodies, and damages by the lifelong medication. And this is since 37 years the doctor of America’s choice?
The Fauci papers appear as one long list of ass kissing for funding and fame, by scientists and by journalists. It is obvious that manyold friends of Dr. Fauci are trying to get a foot into the door of COVID-19 funding and reporting. And so they ping their old buddy Tony.
Why do the “HIV experts”, as we are talking exclusively about HIV and not AIDS, want to change their research focus? Does that imply that the state of research in the field of AIDS stays at it is? We don’t know how HIV causes AIDS, but we think it does?
Reading the emails from Michael Specter (New Yorker) and Marilynn Marchione (AP) it becomes clear that there is since more than 3 decades an unhealthy proximity between an important official of the US government and some of the journalists. Critical questions are not to be expected neither from Mr. Specter nor from Mrs. Marchione.
