The continued antics of John Moore, both on and off the YBYL stage [1], have caused several of my coworkers (with university affiliations) to burst into hysterical laughter. One asked if there could be a "gene or a virus responsible" for Moore’s irrational behavior. And one of Dennis Burton’s (John’s ‘good buddy’ [2]) collaborators mentioned something about a "leash and muzzle". She was not getting kinky, as she followed that comment with a resounding “grow the fuck up, John!” She also said that if Dennis did not detach himself from Moore, she would have to detach herself from Dennis. The woman thinks her current funding woes are the direct result of Moore's mouth.
It never ceases to amaze me how the Cornell prof can stand so strongly behind the flimsy house of cards that is the HIV/AIDS hypothesis, but I also give him a lot of credit for contributing in his own inimitable way to swelling the ranks of academics within the field who are becoming increasingly concerned that they have been following an expensive "will o' the wisp" down many garden paths for a long time.
I was recently handed a paper, that makes this point vividly, by one the top researchers at my institution. The article, “The pathogenesis of HIV infection: Stupid may not be so dumb after all” [3], was published in the September 2006 issue of the journal Retrovirology. It is authored by Stephen M Smith of the New Jersey Medical School.
In the article, Smith discusses the current consensus within the establishment that HIV is not, as thought and acted on for decades, directly cytotoxic [4]. This is not in his view, however, a sufficient reason to eliminate the virus from the disease equation. He (and others) maintain HIV infection 'leads to' an activation of the immune system, and that this constant high level of activation is what 'leads to' the development of "AIDS". This is the "new, new view of HIV" now that immunologists instead of retrovirologists and biochemists are receiving the lion's share of the funding [4].
The scientific problem with this view of course is that it is entirely self-serving and ignores the fact that it rests on correlations of the most tenuous sort. (1) HIV infection is 'correlated' with chronic immune activation, (2) AIDS development is 'correlated' with chronic immune activation, and (3) AIDS development is 'correlated' with HIV infection. No experimentally testable mechanisms for any of these 'correlations' have been proposed, and within each correlation class there are a plethora of other correlations, explanations and unasked questions.
Smith is not the only researcher (with prior publications) to espouse this "new, new view of HIV”. The idea is now prominent in the literature. There is, however, no consensus on how HIV supposedly causes the immune activation, which supposedly causes AIDS. Smith cites research about different HIV genes; whereas, other researchers, such as Barton Haynes, claim that destruction of mucosal immunity may lead to the chronic immune activation.
The most striking fact to myself and my friends and colleagues still in the process of earning our advanced degrees, or newly minted postdocs, about this "newest view” is the blind-eye that continues to be turned to non-HIV influences that could lead to systemic immune activation. One such example is in the unpublished results of a friend in Canada. This academic has demonstrated that members of high risk groups (i.e., IV drug addicted prostitutes) have a higher baseline immune activation level than members of low risk ones - independent of HIV status.
Results such as this are not uncommon, but the reason they are not more widely known is directly attributable to academic scoundrels and charlatans such as Ho and Moore, who blatantly suppress such information, or scold those who dare to publish. Such politics have touched the nerves of not only those who question orthodox perspectives, but also many fine researchers who accept the HIV/AIDS hypothesis in one form or another.
My generation wants to know how we can be called scientists and forbidden from questioning or discovering the unexpected. But we remain hopeful that things in the HIV/AIDS community will change sufficiently, and soon, so that the real benefits of all the funding and attention will be redirected towards a deeper understanding of the immune system(s) and how chronic dis-regulation comes about and can possibly be corrected. And all this without recourse to failed, simplistic hypotheses and chemical "cures" that are worse than the "disease".
Subversive Grad. Student studies B-cell immunology at a well known university that is not in Australia.
Even the most die hard devotees of the Moore Follies are not going to easily accept that the following email series was not composed by me or one of my cyberzoids. But like everything else on YBYL, it is fully referenced or easily sourced.
In anticipation of today's SGS article, I sent (in lc provocative style) a note to John advising him of its imminent publication. What I expected to receive was a version of the previous one note lie about not bothering to look at the site "except on rare occasions", etc. What actually arrived was so much wilder than that it qualifies as a theme and variation with an additional note thrown in for bad measure. As is my habit with these exchanges, I will refrain from interlinear remarks and allow these masterpieces of 'crafted', self-contradiction to speak for themselves, but I feel compelled to make one analytical comment concerning the endlessly repeated and sour note of "retiree".
It is very often true that the thing one fears most is projected onto the person who inspires that fear.
As for myself being "retired": I have been openly quite self-satisfied with the fact that for the past 5 years or so I have been blissfully "semi-retired" with only the most minimal of "official responsibilities" and all the time in the world to do exactly what I want. And regarding my recent and abrupt dissociation from the IBT [1], I have made it clear in emails to the director and others that I am in the end very pleased at his decision as it provided a huge moral victory, and at the same time relieved me from my one remaining professional obligation -- the energy-intense efforts to raise [at this point] additional funds for the Virtual Library to supplement its present sufficient endowment
With that all said, last night I sent John the following:
"ultimo aviso: manana, temprano: "subversive grad student" with some direct quotes from your bosom buds concerning your ridiculous self.
i know you don't bother looking at my "silly site", but just in case someone you know does, you will know why they will be having an especially hard time holding in their laughter when they see you "
And as I wrote above, what came back blew what little mind I have remaining to me:
"We long ago worked out that the "subversive grad student" does not exist and that you write the articles yourself, manufactured quotes and all. What integrity, what honesty, what a man you are! (But not a very good writer, however, as your technical skills are on a par with your level of intelligence, in both senses of the word, i.e., minimal)."
