The Infectious Myth

Episode 52: Je ne suis pas Charlie Hebdou - 03.24.15

In Episode 52 of “The Infectious Myth” David talks about freedom of speech. “Je ne suis pas Charlie Hebdou” (I am not Charlie Hebdou) but that doesn’t mean that he is in favor of terrorism either. Freedom of speech is a complicated issue, and despite all the rhetoric that followed the horrible massacre in January, the liberal west is not as open about freedom of speech as we’d like to think. We routinely censor hateful discussions against Jews and Blacks, because we saw where that led. But attacking muslims, who are a reviled minority with little power in most western countries, is fair game.

 

David also points out that suppression of speech extends to medical issues, particularly the HIV=AIDS dogma and vaccination. He ends with the discussion of the Dalhousie Dental students, who have been raked over the coals for vile sexist commentary on a private facebook group, commentary that nobody defended as freedom of speech, even though it occurred at about the same time as Charlie Hebdou.

 

But the good thing is that the university handled the situation, not by strict punishments, to make an example of the men, but by a process of restorative justice. Which, David believes, is how we should deal with each other rather than always trying to divide the world into good and evil.

Professor Garth Nicolson - 03.17.15

Dr. Garth Nicolson, a highly credentialed and published medical scientist, became interested in what is now known as Gulf War Syndrome after his daughter came from serving in the US military in this 1991 war in Iraq with mysterious symptoms. Dr. Nicolson believes that perhaps 250,000 US military members suffered from this syndrome, which include chronic fatigue, digestive problems, neurologic problems, skin disorders and breathing difficulties. At first the US military denied that there was a problem, but eventually it became widely accepted.

Dr. Nicolson believes that some of the reasons for this syndrome were chemical exposures, radiation exposures (particularly to depleted uranium which is both chemically and radioactively toxic) and exposure to about 30 different vaccines given over a few days, something that he believes overwhelmed the immune system.

He believes that one of the common denominators is mitochondrial damage, something that we’ve heard about in other disorders, with a variety of causes. His institute, The Institute for Molecular Medicine, has researched the area of lipid supplements for a variety of chronic diseases. 

You can find out more about Dr. Nicolson’s research and lipid replacement therapy at http://immed.org. His research has used custom lipids from Nutritional Therapeutics http://ntfactor.com/#&panel1-1, although there are other sources of similar lipids.

Healthy with HIV without AIDS Drugs - 03.10.15

In episode 50 of “The Infectious Myth”, David Crowe talks about long-term non-progressors, people who have lived with a positive HIV diagnosis, for many years, without taking drugs, or with taking them only for a short time. As well as people who stopped the drugs after several years, and whose health never completely recovered.

 

The episode includes two interviews that were recorded for a recent AIDS special co-hosted by David and Gary Null. The first interview is with a man David calls Peter. He was diagnosed in a major American city in 1986, along with many other hemophiliacs. He was unusual in that his mother refused to give him AZT when first offered in 1987, and when he came of age, he continued this refusal. And he’s happy today. But mad as hell, because he feel his life has been taken from him. What if people knew he was HIV-positive? Would he be shunned, or worse? His voice has been disguised.

 

Following this interview David gives some scientific information indicating that hemophiliacs were being diagnosed with HIV and with low CD4 cell counts from the immunosuppressive effects of lower-purity clotting factor, something that disappeared with higher purity factor, not with the elimination of HIV from the blood supply, although that took credit.

 

The second interview is with German Film Maker Anne Sono who documented the lives of 6 women who were all, at the time of filming, HIV-positive and healthy. This didn’t last, unfortunately. Tragedy dogs HIV+ people. One of them couldn’t get treatment for non-AIDS conditions without going on AIDS drugs. One was murdered under mysterious circumstances. One had a healthy child without HIV, and then had a child taken from her. One of them was savagely attacked by the judicial system.

 

David ends with some information on the drug AZT, which was given to all HIV positive people in the 1980s and to most in the 1990s, but that is forced on HIV-positive pregnant women and their children. This is one of the big, but little known, tragedies of the HIV era.

