MBEKI IN THE USA
MBEKI RECKONS SOME
MOVEMENT IN AIDS SCIENCE
IS TAKING PLACE
25th May 2000
By DAVE PASQERELLI
AidsMyth Dissident
News
On May 24, 2000, ten members of ACT UP San Francisco attended a ceremony
honoring South African President Thabo Mbeki and sponsored by The Commonwealth
Club of California and The World Affairs Council of Northern California. Everyone
involved with AIDS was there, from UCSF researchers to reporters like Bruce
Mirken and Tim Kingston.
The tension was palpable, fueled by a front page Chronicle story and editorial
as well as a commentary by Michael Wright praising Mbeki's skepticism. Oddly
enough, Project Inform's Martin Delaney, who has filed for a permanent injunction
requiring me and four other ACT UP SF members to stay 100 yards away from
him -- ostensibly out of fear for his personal safety -- stood right next
to us in the lobby of the Fairmont and sat four rows behind us in the auditorium.
Strange behavior for someone so scared.
Despite bogus AIDS industry TROs employed to censor dissent, no protests occurred,
no one was asked to leave and no one was removed. Below is the transcript
of President Mbeki's answers to the last two questions posed at yesterday's
ceremony. Those interested in obtaining tapes or transcripts of the president's
entire speech should contact NPR Tapes and Transcripts at 1-877-NPR-TEXT or,
outside the U.S., by telephoning (+801) 374-1022.
Thabo Mbeki is a powerful messenger of truth and hope.
The American AIDS lie is finished.
TRANSCRIPT OF EXTRACTED MBEKI Q & A
QUESTION: There are many, many questions related to AIDS. I suppose
the broadest way of putting this question is: Could you clarify your position
on the cause of AIDS and explain how you hope to address this growing problem?
PRESIDENT MBEKI: I'm not sure. I have sometimes, wrongly, a rather high
opinion of myself -- quite wrongly. But one of them I have never had is that
I am a scientist.
The matter of cause is something that science has been dealing with for a
long time and scientists continue to be engaged with this particular question.
But this I can say: There is a serious problem of AIDS, a serious problem
of AIDS in South Africa, a serious problem of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa generally
which requires a very strong and a very determined response.
In South Africa we're taught, like the rest of the world, nothing new. You
need to conduct and wage a strong campaign of public awareness focusing on
matters of safe sex, use of condoms, those kinds of questions. As a consequence
of that, there is really quite a lot of work that has been done as part of
that process. We thought it would be necessary not just to have government
only address this matter, but that we build a whole series of partnerships.
Partnerships against AIDS, which exist. Partnerships with business, with the
labor unions, with religious communities, with youth, with women, and so on,
to make sure that everybody actually takes up this campaign wherever they
are.
We decided also this year that we needed to set aside some dedicated funds
in the national budget to address this particular question. That would
be in addition to whatever the government departments -- national, provincial
and other government structures -- would be spending, but to set aside these
dedicated funds. We also contributed funds to work that must go on with regard
to the development of a vaccine, government has also made that kind of contribution.
The Medical Research Council in South Africa is working with other organizations,
including U.S. organizations, on this particular question. I am saying there
is a whole range of matters that have been done with regard to this.
But because of the scale of the problem, many, many of us in government tried,
without being scientists or anything like this, to understand this challenge
as closely as possible. What, indeed, has happened is that some of us have
had to be reading lots and lots of material on this question with a view
to ensuring that we understand as well as we should so that we should respond
with the necessary vigor given the scale and size of the problem.
Now there are some issues that arise which require some answers. We need those
answers so that we can make sure that we wage a more effective campaign, to
make sure that we respond in focused way to the incidence of AIDS. Let
me give you an example of one of these problems.
In 1985, the New England Journal of Medicine published what I think is the
first report on the incidence of HIV in South Africa and southern Africa.
That same report was published later in the South African Medical Journal.
That report said that HIV was not endemic in southern Africa -- that's 1985.
It went on to say that the incidence of HIV they found, these medical people
and scientists, was among male gay people. Now that was middle of 1985. Five
years later, six years later maybe, this had changed radically where it was
now said, whereas in 1985 HIV was not endemic in this region, five years
later the report was that it was. Secondly, whereas in 85 it was said
that this would be homosexually transmitted, five years later it was heterosexually
transmitted.
So the question we then asked was: Why this change? The profile in
the United States in 1985 was the same profile as in South Africa in 1985,
yet the profile in the United States has remained substantially the same.
