When the world first learned of AIDS, there was a lot of justifiable confusion over what could cause such a confusing array of symptoms. But, over time, the confusion slowly subsided. A virus, HIV, was found that infected the right cells and spread in the right ways to explain the progression of the disease. Public health measures that targeted it slowed its spread, and drugs designed to target the virus helped extend the lives of those infected. By now, the Nobel Prizes have been awarded and the evidence that HIV causes AIDS is so comprehensive, it's treated as a fact.
But not by everyone. As attention first focused on HIV, a handful of scientists very publicly raised questions about whether the scientific evidence was as solid as others thought. And, years later, at least one's still at it: Berkeley molecular biologist Peter Duesberg. Last month, after his latest effort to see his arguments published ended up in a retraction and the firing of an editor-in-chief, Duesberg managed to get it published in the Italian Journal of Anatomy and Embryology.
It's a rather dramatic path to publication for a paper. But anyone familiar with Duesberg's sometimes flamboyant contrarian nature wouldn't be surprised.
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