It�s just like in your book where you write about the time Tara [7] had a bad thrush when she was a baby, and that if it had been 1996 instead of 1976 she would have been an AIDS case and you and Margaret stigmatized, etc. I also remember how you went crazy when you discovered the nurse at the health center gave her three or four vaccinations at the same time.
HB: Yeah I remember that too, and now that I do, I think the horrendous reaction she had to them so depleted her infant immune system that a nothing yeast from her mother�s breast became something serious.
HB: Next question. Why do you think there has been such a gigantic misrepresentation/distortion of the facts, and why do you think so many Black Americans have believed these lies when they know the US government has never told them the truth about anything else?
LE: Answering the first part will probably get me called a conspiracy theorist in addition to all the other things I will be called after this interview is published (even though it�s only on this website), but here goes: Sometimes a very mixed bag of interests can become united for different reasons. I think that is what happened with the push to sell AIDS as a new, sexually transmitted disease that started in Africa and was the biggest health threat to the continent. All the people with the "good intentions" of "keeping poor, uncivilized, sex-crazed Africans from killing themselves (again)" could be comfortably in bed with sensationalist, racist media, ITT�s medical division, [8] corrupt politicians and a WHO you told me was so broke it had no money for a malaria vaccine and could give only a few thousand to your research on antibiotic resistant bacteria even though you were working with the biggest name in the field. [9]
To answer the second part of your question,
I really don�t know. Maybe it has to do with
how sick American culture is and the mixed
up thinking of many African Americans when
it comes to their self image.
HB: I have to ask you this, if for no
other reason than I would guess it will be
on the minds of most readers. What about
Magic Johnson?
LE: Magic is an individual. AIDS is
supposed to be an epidemic. I�m no
scientist, but I know epidemics have big
numbers.
HB: Last question. Having said all
that you have here, what are you going to do
now if the media contact you?
LE: I will say that I have had long
and painful experience with the way the
media is able to twist anything to serve its
own ends, and so I will only accept
questions in writing, and that any
worthwhile ones (with my answers) will be
published here. The only media personality
who I will discuss these matters further
with is Oprah.
return to part 1
reprinted with permission from
AIDS WIKI,
I,
copyright by Harvey Bialy, used with
permission.
