REPLIES TO AIDS DEBATE: THE PERTH GROUP VS HOWARD URNOVITZ

I have read Howard Urnovitz's recent reply to the Perth Group, and I was very disappointed with him. Why does he need to be so insulting and defensive toward the Perth Group? If he has something to say, to add to their critique of the mainstream AIDS industry, why can't he do so respectfully?

I have been rethinking AIDS for about three years, and I just want Urnovitz to know that it DOES matter whether "HIV" is exogenous or cellular. This is not an impertinent question. It matters to all of us who are trying to decide whether or not to live in fear of "catching" what has been marketed to us as a harmful virus from without. Should we be terrified of sex and intimacy? Or should we be looking within, to how we treat our own bodies, to how we blindly trust the pushers of both recreational and pharmaceutical drugs?

I know that we should be looking within, but people won't look within unless they're convinced that they have to. And the only way they're going to be convinced of that is if the marketers and advertisers for contagious "HIV" stop distracting them from the necessity for doing so.

Jo Hagstorm
HEAL San Diego
http://www.healsd.org

Dr. Howard Urnovitz has made important arguments for the existence of exogenous, stealth lentiviruses, and should be given credit for his evolving position on HIV and the importance of regulatory genes in the etiology of AIDS. No proven human example exists in the exogenous retrovirus category, according to The Perth Group, and it is tempting to simply tidy up the HIV mess by equating HIV to an endogenous provirus. Even though they should be applauded for their contributions to the understanding, such as it is, of retroviruses, premature rejection of the modified HIV hypothesis of Dr Urnovitz is not warranted. Another researcher, John Martin (Center for Complex Infectious Diseases) has concluded: "Cellular genes can apparently be incorporated into stealth virus genomes, presumably during viral replication. The particular chemokine-coding cellular gene identified within the prototype simian cytomegalovirus (SCMV)-derived stealth virus was probably assimilated as a partially processed RNA molecule since it lacks the normal introns present in cellular DNA. This implies that stealth virus DNA replication is proceeding through RNA intermediates, and that it may, therefore, be dependent on reverse transcriptase, as could be provided by an assimilated endogenous retrovirus." (1) Transmission of such a herpes virus would obviously include the assimilated, now "exogenous" retrovirus. Recent advances in understanding RNA virus recombination demonstrate the plasticity of individuals and families and does not exclude, e.g. retrovirus to togavirus and vice-versa transformations. Perhaps a new slogan: rethinking RNA viruses, is called for.

The Mbeki panel could have included expertise which spans regulatory genomics and evolution such as John McDonald, who identified a retrotransposon superfamily in nematode worms. He published the genotype of one such retrotransposon, indistinguishable from "complex infectious retroviruses" as it included env and accessory genes. This "genomics approach" is the "effort to identify factors that have shaped the evolution of this important component of contemporary genomes" and identify the "biological importance of retroelements . . .(as) major causes of mutation and disease . . . (and) significant factors in genome evolution".(2) Other researchers on the evolution of retroviruses have stated, "Only a scheme whereby exogenous retroviruses exist as short-lived bursts upon a backdrop of germline-encoded endogenous viruses is consistent with the sequence data. Retroviruses are related to many other reverse-transcriptase bearing entities present in the genomes of eukaryotes." (3)

Most importantly, proven holistic remedies should be given their due and recognized as progress, especially by those scientists pursuing treatments within the paradigm of pharmaceutical medicine. The Perth Group’s oxidative stress model has contributed to the known successful reversals of AIDS and led to novel thinking. Dr Urnovitz should acknowledge heavyweights on the Mbeki panel such as Dr. Heinrich Kremer and the complementary aspects of both models: oxidant stessors and genomic responses, in the etiology of chronic immunodeficiencies. Dr. Kremer is published on the web (www.virusmyth.net); his papers on the molecular immunological consequences of oxidant stress and hypercortisolism have contributed to the development of phytonutrients and herbal remedies for the treatment of AIDS.

Both parties in this dialogue should be applauded for their deconstructions of HIV = DEATH, a social construct specifically designed to convince people of their helplessness without experts, make them forget the innate healing possessed by the human body and impede the utilization of alternative, holistic treatments that reverse life threatening AIDS conditions.

Let us not forget: suppression of progress in AIDS research is primarily the result of propaganda produced by scientists in government and their accomplices in media who abuse their positions of authority. Dissidents should maintain the pluralistic ideal: free pursuit of different research interests and tolerance in dialogues.

REFERENCES

1. Martin J, stealth viruses, Explore, 10, 17-19
(2001) (www.ccid.org/stealth/stealthviruses.htm)

2. Bowen NJ and McDonald JF, genomic analysis of
Caenorhabditis Elegans reveals ancient families of
retrovirus-like elements, Genome Research, 9, 924-935
(1999)

3. Doolittle RF, Feng DF, Johnson MS, McClure MA,
origin and evolutionary relationships of retroviruses,
Quarterly Review of Biology, 64(1), 1-30 (1989)
 

Gene Semon