David Ho: "If I Could Do The Math, Maybe I Could Get It Right - Just Once."

   

• "We have to bear in mind that during the years when this concerted treatment effort took place, approximately 2 million were treated. But during those years, another 15 million or so got newly infected, so we had a net loss of about 13 million infections by a virus that is lethal if untreated. If you do the simple math or the hard, cold math, it tells us we need to slow the spread of the virus as much as we are trying to treat those who are infected." David Ho, in a PBS Frontline program (March, 2006) -"The Age of AIDS".

• "There has been considerable debate about this simple hypothesis [of Ho and Wei]. Their 1995 Nature papers ignited a heated controversy that resulted in publication of several well-designed and informative studies, which raised serious doubts about this ‘war’. In this issue of Nature Medicine, reports by Pakker et al. and Gorochov et al. provide the final nails in the coffin for models of T cell dynamics in which a major reason for changes in T cell numbers is the death of HIV-infected cells." Roederer, M. 1998. Getting to the HAART of T cell dynamics. Nat.Med. 4:145–146.

• "One of the nation's most prominent AIDS researchers is partly retracting a scientific paper in which he claimed to find an elusive substance that protects some people from the disease. In addition to being an embarrassment to the researcher, Dr. David Ho, the admission means that one of the great mysteries of AIDS -- why some  people with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, do not become ill -- remains unsolved. In his retraction, Dr. Ho says the substances he identified were not produced by the cells he thought produced them but were introduced into the experiment by contamination." Andrew Pollack, The New York Times, January 23, 2004.
  

Comments

[Bialy/Moore]

I sent the following email to David and a few others yesterday (and included the URL for the 'toon'):

"David, Do you recall when you tried, with no success to have me "disassociated" from Nature Biotechnology in 2000?

Payback, like they say, is a bitch."

One of the forwards was to John Moore. A few minutes ago when I looked in the trash, I found this from the has been. The tune has not changed one iota, and the retard has finally gotten me seriously annoyed.

From Moore to Bialy:

"Hi "retiree"!! I guess you must have a lot of time on your hands now that you no longer have any professional affiliations!

Anyway, I've warned recipients of your email that you monitor the few clicks you get on your site, and that it gives you pleasure to see people look at your silly postings. So I doubt they will bother to visit the site. I know I don't!

Enjoy your "retirement"! John"

I could not resist the following one line aviso:

"your idiotic email has been "posted" as a comment moron"

And can you believe ... of course you can ... the email-robot-machine replied, and a moment ago I found this in the trash:

"Thanks! I am sure nobody (or rather "nobodies") will read it! John"