2023-05-11 09:30:00
From the disinformation operations of the KGB to the false remedies promoted on the internet, and through the censorship of the Vatican, the history of AIDS is marked by conspiracy theories, revived by the covid epidemic.
From the disinformation operations of the KGB to the false remedies promoted on the internet, and through the censorship of the Vatican, the history of AIDS is marked by conspiracy theories, revived by the covid epidemic.
In a video broadcast in mid-April, in the midst of the Sidaction campaign -an important French public event-, and viewed thousands of times before being deleted on YouTube, an Internet user claims to be telling “the truth” about the like and assures that it is “a false pandemic” invented to sell “fake treatments”.
The revisionist theories know “an upsurge since the covid epidemic”asegura to AFP the director of Sidaction, Florence Thune.
Although in the last 40 years questions about the existence of the HIV virus “have always been there”, they were reactivated by “social networks” and the pandemic.
The French association Sida Info Service shares the same observation. “We have calls from people who wonder about the origins of the virus or believe that the therapies are intended to make money for the laboratories,” explains the medical coordinator Radia Djebbar.
“The fascinating thing about conspiracy theories is that they don’t evolve, they just spread,” says Professor Seth Kalichman, a specialist in social psychology at the US University of Connecticut.
“Disinformation is like frozen and does not adapt to scientific advances,” he adds.
Because misinformation about AIDS is as old as the disease itself.
Already in 1983, at the height of the cold war, the KGB organized the “Infektion” operation, aimed at making people believe that AIDS was developed in a secret laboratory in the United States, a rumor spread throughout the world for almost ten years.
Science is not given time
The Spanish flu or more recently the H1N1 epidemic were also accompanied by misinformation, recalls the sociologist Arnaud Mercier. “It is always the same scenario. In the face of the unknown, certainties must be found, and science is not given time,” he details.
This explains why these theories are very similar to those that circulated during the covid.
“With each deadly epidemic, the idea arises that it is convenient for someone, and each one sees the enemy in it. In the case of AIDS, it is said that rich countries want to eradicate the poor, or that laboratories seek to make money “, Mercier details.
Hard hit by the virus, Africa has also been at the forefront of disinformation on the issue, and at the highest level. The authorities claimed that AIDS was not related to HIV but to poverty.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki delayed access to antiretroviral treatment for his fellow citizens for years.
Misinformers also promote fake remedies, which they claim are far more effective than Big Pharma’s “killer” drugs, according to their well-crafted rhetoric.
The naturopath Irene Grosjean assures that AIDS can be cured with seeds, vegetables and fruits. Among the promoters of “miracle cures”, the same Luc Montagnier, co-discoverer of HIV, claimed that fermented papaya juice could cure HIV-positive people.
In the case of AIDS, the sexual dimension of the transmission of the virus reinforced stigma and misinformation.
“Let’s not forget that the disease was called ‘gay cancer’ for years,” recalls Mercier.
In a context of homophobia and repression of certain sexual practices, Catholic bodies contributed to spreading a dangerous message, such as Pope Benedict XVI, who stated in 2009 that the distribution of condoms aggravated the AIDS problem.
Today, 40 years after the discovery of HIV, “the main problem is the lack of knowledge about the virus, especially among young people,” says Djebbar.
“Some believe they took a risk by kissing a colleague, while others believe they are immune because they are heterosexual,” he laments.
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