Oh my gawd, I just did a search on Nicholas Rugash, the loon talked about in this story. He has had many stories on ABC News! Here is his website URL. http://www.nicholasregush.com/ It's bad enough they have that bunko libertarian, John Stossel. Time to flood ABC News with e-mail! http://abcnews.go.com/service/help/abccontact.html
Michael Pugliese
----- Original Message ----- From: Sid Shniad <shniad at SFU.CA> To: <SOCIALIST-REGISTER at YORKU.CA> Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2000 2:56 PM Subject: WHEN JUNK SCIENCE TURNS LETHAL - The Globe and Mail
> The Globe and Mail Thursday, May 4, 2000
>
> WHEN JUNK SCIENCE TURNS LETHAL
>
> By Margaret Wente
>
> Dr. Mark Wainberg is taking a certain amount of flak these days for
> taking on the HIV deniers. The renowned Montreal researcher is
> president of the International Aids Society, and he thinks these people
> are deeply irresponsible. He wouldn't mind seeing a few of them
> silenced. "These people are doing harm," he told me. "Perhaps there
> might once have been good ground to dispute the linkage between HIV
> and AIDS. It's indisputable now."
>
> In North America, the HIV dissidents are a hardy group consisting of
> two or three scientists (whom no one funds), a small band of wishful
> thinkers, and a Canadian medical journalist named Nicholas Regush. Mr.
> Regush has a new book, The Virus Within, which claims that another
> virus, not HIV, is the probable cause of AIDS. He believes that
> treatment with AZT is useless, even toxic, and he encourages HIV
> victims to throw away their medicine. He also claims that the entire
> scientific establishment, which he brands "the New Gestapo," ruthlessly
> suppresses opposing views like his.
>
> Dr. Wainberg and other crusaders against the terrible AIDS scourge
> haven't wasted much breath on the dissidents until now. They've trusted
> in science, not rebuttal, to win the day. But now, the stakes are
> dramatically higher than ever before. The stakes are the lives of
millions,
> and the fate of nations, because the dissidents have found a believer
> where it matters most.
>
> The foremost critic of AIDS science in the world today is South Africa's
> president, Thabo Mbeki. Mr. Mbeki has asserted his government's right
> to resist "the superimposition of Western experience on African reality."
> He has personally consulted the American scientists who think the HIV
> link is a myth and the epidemic is overstated. He has stopped distributing
> AZT to pregnant women because he thinks it's toxic. The army has
> stopped using it, too.
>
> The president's supporters include influential African journalists as well
as
> the right-wing Boerestaat Party, which recently applauded his efforts to
> "investigate the biggest hoax of the century."
>
> Meantime, AIDS is poised to devastate South Africa, which has one of
> the highest infection rates in the world. More than 10 per cent of the
> population is infected with HIV, and 3.5 million of them will probably die
> in the next decade. They will include a disproportionate number of
> nurses, engineers, and other well-educated, highly productive people.
>
> Throughout subsaharan Africa, 23 million people are now infected. Not
> far behind: Southeast Asia, India, China, Latin America, the Caribbean.
> Those who compare AIDS to the Holocaust, in its scope and human
> devastation, are correct.
>
> Now let's return to Mr. Regush, a former medical reporter with the
> Montreal Gazette who portrays himself as a crusading investigative
> journalist. In fact, he has often made a living as a medical conspiracy
> theorist, yet reputable book publishers, national television broadcasters
> and leading newspapers have been quite happy to give him a platform.
>
> What is the quality of Mr. Regush's journalism? Well, in 1996, the
> CBC's the fifth estate ran a full-hour program he both proposed and
> produced. It was a medical exposé called, The Heart of the Matter. It
> insinuated that a certain heart medication was not only unsafe, but was
> killing thousands of patients, and that two Canadian doctors were
> hushing up the truth about this killer drug because they had ties to big
> drug companies.
>
> Both doctors took the CBC and Mr. Regush to court for libel, and both
> won. Last fall, Dr. Martin Myers was awarded $200,000. Two weeks
> ago, Dr. Frans Leenen was awarded $950,000 -- the highest damage
> award in Canadian media history. The judge in the Leenen case slammed
> Mr. Regush for his "slanted and reprehensible story line," docked him
> personally for $200,000 in aggravated and punitive damages, and wrote:
> "Parasitic sensationalists should not be allowed to prey upon society's
> obsession with scandal and to reap personal benefit from their
> irresponsible actions."
>
> Mr. Regush's career, however, is still flourishing, thanks to credulous
> news directors and publishers who don't know much about science but
> think controversy sells. He currently plies his anti-AZT theories on the
> website at ABC News, where he is also billed as a medical reporter.
>
> Mark Wainberg calls Mr. Regush's theories a cruel scientific hoax.
> "More seriously," he says, "his book may also endanger public health if it
> is taken seriously by its readers."
>
> Speech should still be free, no matter how foolish or odious. But not
> every subject has two sides worth airing. We no longer consider
> seriously the views of those who claim cigarettes are harmless, or the
> opinions of Ernst Zundel. And though there are many, many unanswered
> questions about AIDS, the link to HIV and the benefit of AZT are really
> not in doubt. Those who deny those facts are contributing to the death of
> thousands, maybe millions. They don't deserve a hearing. They deserve
> contempt.