Customer Reviews

What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?

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As a counselor who has given dozens of HIV tests to clients, I must share that much of the information in Christine Maggiore's book is simply false. Although the text is now several years old, and hopefully better information is available to all interested, I still fear that her message will do harm.
I welcome an open debate and discussion on medical topics, and I think it is important to remain skeptical of conventional medical wisdom. However, in the case of HIV, those suffering from the illness do not have the luxury of assuming that the establishment is entirely wrong. We do not fully understand how the virus works and how it affects people differently. But the science is highly accurate, and the research is there. I will not attempt to debunk all of her claims, rather I will just say that many are incorrect, including page 36 where she claims that "HIV is non-cytotoxic." In fact, HIV IS cytotoxic and destroys the host cell once it replicates itself. Medication for people with HIV is aimed at slowing this process.
Historically, these types of views are common. Almost every generation has included naysayers who denounced the commonly held view on a significant medical ailment. I am not trying to defend the medical community in any way, but I think it is important to remember that her work does not provide accurate information, and her theory is based on personal interest , not on scientific fact.

Being an MD, I would caution readers to be careful in forming some of the opinions posted in reviews. You might want to visit http://www.niaid.nih.gov/publications/hivaids/hivaids.htm for reference. I can say I personally am not influenced or swayed by drug companies or money, etc that was mentioned in a review. I also do not base a diagnosis on "prejudices". It's hard to not interpret a positive HIV screen, followed by a positive Western blot, along with a low CD-4 and high viral load as anything but what it is. As for the deaths only resulting from the medications in one review...why did all those AIDS patients die in early years BEFORE we had any treatments??? If no modern medical treatments are needed, why do these patients bother going to the doctor when all else fails? One last piece of advice....the 11th hour is not the time to suddenly find faith in the evil healthcare system and expect a miraculous outcome.

How dangerous is this book and the author? Her three year old daughter is now dead from Aids. Read about it in the L.A. Times 24 September 2005. All because the author's (and her husband's) anti-science ideas of HIV as espoused in this book.

Has their daughter's death changed their attitudes on HIV testing? No, the author wouldn't want to take any responsibility, so she set up a web cite dedicated to how much she "loves" (sorry, make that "loved") her daughter. However, she still claims that her daughter did not die of Aids!

I work as a child abuse/neglect specialist. The doctors involved (one of whom served three years criminal probation) are fully responsible. The Los Angeles child protective services are also responsible for failing to act correctly on an earlier medical neglect complaint (the parents' failure to test the child for Aids/HIV). Those of you who supported this author by buying her book of half-brained ideas and thereby also endangering other children are too responsible. But, most responsible for this little girl's death are the father and mother. For the glory of publicity and book sales, they sacrificed the child.

I want this book to be right. I want no one else ever to die of AIDS. I can see how anyone who is HIV positive would be greatly relieved by the postulates, and I don't want to upset anyone. I was an ER nurse up to the early 80's, and we were on the forefront of presentations of AIDS patients. I don't profess to know what causes AIDS, as the author does, nor can I swap reference citations. What I can do is assure you that her thesis that AIDS is simply a name applied to pre-existing disease is a very questionable one. Even at the level of "street level" ER nurses, we recognized that something was different; there was something new out there. I think that the book should be read, but carefully and with a very large grain of salt. My biggest fear is that years of educating high-risk groups, which I feel has helped, could be very easily undone by the implication that AIDS is really caused by those terrible drugs the terrible doctors give. The patients that we saw pre-dated those agents, and you may believe me or not, but those young men were incredibly ill and died with startling speed. They were often gone before much "toxic" anti-biotic could be given.

11/10/06 Addendum:

In a very sad turn of events, the author's three year old daughter died suddenly. The ME has ruled that she died of AIDS related pneumonia. Her pediatrician has been investigated for poor care in not testing her for HIV. Who knows what's right? Looks real bad for the author's theory

12/03/10 Addendum

Noted in review of these comments, the passing of the author. However much I disagreed with her (for the record, a lot), hopefully she died a quiet comfortable death. The notes I've read don't make it sound that way, but perhaps so.

I thought it was really interesting to note that there was no autopsy done by anyone. I'm really surprised that she would pass on such an obvious opportunity to prove just how wrong all of her critics were. My guess is that any number of third party prestigous institutions would have jumped at the chance, and provided some really useful information.

Interesting that this wasn't done.

This is a very dangerous book. Denying that the HIV virus causes AIDS is just a primitive escape mechanism, similar to that of a two year old holding their fingers in their ears chanting "I can't hear you, I can't hear you".

It's also sad to note that the authors own daughter, 3-year-old Eliza Jane Scovill is dead. The cause, according to a Sept. 15 report by the Los Angeles County coroner, was AIDS-related pneumonia.

