Denying AIDS

Traces the origins of AIDS dissidents' disclaimers during the earliest days of the epidemic and delves into the psychology and politics of the current denial movement in its various incarnations. Focuses not on the "difficult" or doubting patient, but on organized, widespread forms of denial (including the idea that HIV itself is a myth and HIV treatments are poison) and the junk science, faulty logic, conspiracy theories, and larger forces of homophobia and racism that fuel them. Among topics covered: why AIDS denialism endures, and why science must understand it; the role of pioneer virus researcher Peter Duesberg in AIDS denialism; flawed immunological, virological, and pharmacological pseudoscience studies that are central to texts of denialism ; the social conservative agenda and the politics of AIDS denial, from the courts to the White House ; the impact of HIV misinformation on public health in South Africa; and fighting fiction with reality: anti-denialism and the scientific community.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction, Mental Health. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.