There is a growing incidence in the United States, looking at the CDC figures,
of heterosexual transmission. The last report I saw from the CDC, which was
up to December 1999, was that there was a 10% incidence of heterosexual transmission
in the United States, 90% was homosexual. So we asked the question: What
happened between 1985 and 1990? The question, we believe, is important
because it would help us to address the focus of our response. Some of the
answers I've had is that there is a different strain of HIV in our region
of the world which is why you had this change from 85 to 90.
Let us say: Fine. If this is the reason, if this is what science says,
this is OK. It's good information because then it enables us to respond to
the specific manifestation of this condition in our situation.
Another scientist has said to me -- I must say it is only one scientist, a
European scientist -- he thinks the reason is that there are biological factors
which affect Africans and don't affect people in North America or Western
Europe. Biological factors. He said this was a hypothesis he was following.
Now, it would be very important for us to find out what this is because, indeed,
if there is a different biological set of circumstances affecting Africans
then it would be necessary for us in the intensification of the campaign against
AIDS that we take into account those differences.
Fortunately, scientists managed to meet in South Africa at the beginning of
this month, around the sixth of May, representing different opinions with
regard to this debate that has been going on about these issues for fifteen
years or more. Dissidents and orthodox people, as they are described in the
literature, discussed some of these questions. One of the decisions they
reached was that indeed there were unresolved questions which impact the kind
of work that needs to be done to get on top of the problem. The consequence
of which they agreed that they would then meet -- both orthodox and dissident
-- under the auspices of the Centers for Disease Control as well as the South
African Medical Research Council. They would bring all of these scientists
together to address these outstanding questions. We look forward to that because
we want to make sure that our response is effective, is specific, is focused,
and produces results.
So I am saying I hope that process which the CDC will coordinate will help
us get to these sorts of points. The other matters that have been raised,
of course, about this include the matters of the antiretroviral drugs. In
South Africa, the estimate for the HIV positive is something, like, four million.
Our minister of health has had discussions last week with UNAIDS and WHO in
the aftermath of the announcement by the UNAIDS that they had reached agreement
with five pharmaceutical companies to reduce drug prices. The consequence
of that reduction in cost terms would be that we would then have to spend
the entirety of the public health drug budget on antiretrovirals only.
What do we do?
These are the real, actual, practical questions that confront us. We have
to intensify the campaign against AIDS. We've got to get results. We've got
to make sure that we understand all of the specifics that pertain to this
so that we do, indeed, achieve the sort of progress that is needed. Unfortunately,
it seems that as a French professor said to me, my professor of medicine and
science, part of the problem here is that there is a lot of dogma that
attaches to this particular area and it is difficult to deal with it.
Even scientists have said to me that to debate the real questions becomes
difficult. I think some movement is taking place and I was very happy
that the CDC in this country said that instead of all the scientists standing
at different ends, let's interact so that, indeed, we can focus on these outstanding
issues.
QUESTION: Mr. President and ladies and gentlemen, we are just about
at the end of our program. I am going to ask one last question and ask for
a very brief response. I'd like to announce that we'd like everyone to remain
seated for about two minutes after the President leaves. So we'll go to the
last question and then adjourn the meeting. Mr. President, I didn't want to
close the meeting without asking you this one: Can you please tell us how
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has helped in the healing of the past
atrocities and enabled all peoples of South Africa to reach a level of forgiveness
and unity and diversity?
PRESIDENT MBEKI: Well, a lot of truth has been told about the human
rights violations that occurred during this period of conflict. Part of the
consequence of that, of course, is that people who had lost relatives and
didn't know where their relatives were could recover the bodies to rebury.
It's a very important question for many families, certainly African families.
It's been possible for people who were violators and violated against to meet
face to face and to say "Well, it did happen but we are both South African.
Let's now commit ourselves to a better future and that this kind of thing
shouldn't happen again." It has created the possibility to make some recompense,
some reparation -- it can never be satisfactory -- to people who have suffered
from those violations. I think, in the end, it has taken us a great step forward
to the position where it becomes possible for South Africans clearly not to
forget the past but to forgive the past, not to be driven on a daily basis
by a grievance of what happened before, but to be driven by this common thing
that we have spoken to one another openly. We've asked one another for forgiveness.
We've admitted the wrongs. Really what is necessary to do now is that we try
and build in a way such that this terrible past doesn't return. Thank you.
AidsMyth Dissident News
http://www.aidsmyth.com
mail@aidsmyth.com
Copyright © 2000 Fintan Dunne
Reproduce only non-commercially and entirely.
SEND this page
to a friend. The url of this item is:
http://www.aidsmyth.com/news/000525actupmbeki.htm
Copy/paste the above url into an email and send it to a
friend or
KEEP
this page on you computer
copy/paste the above url into your browser- then save the page