"This was a preventable death," said Dr. James Oleske, a New Jersey physician who never examined Eliza Jane but has treated hundreds of HIV-positive children. "I can tell you without any doubt that, at the outset of her illness, if she was appropriately evaluated, she would have been appropriately treated. She would not have died.

She died because her mother refused to accept the possibility of her having aids, a disease she might well have not caught if her mother took the appropriative measures during pregnancy.

EDIT (10/12/05)

sloppy thinking? It always amazes me that people (as John above) can take such pseudo-scientific thinking as this book as anything less than a load of rubbish.

We must remember that Christine Maggiore, an influential HIV-positive activist believes that HIV doesn't cause AIDS, isn't infectious, shouldn't be treated with "toxic" anti-retroviral drugs like AZT and certainly needn't prevent HIV-positive mothers like herself from breastfeeding.

This is certainly dangerous thinking.

(...)

Finally a book that gives you the facts about "AIDS" and HIV. Even if you don't believe a word of what Christine presents in the book, you must admit that, it is very odd that, none of this information is being discussed on Primetime T.V., Radio and "News" papers.

Christine presents the truth and it might hurt and perhaps even anger some people, but nevertheless, it is still the truth as many people see and experience every day. Christine shows in her book that, HIV has never been proven to cause "AIDS" or any other disease, but the public is being told over and over again that it is. Christine lays the facts on the table with extensive research and documentation to back up her claims. When you read, you might feel a sense of betrayel by the medical industry and media. That is what I felt, first time reading this book. Christine tells it like it is. The statistics that "AIDS" is not the epidemic compared to other diseases and accidents. That "AIDS" is not a disease, but a diagnose of being tested positive for HIV antibodies and having one or more of 28 old illnesses. Christine shows that, contrary to popular belief, the HIV test is NOT for the virus, but for antibodies, which they claim are specific to HIV, but is not.

The only critisism I have of the book is, I wish Christine would have spent a little more time on explaing the early cases of "AIDS" and the correlation between drug use and "AIDS". Nevertheless, the book brings the pure facts to the public in lay terms and in only 64 pages, that there isnt any excuse not to read it.

Go out and get a copy, and learn from Christine that, "AIDS" is not a death sentence, but a wake up call from a degenative lifestyle caused by recreational, prescription drugs, poor nutrition, stress and other environmental contaminations.

It is hard to believe that the thousands or millions of "experts" who sustain the HIV=AIDS theory might be wrong. But that doesn't make it impossible. The fact is that today's "knowledge" about AIDS is built on a foundation of evidence that is itself highly questionable. Remove the underlying building blocks and the whole edifice crumbles.

If you are interested in critical, independent thinking, read this book.

Christine is not -- as some reviewers here seem to believe -- a lone, crazy voice. She does not claim to be a medical expert: what she does is painstakingly collect, and document, evidence from the many, many experts who challenge the opinion that HIV=AIDS, and the death sentence that usually implies.

Those who support her do not do so on the evidence of this one introductory book, but on the masses of evidence she has continued to collect and disseminate.

Unfortunately, the odds are not in her favor: a (relatively) few voluntary dissidents supported only by the meager income from their publications and private donations, pitted against the combined forces of the pharmaceutical lobby, government bodies, political forces, and established AIDS and other health and charity organizations (in a movie, of course, it would all be over in 90 minutes...).

The wider implications of what Christine has to say are deeply disturbing: disturbing for those of us who have lost a loved-one to "AIDS" as well as to the institutions that depend on it. No wonder many people's automatic reaction is to dismiss her as a lunatic.

She has taken on a herculean task, but is starting to be heard in the press and in AIDS circles throughout the world. President Mbeki was among the first to publicly resist the AIDS lobby and insist on at least listening to alternative views, and now there is increased dissent in India. (And no, President Mbeki is not simply trying to "save his money" and committing genocide by refusing to buy drugs for his people that the pharmaceutical companies are so generously offering cheap...)

This book is slight in size, but a good introduction to the dissidents' views. For more up-to-date information you should visit her website and join her mailing list.

I profoundly believe that some day Christine and the other AIDS dissidents will be vindicated. If ordinary people will only have the courage to listen to the debate and make up their own minds.

Uh-oh I think my post will attract criticism from both Aids/HIV denialists AND those who believe medication helps.

Here's where I'll start: I agree with the other posters who say we are all being duped by the pharmaceutical industry and that taking a lethal toxic combination of drugs does not guarantee you'll live longer. I know two people who were on AZT both died within 12 years. I know another person who was not on AZT and died within 10 years. What this tells me is that medications aren't that much more effective, and these people are definitely dying from something.

