The Sickness of AIDS Denialists

Harper's, a historical and historically commendable magazine, has published in its March 2006 issue one of the more irresponsible and inaccurate articles in the modern recollection of mainstream media. For a magazine of its previous stature to publish the blatantly biased and poorly fact-checked article by AIDS Denialist Celia Farber entitled "Out of Control: AIDS and the corruption of medical science" is inexcusable and should have real consequences for its editors and publisher, not to mention the author. If you do read the piece, having this point-by-point guide to Farber's errors is quite helpful.

There is a wealth of scientific evidence on HIV as the causes of AIDS, the consequences of HIV/AIDS, and the beneficial effects of medicines for HIV (called antiretrovirals or ARVs.). The distrust of Big Pharma (collective name used by many for large, multinational pharmaceutical corporations) and other large, "establishment" organizations such as the government and academia, is not new, and unfortunately, not entirely unwarranted. But, paranoia and conspiracy theories must be distinguished from healthy skepticism and objective critique.

We are faced with the most devastating disease in history, and Denialists are delivering harm through self-deception, individualistic narcissism, and cynicism. I will not pretend to fully comprehend the psychology of these Denialists (though I think it may be helpful to try and understand them from a personality disorder perspective), but I believe their words and actions are sources of confusion and needless suffering, and, for some, believing in their disbelief can lead to an untimely, unecessary death. The sniping voices of the Denialists should not be given a larger audience through a magazine such as Harper's, and it is unfortunate and shameful that they were.