Patricia Goodson on the Frontier of AIDS Dissent - 03.03.15

In September 2014 the journal “Frontiers in Public Health” published an article, “Questioning the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis: 30 Years of Dissent,” and a firestorm erupted. The very same day that the article came out, the author, Professor Patricia Goodson of Texas A&M University, was contacted by a vigorous defender of the HIV=AIDS dogma, and the journal launched an investigation.

The purpose of the attack on the article was to erase it entirely, but this time the attack failed. Professor Goodson stood firm, did not panic, and let the investigation run its course. Eventually a token victory was handed to the defenders of the dogma, Goodson’s article was downgraded from a research article to “Opinion”, and Seth Kalichman, a psychology professor who represents the defenders of the faith, was given the right to publish an article which turned out to be an attack on the personalities of major AIDS rethinkers, avoiding any discussion of the scientific issues.

Goodson’s article remained on the website, has received a huge amount of attention, over 18,000 views to date, and, following the investigation, it was published on the US National Library of Medicine’s PubMed database, which makes the article available to an even larger audience.

Seth Kalichman is an interesting character, having previously invented the name “Joseph Newton” in order to infiltrate the dissident movement. Except that the dissident movement is open, so no infiltration is necessary. It’s like wearing a stocking mask and camouflage to go grocery shopping. On the web page for Goodson’s article (which is freely available for download), a man with the strange name “Mika Thane” has been commenting, effusive in his praise for Seth Kalichman’s position and therefore very critical of Goodson. The strange thing is, that the letters in the name “Mika Thane” come entirely from the name “Seth Kalichman”, the probability of which is only about 48 out of a million. Could it be that Professor Kalichman is using another fake name to help boost his own credibility by agreeing with himself?

This interview with Goodson covers the reasons she got involved in the issue, why she wrote this article, and her feelings and experiences during the investigation by the journal, as well as discussions of the role of Seth Kalichman. David was joined in the interview by Elizabeth Ely, his co-host on the “How Positive Are You?” podcast.

Positive Hell Round Table - 02.24.15

David sat down in London, England with five dissenters from the HIV=AIDS orthodoxy just after the screening of Joan Shenton’s new documentary, “Positive Hell”, and the launch of the second edition of her book, “Positively False”. The documentary is about a group of former heroin addicts who discovered, almost 30 years ago, that they were HIV-positive. The group is led by a doctor, a former alcoholic, who is also HIV-positive. All of them have either never taken AIDS drugs or only taken them for a short time. But despite this they have gone on with normal lives, all in good health, except one who died after 27 years, after struggling with the consequences of years of drug abuse and cigarette smoking.

Apart from Joan Shenton, the discussion involves Michael Baumgartner, who was a chaplain at the San Francisco General Hospital in the early days of AIDS, and who remembers being shocked by the number of HIV-negative gay men with the symptoms of “AIDS”, who were often treated for HIV despite a negative HIV test. Claus Köhnlein is an internal medicine specialist from Kiel, Germany, who has treated many HIV-positive people since the 1980s using AIDS drugs only sparingly, if at all. Christian Fiala is a gynecologist from Austria. Finally, Celia Farber is a journalist from New York City.

The discussion includes stories of healthy, HIV-positive people, flaws in the science of the HIV=AIDS dogma, and even the recent dogmatic attacks on people who question vaccination, even a little bit, that is so reminiscent of the war on critics of the HIV=AIDS dogma.

Terry Wahls MD's Nutritional Recovery from MS - 02.10.15

Terry Wahls is another example of a miraculous recovery after rejecting standard medical advice. But, in this case it was a mainstream MD who had this experience. Terry Wahls tells David about her descent into Multiple Sclerosis (MS) over a period of years, until she got to the point where she could no longer work, and spent most of her time in a wheelchair. She had found that a so-called “paleo” diet (heavy on meats, including fat, and vegetables, with few carbohydrates) had stopped her symptoms from worsening, but was not helping her improve. She used her still functioning mind to design her diet more scientifically, and then within a few months she was walking without assistance, and within a year rode a bicycle 30 kilometers.

 

Terry was anxious to share her personal discovery and, in doing so, discovered that it worked for many modern diseases, that are created or exacerbated by the modern low fat, high carbohydrate diet. This eventually led to her book, “The Wahls Protocol” and also dietary research on MS and other diseases.

