What if everything you thought you knew about AIDS was wrong?
A concise and convincing case that AIDS is nothing like what we have been told. Using simple, straightforward language, this book deconstructs popular myths about AIDS and fortifies its scientific data with powerful accounts from HIV positives who, like author Christine Maggiore, defy the HIV=AIDS=Death paradigm by living in wellness without pharmaceutical treatments and without fear of AIDS. This is vital information for anyone who has tested HIV positive an… More >>
What if everything you thought you knew about AIDS was wrong?
Topic: aids, aids death, Christine Maggiore, hiv, hiv aids, hiv positives, myths about aids, pharmaceutical treatments
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
Rating: 3 / 5
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.
Rating: 1 / 5
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.
Rating: 2 / 5
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.
(…)
Rating: 1 / 5
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.
Rating: 1 / 5