„We would have to ensure that the media do not use the power of images to create emotions that influence our judgment.“1406
GERD BOSBACH PROFESSOR OF STATISTICS AND EMPIRICAL ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH
On the 23rd of April 1984, the US microbiologist Robert Gallo and the then US Secretary of Health and Human Services Margret Heckler claimed towards the world in front of running cameras: „The probable cause of AIDS has been found: a variant of a known human cancer virus.” The word „probable” was practically unnoticed, not least because the two also used phrases like „Today’s discovery represents the triumph of science over a dreaded disease” (see chapter 3, subchapter „23 April 1984: Gallo’s TV Appearance Carves the Virus Dogma in Stone”). But the whole thing was still relatively theoretical. So for people to really realize, even really feel, that a deadly virus is „raging”, more is needed. It needs stories of fates, of dramas that touch us deeply.
With Corona, these were particularly the dramatic TV pictures from Italy, which went around the world in mid-March and showed military vehicles that carried away numerous coffins. And in the case of HIV/AIDS, it was the Hollywood world star Rock Hudson who depicts a kind of „big bang” here. Hudson was one of the first to undergo an „HIV antibody test”. This happened on June 5, 1984, just a few weeks after Gallo’s TV appearance on stage.
The test was not even officially licensed at that time, as this was only done nine months later by the US FDA.1407 Moreover, the first HIV antibody test, developed in 1985, was designed to screen blood products, not to diagnose AIDS, as it says in the study „Human Immunodeficiency Virus Diagnostic Testing: 30 Years of Evolution”, published 2016 in the journal Clinical and Vaccine Immunity. Nevertheless, Gallo and Heckler were not afraid to send the completely unfounded message around the globe: „We now have a blood test for AIDS. With a blood test, we can identify AIDS victims with essentially 100 percent certainty.”1408And so it happened that the 1.96-metre tall image of American manhood received a „positive” test report.1409 1410 1411 Hudson did not make this public for a long time, but about a year later, on the 25th of July 1985, he finally passed on the news to the world public that he had AIDS. And the fact that Hudson was the first Hollywood star to be officially considered an AIDS patient and who died only a few months after his „AIDS-Outing” finally brought the AIDS phenomenon out of the gay community and conveyed the message that a real epidemic was underway.
According to the motto: if AIDS can affect someone like Hudson, it can affect anyone, men and women alike. Or as the German news magazine Spiegel put it in August 1985: „At the latest since the long death and public confession of AIDS by the film idol Rock Hudson, once the epitome of radiant health and (heterosexual) love, the mood has changed. ‘Danger for us all—a new epidemic plague,’ discovered the Munich tabloid Quick. ‘No one is safe from Aids anymore,’ was a title of the US magazine Life ... ‘Aids—now the women are dying’ (Bild am Sonntag).”1412But especially the medical history of Hudson shows on a closer inspection that it is, there is no other way to put it, a lie to claim that AIDS can affect anyone—just as it is wrong to assume that a so-called „HIV test” would reliably indicate that a deadly HI Virus is haunting the body of the person concerned (see chapter 3).
Hudson was at least bisexual—and in any case homosexually active throughout his entire acting career.1413 And apparently even the Hollywood personage indulged in a fast-lane lifestyle typical of many gays, which is characterized by the excessive consumption of highly toxic drugs and medication and which can cause precisely the symptoms that occur in seriously ill AIDS patients. For example, one of Hudson’s lovers, the writer Armistead Maupin, reported how Hudson lovingly presented him with the sex drug Poppers, which is extremely popular among gays, from a leather case with „RH” engraved on it.1414But especially Poppers can be very liver-damaging and even carcinogenic (see chapter 3, subchapters „The Early 1980s: Poppers and AIDS Drugs“ and „How the ‘Fast-Lane Lifestyle’ Topic Got Out of Sight“). Therefore, it is not surprising that Hudson is reported to have been diagnosed with the cancer Kaposi’s sarcoma in 1984.1415 In addition he has drunk and smoked heavily over decades. Even after a quadruple heart bypass surgery in 1981, he still took a pack of cigarettes every day—even though his doctors warned him that if he didn’t stop, he would soon be in dire need.1416 1417And so it came about that Hudson becamethe star guest of the first episode of Doris Day’s „Best Friends“ show on July 16th , 1985—and that his long-time acting colleague was visibly shocked by the frail appearance of the 59-year-old, whom she and the world had known as the model of a handsome man.1418 Shortly afterwards, on July 21st, 1985, he collapsed in a Paris hotel and on the same day asked his spokesman to announce that he had „inoperable liver cancer“, as the New York Times also reported.1419 1420
But liver cancer, unlike HIV/AIDS, does not have the potential to create headlines that the masses are craving. In contrast to the HIV=AIDS narrative, liver cancer does not touch the most secret of human intimacy. In 1987, the Spiegel journalist Wilhelm Bittorf wrote the following in a personal experience report on HIV/AIDS: „Even the worst environmental damage is further away than an infection in the erogenous zone. And if the Pershing missiles in Baden-Württemberg only affected the sex lives of Germans, they would be long gone by now.”1421
And so it was that on the 25th of July 1985 Hudson had it announced from Paris that he was „dying of AIDS“—and it became a story the world had hardly seen before. At the end of his stay in the French capital, he was even flown out of his hotel by helicopter, lying motionless on a stretcher, in front of running cameras of course, and loaded into a chartered Boeing 747. In addition to himself, there were only two doctors, two assistants, a nurse and four of his confidants.1422 Hudson is said to have spent a few hundred thousand dollars on this transport action to make it possible for him to „die in his own bed“ in Los Angeles.
