The AIDS conspiracy [[electronic resource] ] : science fights back / / Nicoli Nattrass

• Autore: Nattrass Nicoli
• Pubblicazione: New York, : Columbia University Press, 2012
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (239 p.)
• Disciplina: 362.196/9792
• Soggetto topico: HIV infections - South Africa; HIV infections - United States; AIDS (Disease) - South Africa; AIDS (Disease) - United States; Medical policy - South Africa; Medical policy - United States; Public opinion - South Africa; Public opinion - United States; Conspiracy theories
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: 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.
• Sommario/riassunto: Since the early days of the AIDS epidemic, many bizarre and dangerous hypotheses have been advanced to explain the origins of the disease. In this compelling book, Nicoli Nattrass explores the social and political factors prolonging the erroneous belief that the American government manufactured the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to be used as a biological weapon, as well as the myth's consequences for behavior, especially within African American and black South African communities.Contemporary AIDS denialism, the belief that HIV is harmless and that antiretroviral drugs are the true cause of AIDS, is a more insidious AIDS conspiracy theory. Advocates of this position make a "conspiratorial move" against HIV science by implying its methods cannot be trusted and that untested, alternative therapies are safer than antiretrovirals. These claims are genuinely life-threatening, as tragically demonstrated in South Africa when the delay of antiretroviral treatment resulted in nearly 333,000 AIDS deaths and 180,000 HIV infections-a tragedy of stunning proportions.Nattrass identifies four symbolically powerful figures ensuring the lifespan of AIDS denialism: the hero scientist (dissident scientists who lend credibility to the movement); the cultropreneur (alternative therapists who exploit the conspiratorial move as a marketing mechanism); the living icon (individuals who claim to be living proof of AIDS denialism's legitimacy); and the praise-singer (journalists who broadcast movement messages to the public). Nattrass also describes how pro-science activists have fought back by deploying empirical evidence and political credibility to resist AIDS conspiracy theories, which is part of the crucial project to defend evidence-based medicine.
• Titolo autorizzato: The AIDS conspiracy
• ISBN: 1-281-95892-1; 9786613793089; 0-231-52025-5
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9910815077003321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II