Magic Johnson Turns 50 and He Thanks HIV Treatments

Where were you November 7 1991?

I know precisely where I was.

My student Tricia Hunter and I had just finished collecting AIDS attitude and behavior surveys in the Chicago transit system. We had been conducting a behavioral surveillance study with a cross section of the city. That is, we were asking the good people of Chicago to fill out surveys as they waited for their train.

I came home that evening to find Magic Johnson on the news. Earvin Magic Johnson, arguably the most recognized face in professional basketball, announced his retirement after testing HIV+.

I was in Chicago. Michael Jordon’s Chicago. The Champion Chicago Bull’s Chicago.

Perhaps with the exception of LA, no city could have been more stunned by Magic’s announcement than Chicago.



It quickly became apparent that our behavioral surveillance research had ended. Everything that America was thinking about AIDS changed in that moment.
UPDATE: Magic addresses the 2009 National HIV/AIDS Conference in Atlanta
Johnson "acknowledged him being HIV positive has been good for the movement to stop the spread of HIV by being able to raise awareness, but it also has been a “curse.”
I was depressed. Not only had this great man fallen to the scourge of HIV, but my first study as a new faculty member at Loyola of Chicago was screwed.
It was the next day that we realized how we could document what would become known as the Magic Johnson Effect. We could test whether the power of celebrity could change the course of an epidemic.

Tricia and I continued data collection and observed huge changes in AIDS attitudes and behavior in Chicago. The most pronounced changes occurred among those who identified closest with Magic Johnson - young men, particularly African American men. We saw dramatic increases in HIV testing that still have not returned to levels pre-November 7 1991. Our results mirrored those of a few other researchers who were in similar positions to compare the world before and after Magic Johnson’s announcement.

A few years later I had the opportunity to ask Magic Johnson for his autograph. He signed our article about the effect that his announcement had on Chicago men and women. Now how Geeky Cool is that?!

Magic said that he would need to start teaching again. And he has lived his promise.

Magic Johnson is literally a poster image for HIV treatments. He has been on antiretroviral drugs for at least 10 years. He has remained so healthy on antiretrovirals that many have mistakenly thought that Magic Johnson’s HIV infection is cured. Of course, he is not cured. But like countless others who receive HIV treatments, Magic Johnson is managing his HIV infection and he is thriving.

So what do the AIDS Deniers say about the successful treatment of Magic Johnson?

They deny it, of course.

Some AIDS Deniers say Magic is not HIV+.
Gary Null says that Magic Johnson is not HIV positive. “I got this call from Magic Johnson's top person asking would I help Magic Johnson. [We] had a long conversation. I sent him my protocols, by the way. Now, normally I don't go on the record with anyone I help. I've helped over 1300 very famous people, including members of the Royal Family, including people who are chair people of Committees in Congress and Senate….But Magic Johnson, I will go on the record and state that I would like Magic Johnson to have a blood chemistry test where I would tell what he would be tested for, Herpes 1, 2, and 6, and hepatitis. I would like to see, does Magic Johnson have herpes? Because if he has herpes, herpes will test you positive for the HIV virus.”

Some AIDS Deniers say Magic is HIV+ but he is lying about being treated.
“Magic Johnson presents a major problem for HIV dissenters, because he has stated in public that he takes his antiviral cocktail – the HAART regime – dutifully, and does not visibly suffer from fatty lumps and humps. Nor has he collapsed from kidney and liver damage, which dissenters claim is the fate of all who take these AIDS medicines, certainly within the many years that Magic has been taking his medicine after being diagnosed HIV positive. HIV dissenters like to solve the inconsistency with their counter-theory of the dangerous irrelevancy of anti-HIV drugs to AIDS by claiming that Magic has said privately he doesn’t touch the stuff.”

Other AIDS Deniers say Magic is being treated but not with AZT.
For example, Peter Duesberg alleges, Magic Johnson only took AZT briefly but then discontinued using it, and that is why he is healthy.

Magic Johnson has been on combination ‘drug cocktails’ that include AZT. He in fact has taken and promotes the drug Combivir that combines AZT with another antiretroviral. Magic Johnson is thriving on HIV treatments.

Other people with HIV who have refused treatment have not fared so well. Fellow Los Angelean Christine Maggiore refused treatment and died of AIDS-related complications at age 52. Maggiore's AIDS Denial was even impermeable to the Magic Johnson Effect. Now that is what you call denial!

Happy 50th Birthday Mr. Johnson!!

Wishing you many, many more!

Read More

Goodbye Duesberg's and Ruggiero's Articles! Did You Ever Exist?