So this is where I part views with Aids denialists:

I believe Aids/HIV does exist. It's been proven. Millions of times. If like some people you believe that Aids was created in a lab - do you honestly think they would spend time and money creating something that doesn't do what it was desinged to do? Some of these Aids denialists are contradictory: On one hand some of them say that it was created by scientists in a laboratory to control the African and homosexual populations. In the same sentence they say it is all a big hoax. So which is it?? It can't be both! I know nobody - from what I can tell - has said that here, but thought I'd mention that because on a lot of the websites (and i've read them) where these deniers quote from, it contains that contradiction.

I just believe there are more holistic ways to treat it. Mainly through a very strict permanent diet, preferably with uncooked organic fruit and veg, herbal supplements to strengthen the immune system, and correct food combinations. i.e not combining proteins with carbs or acid-foods with starches, etc

Make no bones about it: both AIDS and HIV does exist. I've known three people as mentioned above who died from the disease.I don't think medications are always as effective despite what doctors (many of whom have been/are paid by pharmaceutical companies) say. However, I think anyone who has been diagnosed should definitely make sweeping changes to diet/lifestyle what they put on their hair and skin, and strentghen their immune system upon diagnosis. The message is simple: Even if you are not going to take drugs to treat the condition, at the very, very least you should seek alternative therapies - from holistic practitioners who also have a medical degree and are unconnected to pharmaceutical companies.

Those who are keen on pharmaceutical drugs, I won't attempt to convince you otherwise, accept to suggest that maybe you should try alternative therapies as well to enhance the effect of the medication after researching the subject

A good book to recommend: The Great White Hoax. The Suppressed Truth About the Pharmaceutic Industry by Robert E Catalano

There, that's my two pence worth. I await the onslaught

While reading this book I was immediately taken back by all of the misrepresentations of cited material. So I decided to highlight them and now I have a bright yellow book cover to cover and two less highlighters in my drawer.

The writer demonstrates a complete lack of scientific understanding. For starters, when research is performed, it must include all the data, not carefully select pieces. Scientists may enter into research with suspicion of outcome but are successful despite the outcome, as evidence established by scientific methods is the victory in and of itself. The writer's HIV+ status and decade's long insistence that HIV is benign creates profound bias fueled by conflicts of interest.

The writer cherry-picked pieces of data from the reference material to compile this pamphlet of fiction. She carefully extracted slivers of sympathetic information from large, carefully monitored studies to suggest something quite foregin to what they do state. As I read, I started to think she'd created her own study by borrowing snipets of data from different places to create a study that supports her beliefs.

Peer-reviewed studies that are published in reputable medical journals are reviewed to ensure painstaking efforts were taken to eliminate tester bias (double-blind testing, etc.) and whose data was carefully monitored. Grossly put, this book is an abortion of those studies.

If you buy this book, commit yourself to fact checking by reading the studies referenced. Better yet, pick from any one of a thousand excellent sci-fi novels instead.

I've been debating reading this book for a while now. I have read Duesburg's "Inventing the Aids Virus" and I found his case convincing. I also found the negative reviews of his book likewise interesting and informative. Mainly informative in the area of demonstrating the danger of mixing politics and science. The science half is always overshadowed by the politics - and money.

I enjoyed this book and regretted waiting so long to read it. She presents her case in a well thought out manner. I have read many scientific and medical papers that were nowhere near this concise and well presented.

This book did prompt me read further in medical literature about AIDS and HIV. I saw several negative reviews here that contend that Cristine doesn't know what she's talking about and that HIV is the "proven" cause of AIDS.

I went looking for that proof. I have been unable to find any published scientic or medical paper that demostrated or proved that HIV causes AIDS. There aee scads of papers showing a "link". Those links however are all circular: they define AIDS as disease X in the presence of HIV antibodies. Disease X w/o those antobodies is just plain old disease X.

I looked, there is not a single paper that demonstrates that HIV causes AIDS. No paper that describes the mechanism by which the HIV virus causes to 40 or diseases. If any of the folks here who contend that HIV is the proven cause of AIDS please write down the reference. I can't find it.

Oddly I stumbled upon a paper that un-links Kaposi's Sarcomi as being an AIDS disease! KC has been THE definitive AIDS disease since AIDS becaase widely known.

I don't think Christine or anyone else is denying that people are dying, but if we wish to save their lives we had better find out whats really killing them.

After 20 years and untold billions of dollars, the important questions still have not been answered. Not only that but the AIDS establishment won't even debate the reasons for their failure to save a single life of an AIDS patient. What are they afraid of? They could shut up Duesburg, Maggiore and Mullis with a single debate but the AIDS industry won't do it.

It seems the only ones who survive an HIV infection are the people who don't treat it. They live. The patients who take AZT die. The AIDS industry won't even discuss the issue.

Silence and censorship always makes me suspicous.

This is good book. Not a great one, but a good one. I liked the personal aspects of it. Iwish she would have presented a little more of the other side of the issue if only to give us readers a few more talking points on the subject.

Somewhere, sometime the truth will eventually escape. Truth always escapes sooner or later.