5 Things I've noticed about... AIDS Denialism

AIDS Denialism.

Despite all the we know about HIV and AIDS from the many years of research into it in hopes of one day finding a cure for it, there are still people out there who do not believe that HIV causes AIDS, or that it even exists.

There are a lot of things I have noticed about AIDS Denialism (and none of them are are positive, pun not intended) but I have narrowed it down to five different things.

So here are five things I've noticed about AIDS Denialism:

5. It's a very dangerous and deadly form of Pseudoscience/Alternative medicine.

Of all the different types of pseudoscience and alternative medicine out there, AIDS denialism is one of the most deadly types of pseudoscience and alternative medicine there is.

HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is a very deadly disease, and if left untreated it can kill someone within a few years of being infected (this does vary from person to person), and will kill 100% of the time.

AIDS denialists deny that AIDS even exists, or that at least HIV doesn't cause AIDS, and encourage people not to take any medication after they've been diagnosed with HIV.

This is why AIDS denialism is considered to be so deadly. Because they are denying that HIV is dangerous, and that AIDS doesn't even exist, AIDS denialists are basically encouraging those who have been infected to shorten their lives.

In fact many people consider AIDS denialism to be the second most dangerous form of alternative medicine and pseudoscience there is. Only the anti-vaccination movement is considered to be more dangerous, and that's only because a lot of the diseases that vaccines are meant to prevent are a lot easier to get than HIV (although many of the diseases that are prevented via vaccines are usually not as deadly as HIV is).

4. It denies over three decades worth of research into HIV.

We know a lot about HIV and AIDS. We know how it's transmitted from one person to another. We know how easy it is to prevent getting it. We know the average life expectancy of a person after they have contracted HIV, and we have known all of this for almost 30 years now.

Also, through the decades of scientific and medical research, we have developed medicines that can drastically extend the life expectancy of a person who has HIV by years, even decades, and even reduce the chance of a pregnant woman with HIV transmitting the virus to her unborn child to almost 0%. There are people who are alive today who were diagnosed with HIV back in the 1990's who wouldn't be alive today without all of this research (which has gone into the billions of dollars worth).

AIDS denialist just look at all of the research and all that we know about HIV and AIDS and says nope, it's all fake...

3. It's self destructive.

It shouldn't be surprising to to many people but many AIDS denialists have also been diagnosed with HIV, and also not surprising many of them have died as a result of complications due to AIDS. A recent example of this would be former professional boxer Tommy Morrison, whom's death was clearly a result of complications due to AIDS (although AIDS denialists will say otherwise).

Another example of AIDS denialists self destructiveness would be the magazine Continuum, which was run by AIDS denialists who had also all been diagnosed with HIV. The magazine shutdown in early 2001 due to all of the magazine's editors dying of AIDS...

To put it to a point, if you have HIV, but don't believe it's going to kill you, you're sentencing yourself to an early grave. And not only is it self destructive, also...

2. It encourages dangerous behavior.

Besides just being self destructive and outright deadly, AIDS denialism also encourages dangerous behavior as well, either indirectly, or directly.

AIDS denialism indirectly encourages dangerous behavior by making it seem okay for a person whom has HIV to continue to engage in whatever lifestyle that they were engaged in that caused them to contract HIV in the first place. Or they may feel that it is okay to continue to have unprotected sex because if they believe that HIV isn't deadly then there isn't any reason for them in their minds to use protection, or even tell a sex partner that they have HIV.

AIDS denialism also directly encourages dangerous behavior by making it appear that because HIV is allegedly not deadly that people don't need to take any drugs that can hold HIV at bay, or even get tested for HIV if you believe you may have contracted it. Infact many AIDS denialists say that you shouldn't take any of the drugs that hold HIV at bay, and that the drugs are what make you sick, and that there is some kind of conspiracy by pharmaceutical companies to keep the "truth" about HIV hidden so that they can keep selling these drugs to people with HIV.

1. AIDS denialists use one small fact about HIV to try to back up there claims.

While everything that AIDS denialists claim have been completely discredited and debunked for years now, they do use one small fact about HIV that AIDS denialist do use that is actually true: HIV in itself is not a deadly disease and has never directly killed someone. What they tend to ignore is that HIV is an indirectly deadly disease because it destroys a person's immune system and causes other diseases which would normally not do anything to someone to kill that person.

This is somewhat similar to person dying in a car wreck. While the injuries they may have gotten from the car wreck is what ultimately killed them, the car wreak itself is what caused the injuries that killed that person. Same thing with HIV. While other diseases in a person that has HIV were the actual cause of a person's death, HIV is the cause of that person's immune system being destroyed which allowed those viruses to kill that person. This is why when someone dies in a car wreck, or dies as a result of HIV, it's not listed as cause of death being due to a car wreck or HIV, but instead it is listed as being whatever injury or disease as being the directed cause of what killed that person.

Just because HIV isn't listed as a direct cause of death doesn't mean that it isn't the cause of someone's death.