Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-216) and index.
Contents
The conspiratorial move against HIV science and its consequences -- AIDS origin conspiracy theories in the United States and South Africa -- Who believes AIDS conspiracy theories and why leadership matters -- Science, politics, and credibility : David Gilbert fights AIDS conspiracy beliefs in US prisons -- Science, conspiracy theory, and the South African AIDS policy tragedy -- Hero scientists, cultropreneurs, living icons, and praise-singers : AIDS denialism as community -- Defending the imprimatur of science : Duesberg and the medical hypotheses saga -- The conspiratorial move and the struggle for evidence-based medicine.
Note
Print version record.
Summary
Millions of people across the globe erroneously believe America manufactured the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to be used as a biological weapon. Ironically, the idea grew from a real conspiracy theory hatched by Russian and East German intelligence officers in the mid-1980s, in the hopes of spreading misinformation about the disease. Yet while the cold war is over, the biological weapons myth continues to resonate on both sides of the Atlantic. Nicoli Nattrass explores the social and political factors prolonging this fiction, especially within African American and black South Africa.