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The AIDS Conspiracy : Science Fights Back / Nicoli Nattrass.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : Columbia University Press, [2012]Copyright date: ©2012Description: 1 online resource (240 p.) : 8 line drawings, 3 tablesContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780231149136
  • 9780231520256
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 362.1969792 23
LOC classification:
  • RC606.6
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- 1. THE CONSPIRATORIAL MOVE AGAINST HIV SCIENCE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES -- 2. AIDS ORIGIN CONSPIRACY THEORIES IN THE UNITED STATES AND SOUTH AFRICA -- 3. WHO BELIEVES AIDS CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND WHY LEADERSHIP MATTERS -- 4. SCIENCE, POLITICS, AND CREDIBILITY -- 5. SCIENCE, CONSPIRACY THEORY, AND THE SOUTH AFRICAN AIDS POLICY TRAGEDY -- 6. HERO SCIENTISTS, CULTROPRENEURS, LIVING ICONS, AND PRAISE-SINGERS -- 7. DEFENDING THE IMPRIMATUR OF SCIENCE -- 8. THE CONSPIRATORIAL MOVE AND THE STRUGGLE FOR EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- INDEX
Summary: 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.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780231520256

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- 1. THE CONSPIRATORIAL MOVE AGAINST HIV SCIENCE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES -- 2. AIDS ORIGIN CONSPIRACY THEORIES IN THE UNITED STATES AND SOUTH AFRICA -- 3. WHO BELIEVES AIDS CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND WHY LEADERSHIP MATTERS -- 4. SCIENCE, POLITICS, AND CREDIBILITY -- 5. SCIENCE, CONSPIRACY THEORY, AND THE SOUTH AFRICAN AIDS POLICY TRAGEDY -- 6. HERO SCIENTISTS, CULTROPRENEURS, LIVING ICONS, AND PRAISE-SINGERS -- 7. DEFENDING THE IMPRIMATUR OF SCIENCE -- 8. THE CONSPIRATORIAL MOVE AND THE STRUGGLE FOR EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- INDEX

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

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.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 02. Mrz 2022)