 

This is a fascinating discussion that will probably lead many listeners to read her book or recommend it to others. You can find more at http://terrywahls.com, including how to read a sample or obtain a copy of her book, watch videos,  and donate to her research projects. 

Helen Caldicott on Fukushima and other Tragedies of Nuclear Energy - 02.03.15

In Episode 46 David interviews Helen Caldicott, a physician who has fought against nuclear power and nuclear weapons for decades. She has led movements against nuclear testing and nuclear power, has written books, and has spoken all over the world. In this episode David and Helen talk mainly about nuclear power, and particularly about the problem of nuclear waste, about so-called environmentalists who see nuclear power as a solution to global warming, and about solutions to the energy crisis through alternatives. Helen discusses a report that she commissioned indicating that a full transition to alternative energy is feasible.

 

Helen is participating in a Symposium, “The Dynamics of Possible Nuclear Extinction” from February 28-March 1, 2015 at The New York Academy of Medicine. You can get more information about how to purchase tickets at  http://helencaldicottfoundation.org  Her other website is http://www.helencaldicott.com

Episode 45: Wayne Rohde and the US 'Vaccine Court' - 01.20.15

David speaks with Wayne Rohde about “The Vaccine Court”, the title of his 2014 book, and the common name for the pseudo-legal tribunal of the US National Vaccine Injury Program. The Vaccine Court began in October 1988 as a way to transfer responsibility for compensation to the US government, away from pharmaceutical companies. This followed massive compensation award to victims of the DPT vaccine, and also the mid-1970s Swine Flu vaccination program. The Vaccine Court is funded by a small fee attached to each vaccine sold.

Wayne describes many of the problems with the Vaccine Court, including a cap on compensation, the lack of publicity (even though it’s mandated by legislation) and the relatively short time period after vaccination during which a petition can be made. Perhaps the major problem is the gradual removal of conditions from the list of side effects associated with each vaccine, which forces people, often parents, into a more legalistic process, involving lawyers and high costs. 

Over the years compensation has become more and more difficult to obtain. This leaves parents, in particular, forced to try to manage the 24-hour care for seriously injured children on their own, worrying about the future of their child when they pass on. Wayne Rohde speaks personally about this, being the father of a vaccine-injured son, who is now 17 years old. They realized that the problem was vaccine induced too late to get compensation, so the costs of daily assistance with their son is borne completely by them.

Lisa Bloomquist on Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics - 01.13.15

Lisa Bloomquist is someone who believes she was injured by fluoroquinolone antibiotics, of which the most famous one is Cipro. She struggled to recognize the strange but serious symptoms this formerly very active woman had. She reached out to others having similar problems, and she did a lot of scientific research as well. One she started to reclaim her health she began collating the stories of many other people, and trying to raise awareness of the problems these antibiotics can cause.

 

Lisa believes that there are poorly studied interactions between the medications and other drugs. Because the drug is so tightly bound by the body, the side effects can occur quite some time after the antibiotics are taken.

 

Lisa and David talk about what the fluoroquinolone antibiotics are, why they were designed, how they work, what side effects there are, and why she chose to focus on her own health rather than suing the drug company (hint: it probably wouldn’t have been possible anyway).

 

For more information please see the websites http://fqwallofpain.com, http://floxiehope.com and http://saferpills.org

Jim West on Ultrasound and West Nile Virus - 01.06.14

Jim West is a New York based activist who has critically studied a number of medical issues, including environmental causes for Polio and West Nile Virus. More recently, for a book he is writing, he has investigated whether ultrasound is safe and effective, and has concluded that there is evidence that neither are true, the 5 MHz vibrations, far outside the range of normal sounds, are associated with neurological deficits, such as autism. It is also unnecessary for most women, as problems can be diagnosed in other ways, and he believes it should be reserved for times when it is the only diagnostic tool available. David and Jim also talk about the 1999 West Nile Virus epidemic in North America, which he associated with the use of MTBE a gasoline “oxygenator” which, at that time, constituted up to 15% of the fuel purchased, depending on the time of the year. The disease hit birds near highways, and already sick old people, at a time of the year when the temperature made air quality worst.

 

For more information consult Jim’s website: http://harvoa.org