VIRUSMYTH HOMEPAGE
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
Public Health Services
National Institutes of Health
MEMORANDUM
date: 4/28/87
from: Florence S. Karlsberg
subject: Peter Duesberg's view that HTLV-III does not cause AIDS
to: Dr. Peter Fischinger, Dr. Howard Streicher, Dr. William Blattner,
Dr. Robert Gallo
I want to alert you some incidents that have occurred in the past 24
hours:
- Monday, 4/27, 5:15 p.m.: Anti-NIH gay playwright Larry Kramer spoke
with CDC public affairs office re Peter Duesberg's article in March 1 Cancer
Research (copy attached) indicating that there is no substantial evidence
that HTLV-III causes AIDS.
- Tuesday, 4/28, noon: Don Berreth, DHHS assistant secretary for public
affairs (7), received call from Robert Cook of Newsday RE Duesberg's
assertion.
- Don Bolbovsky of HIH information office (496-5787) has said DHHS is
quite anxious and awaiting feedback re NIH/NCI response to and strategy
for this provocative situation.
- I have contacted DCZ's Stu Aaronson, in whose lab Peter Duesberg is
spending some time as a visiting scientist and Fogarty scholar. Peter's
office is in the Stone House. Stu Aaronson said that Bob Gallo and others
have tried to educate Peter re HTLV-III and AIDS-but it's hopeless. Stu
suggests that the following NIH scientists may appropriately address Peter's
controversy:
(1) William Blattner---first and foremost---because Stu thinks that
the weakness of Peter's arguments are best highlighted by the epidemiologic
studies on this virus and its associated diseases.
(2) Dani Bolognesi of Duke University
(3) Tony Fauci of NIAID
(4) Bob Gallo has spoken with Peter in the past and Peter persists with
his arguments. Perhaps the epidemiologic approach might be more productive
in countering Peter's assertions.
cc: Pat Newman, Paul Nevel, Eleanor Nealon, Linda Anderson
VIRUSMYTH HOMEPAGE