Christian Radio Host's 'HIV was Man-made' Comment Sparks Controversy
Christian conservative radio host Bryan Fischer recently told his listeners that HIV is man-made and experts attacked his comments as irresponsible.
Fischer, who is Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association, recently featured author of "Inventing the AIDS Virus,” Peter Duesberg, on his "Focal Point" radio show.
"The reason HIV was invented as the cause of AIDS is it was a way to get research money," Fischer said.
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"If AIDS is caused by behavior ... there's no money in that because you just tell people, 'Hey, stop doing the behavior.' So that's why they have to find some bug that they can blame it on," he added.
The 61-year-old who once served as a pastor at the Cole Community Church in Boise, Idaho, has outraged AIDS organizations and experts, according to Mail Online.
Jonathan Ball, Professor of Molecular Virology at Nottingham University, said that Fischer’s claims were not scientifically possible.
"The arguments used by those who claim HIV doesn’t cause AIDS are flimsy to say the least when viewed against the contrary body of epidemiological, scientific and medical evidence available," Ball told Mail Online.
"If untreated, more than 95 per cent of people with HIV infection will develop AIDS within 10 years- fact," he added.
"It is important that we use the weight of scientific and medical evidence to quash misinformation and deceit. Without doubt, HIV infection causes AIDS- a wide impacting and tragic disease that causes immeasurable suffering worldwide," the professor urged.
According to the U.S. department of Health and Human Services Center for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers allege that HIV was first found in a subspecies of chimpanzees in West Africa.
The first known human case of HIV was found in the Congo in 1959, and researches believe that hunters who encountered infected blood were responsible for the virus first being transmitted to humans.
Sir Nick Partridge, Chief Executive of AIDS charity The Terrence Higgins Trust also condemned Fisher's remarks.
"You know this is nonsense. This is dangerous nonsense," Patridge warned.
Duesberg also raised a few eyebrows after alleging that 50 percent of AIDS patients are promiscuous homosexual men, and he also insinuated that they are heavy drug users.
"They have thousands of sexual contacts in a short time- and they can only accomplish that, like our Olympians break records now in the Olympics, by taking tons of drugs," Deusberg said on the radio program.