I think I sent my reply within seconds, and this time really pissed as it is possible even for someone for whom one has zero respect to inadvertently cross a line and say something about your mother, so to speak].
"jesus christ juanita...just like you worked out hiv causes aids ?
how about putting some real money where your idiotic mouth is this time?
i will produce subversive to everyone's satisfaction (other than your moronic self) for a 10k us dollar bet asshole of assholes........
any stomach juanita? i already know you have no balls."
And once again I was dumbfounded at the form of the refusal, not the expectation that there would be one.
"Don't be silly! Acting honorably should never require a financial incentive, but then someone like you would hardly understand a concept so basic as that, would you? Bets involve the honor-concept at work, and as you are a person of no demonstrable integrity it would be inappropriate to enter into any form of contract with you. Nor (if he existed) is "subversive grad student", for a person of integrity would have posted under his own name all along. But very few of you AIDS denialists ever do that, do you? Why is that? Shame, fear, or just, like I say, a basic lack of personal ethics? So, by all means have "subversive grad student" post under his own name with proof of his real-world existence. Then we can judge the accuracy of what he claims to know. You won't do that though, because even if he does exist, he clearly lacks the honesty and courage to speak out publicly. Just like your buddy Geiger with his "letters from the Toronto AIDS conference", which were written in San Diego.
Or perhaps you are saying that you will betray "subversive graduate student" for $10,000 without his consent? Is $10,000 your own, personal equivalent of the Biblical 30 pieces of silver?"
Bialy to Moore
"fucking shit juanita...you have a version of the denialist manifesto for all fucking occasions...
time and again i think 'he can't be any more stupid'...and time and again you prove me naive...and i am not the only one with an iq above 150 who has similar experiences.....
but i do have one question for you, what do they let you do besides write emails and recycled shinola for the pod speaks gazette?"
I wrote to "subversive gs" along with my forward of the newest addition to the emails concerning him:
"i know you will not believe this...and i cursed him so badly i am sure there will be yet another before the morning....
this is so fucking pathetic...
if anyone had told you that there would be minds like this in important positions in the Establishment you would have thought them paranoid at best and psychotic at worst"
And as though to provide a perfect illustration of the adage "the exception that proves the rule", as I was composing this serial comment, the following arrived:
"I love it when you swear, "retiree", as it demonstrates your utter lack of mental discipline (it also causes your messages to be centrally spam filtered, hence the delay in my response). Incidentally, some of your fellow AIDS denialists are just LOVING your discomfort and reactions, according to emails I received from one of them last night (source and content confidential of course). I'd known for a long time that you were despised by the RA Group's leadership, but I'd not quite appreciated the extent of their loathing for you, and just how damaging to their cause they regard the YBYL site. We, of course, regard the YBYL site as a major asset, which is why I send you material to help keep it going. Anyone with any true insights would understand all of this, but no, not you! I guess that comes of using too many mind-altering drugs for too many years; after all, when one owns the number of neurons possessed by a small cabbage, and one does not look after them, the reasoning capacity does degrade.
What I do with my time is save lives - in different ways. John"
Posted by: Bialy/Moore | March 14, 2007 at 11:37 AM
I feel compelled to add a few words at this juncture, and fully expect them to be the last time I will have to waste time publicly cleaning up after the monkey prof.
How I became a contributor to YBYL is explained here, a link any with any neurons and professed interest in this important matter of internet-identity could have found with two mins use of the search box at the top of the page.
But isn't it more than curious that John does not deny a single thing that I wrote or reported about him! He only (and I have noticed this a lot in reading the blogs on which pod people write to dissidents) is interested in, and capable of, attacking the personality of the dissident for some perceived moral failings, but never even attempts to defend the scientific or other factual substance of his bullshit. (BTW..the "George" who "posted" the explanatory comment linked above is a cyber-personality of Dr Bialy's, but it is a well known and playful one, and it was how he identified himself when he first wrote me and we began our electronic and electrifying relationship.
I also find it really funny that he attributes all this insider knowledge and different writing styles to a "cabbage" with only the same number of neurons as Peter Duesberg and Darin Brown.
And this despite my writing that I was the tall blond who seemed to catch his eye this summer in Toronto.
Well here are another couple of nasty remarks that are owed Mr Moore but which Dr Bialy edited out of my original text as being "overkill".
A person in Alexandra Trkola's lab (Moore's collaborator) mentioned something about wanting Gallo's testamony to fuck up the Aussie trial [*], because it might make it possible to finally study other aspects of acquired immune suppression.
There was also a guy from the BC center for excellence in HIV/AIDS who claimed that if it was not for Julio Montaner's claim that he could eradicate HIV and Moore's (ir)responsible media session, that there would had been nothing entertaining about Toronto 2006.
This comes from a guy who intended on leaving the center. I am not sure if he did afterwards or not. He really hates Montaner, Wainberg, Moore - all the goons because they suppress science.
Posted by: Subversive Grad Student | March 14, 2007 at 12:35 PM