Over the past couple of months two AIDS Denialism articles were published in a journal called Medical Hypotheses. These papers surprised many of us because Medical Hypotheses was once a peer-reviewed medical journal that is printed by the world’s largest science publisher Elsevier. But it did not take much to notice that these papers were not peer reviewed.

The article “Aids denialism at the ministry of health” by Marco Ruggiero (seen here at the gates of UC Berkeley) was received by Medical Hypotheses on June 3, 2009 and was accepted on June 3, 2009. Hmmm, now that was fast. And the article “HIV-AIDS hypothesis out of touch with South African AIDS – A new perspective” by Peter H. Duesberg, Joshua M. Nicholson, David Rasnick, Christian Fiala, and Henry H. Bauer was received on June 9, 2009 and accepted on June 11, 2009. Obviously the Editor at least contemplated Duesberg’s article before accepting it. Just as obvious, neither paper underwent peer review.



Duesberg’s paper had actually been submitted to a legitimate journal called the Journal of AIDS and rejected after peer review. The filters of peer review work most of the time. But of course, being Denialists Duesberg and friends made the following claim in their Medical Hypotheses article…

“A precursor of this paper was rejected by the Journal of AIDS, which published the Chigwedere et al. article, with political and ad hominem arguments but without offering even one reference for an incorrect number or statement of our paper (available on request).”

The AIDS Deniers were joyful because they once again circumvented peer review and managed to seep into a what could appear to be a scientific outlet. For instance author Henry Bauer took time away from searching for Monsters in the bog to write at his blog…

“A remarkable coup has just transpired in publishing serious questions about HIV/AIDS in a mainstream journal. A press release describes the article concerned, which is currently in press at Medical Hypotheses (though already available on-line to subscribers).”

And cheerleader David Crowe was sure to post at his website “July 8, 2009–AIDS Denialism at the Italian Ministry of Health? Six doctors from the University of Firenze (Florence) compile evidence that the Italian Ministry of Health doesn't really believe in the infectious AIDS theory in an article in ‘Medical Hypotheses’.”

As an author who publishes in Elsevier journals, I found it hard to believe that the company would so easily and repeatedly publish pseudoscience. As a tax payer, I was outraged that the State of Connecticut was purchasing a pseudoscience outlet for our state libraries. Librarians started receiving letters that included the following statement…

“Medical Hypotheses has become a tool for the legitimization of pseudoscientific movement with aims antithetical to the goal of public health goal. One such movement, AIDS denialism, questions the existence of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and/or its role in causing AIDS. The public health consequences of this movement have been dire, particularly in South Africa, where several hundred thousand people are estimated to have died because availability of treatments was delayed due to the influence of AIDS denialists. Medical Hypotheses, with its lack of peer review and careful editorial oversight, has published numerous articles advancing AIDS denialism, allowing individual denialists, none of whom has ever published original research on HIV, to claim legitimacy as HIV researchers because their work has, after all, appeared in a “scientific” journal. In the most recent of these articles, two prominent denialists, David Rasnick and Peter Duesberg, along with several co-authors, claim ludicrously that HIV and AIDS have had no significant effect on public health in Africa and that antiviral medication has had no effect on AIDS mortality in North America and Europe. The authors make these claims by selectively quoting and misquoting the legitimate scientific literature in a manner that even the most cursory editorial oversight could not allow. It appears that the false claims in this paper were not vetted by the editor of Medical Hypotheses and that the journal, by publishing this and similar papers, has contributed significantly to the spread of medical misinformation and loss of life and wellbeing.”

But in the words of Henry Bauer, “a remarkable coup has just transpired”. The papers are gone. They have vanished. They are no more.

Ruggiero’s and Duesberg’s articles no longer exist at the Medical Hypotheses website. The articles that once were are no more. Oh sure, there are plenty of copies floating around. I know I have mine. And the abstract summaries have not yet been removed from the major indexing services, although that should hopefully happen soon.

This is yet another case where AIDS Denialists can fool some of the people some of the time, even journal editors. But once exposed for who and what they are, the damage caused by Denialists can stop and even be undone.

UPDATE: Examining Elsevier’s policies on removing articles from electronic data bases, which is the case for Duesberg and Ruggiero’s paper, it is apparent that the publisher found the articles to pose a threat to public health. A just finding...

Articles are removed when…

“the identification of false or inaccurate data that, if acted upon,
would pose a serious health risk (See Article removal or replacement).”

“In an extremely limited number of cases, it may unfortunately be necessary
to remove an article from the online database. This will only occur where
the article is clearly defamatory, or infringes others' legal rights, or
where the article is, or we have good reason to expect it will be, the
subject of a court order, or where the article, if acted upon, might pose
a serious health risk.

In these circumstances, while the metadata (title and authors) will be
retained, the text will be replaced with a screen indicating that the
article has been removed for legal reasons.”

Read More