It has been 40 years since the first AIDS cases in the US, and two things come to mind: the role of chimpanzees in this other pandemic and the moral and intellectual decay of Luc Montagnier, winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2008, who descended to the primatological level of Jair Bolsonaro in both aspects.
The demonstration that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) went from monkeys Pan troglodytes for our species came in 1999, 18 years after the first gay men were diagnosed. HIV itself took two years to be identified, by the French Montagnier and the American Robert Gallo, in a 1983 article.
The feat of indicting chimpanzees was led by Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama, as reported in this sheet. At the time, there was a huge genetic relationship between HIV and SIVcpz, present in the blood of P. troglodytes, which would have infected African hunters by manipulating monkey meat.
Even with this long history, a lot of accumulated knowledge and billions invested in AIDS research, the syndrome still does not have an effective vaccine. Treatment with antiretroviral drugs has come a long way, it’s true, but HIV is a tough nut to crack.
With the new Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus, the path has been quite different. The place of origin of the jump of the pathogen from any animal, probably bats, to humans has not yet been found. But, after all, little time has passed — and it may be that it will never be defined.
With regard to vaccines, everything happened in a very different way: in one year there were several immunization agents available. Another year and 44% of the world population is vaccinated against the corona. Still, Covid-19 has killed 5.3 million in 2 years, versus 37 million from AIDS in 40.
Given the seriousness of Covid’s scourge, even though it was mitigated early on by vaccination, what does Montagnier do? From the top of his supposed authority as a Nobelist, in fact much shaken by other nonsense said, he presents himself as a propagator of disinformation about anti-Sars-CoV-2 immunizations. It’s killing.
Nor is it the case here to reproduce the simian absurdities that the Frenchman has been spreading, to the enthusiasm of vaccine deniers. These, by the way, circulated false statements attributed to Montagnier, according to which vaccinated people would die within two years. Not even the half-lost laureate would be capable of such nonsense.
Bolsonaro’s ignorance (or bad faith), however, is of another dimension. In the second half of October, the president of the Republic (who would have thought) disseminated in one of his broadcasts on Thursday that Covid’s vaccine was associated with AIDS.
Hard to imagine greater villainy. Even Zuckerberg’s pachydermic social network moved to take the video off the air, and the captain found himself contradicted, among others, by the Rear Admiral he had planted at Anvisa, Antonio Barra Torres, and by Robert Gallo.
The president didn’t stop there, of course, and went on rattling what the hate office throws at him on the teleprompter. Anything goes to sow doubts about vaccines that he neglected, even attributing to the World Health Organization the statement that immunized people can catch Covid, transmit the corona and die.
As Denise Garrett, from the Sabin Institute, warned, the president only needed to say that those who were fully vaccinated have a 1/5 risk of becoming infected, 1/11 the risk of dying and transmitting 50% less.
It’s killing. And nothing happens to him.
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