As a result, „HIV testing“ experienced a real boost, and an AIDS industry was boosted, generating hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Elizabeth Taylor also benefited enormously. The Hollywood icon reportedly called Hudson shortly after his collapse to thank him for his announcement that he was dying of AIDS, believing it would „save millions of lives.“ A few weeks later, in September 1985, Taylor co-organized the „Commitment for Life“ gala dinner in Los Angeles to raise money for AIDS sufferers. Originally, only 200 tickets were sold for this event, but after Hudson’s „AIDS confession“ more than 2500 tickets were sold—and even the then US President Ronald Reagan felt compelled to send a greeting telegram saying that it was of „highest priority“ for the US government to stop the spread of AIDS.
In the following years, Taylor was even able to raise funds of several hundred million for AIDS research. But although the Hollywood diva is said to have been a close friend of Hudson since their film „Giant“ in 1956, it is reported that she paid him only one visit to his bed in the last months of his life, the day before his death.1423
But why had Hudson set off for Paris in the summer of 1984? The reason was that his „HIV test“ turned out „positive“—and he had the opportunity to receive a drug from doctors in the capital of France, which he was led to believe was a kind of last resort before an AIDS death. This drug was called HPA-23, which the Pasteur Institute in France provided for experimental purposes. One of the inventors was Luc Montagnier.
But as melodious as the names Pasteur Institute and Montagnier may be to some, the administration of HPA-23 to Hudson (and many other desperate people) can only be described as highly irresponsible. The liver-destroying effect of this drug alone was sufficiently documented, but there was no proof of its effectiveness in the context of AIDS. William A. Haseltine of Harvard Medical School, for example, stated that the reports on the success of HPA-23 in France were of „the crummiest kind of anecdotal stories“—and they didn’t “do the scientifically controlled trials” for HPA-23, although these are necessary to provide the evidence about a drug’s safety and efficacy. According to Haseltine, it was „really a crime“, as had been done here.1424Other physicians took the same line and emphasized that HPA-23, due to its high toxicity, was especially dangerous for patients who were already ailing.1425 And Rock Hudson, when he started taking HPA-23, was a man who was severely ill. Yet virtually no one in the major media asked if there was any solid evidence of the efficacy of HPA-23 in treating AIDS—or why patients, rather than chasing after such a lousy drug, should not tackle their underlying health problems.
Apparently, journalists and their recipients had fallen victim to the fallacy at the time that it can only be good if a famous actor like Hudson receives this drug, but the average citizen does not. In addition, even then the public interest in tabloid stories spiced with sex was huge. And so the general attention was only directed to find out if Rock Hudson would have infected his acting colleague Linda Evans with HIV after he kissed her in the series „Denver-Clan“.
Even the self-proclaimed assault gun for democracy, the news magazine the Spiegel, readily took up the subject in 1985, in its article on „Hollywood stars’ fear of AIDS“: „Linda Evans, who was carelessly kissed by the AIDS-infected Rock Hudson in the ‘Denver Clan’, is scared out of her sleep night after night. She screams for help on the phone, because her nightmares make her believe all stages of the disease. Burt Reynolds must reaffirm over and over again that he is neither gay nor has AIDS.”1426
This smug reporting was diametrically opposed to the harsh reality for Rock Hudson, who had started taking HPA-23 in August 1984.1427 And shortly afterwards he developed severe itching, rashes and Vincent’s disease, a painful, ulcerative gum disease. During the winter months of 1984, he was also confronted with loose teeth and a weeping rash called contagious impetigo.
The thesis that these severe reactions are due to HPA-23 is also supported by a study published in 1988 in the journal Animicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, in which AIDS patients were administered HPA-23 over a period of just eight weeks. The result: the patients showed exactly the same severe symptoms that Hudson had to struggle with. At the same time, the study showed that the drug had no clinical benefit for the patients.1428
It is therefore not surprising that Hudson’s appearance had already changed considerably by the end of 1984—after only a few months of HPA-23 medication—and had lost a lot of weight in the process. Hudson claimed in this connection that he was merely suffering from anorexia (loss of appetite)— but even the magazine People, which was already riding the AIDS panic wave at the time, considered this to be an „unbelievable“ explanation.1429 It seems plausible, however, that Hudson’s already weakened liver was once again severely affected by HPA-23—and that he therefore had hardly any appetite left, which often happens with liver damage.
The preparation, which is rich in side effects, brought Hudson, who was already very badly „hit“ in terms of health, close to physical knockout after a short time. It is not difficult to imagine how serious the consequences must have been for Hudson’s already severely battered body that HPA-23 was used on him over a period of about a year.1430In late July 1985, Hudson finally turned his back on Paris and flew back to the USA because his doctors in Paris assessed that he was too weak to continue taking HPA-231431—whereby his French medical practitioners unspokenly admitted that the toxic effects of the drug were extremely severe. Nevertheless, Hudson is likely to have continued to be administered HPA-23 or similar preparations in the USA, which were also severely damaging to the liver.1432
Summarizing, Rock Hudson has been drinking and smoking chain for decades, which in itself is very damaging to the liver and the body as a whole. In addition to that is the intake of lifestyle drugs like poppers, which also have a highly toxic effect on organs such as the liver. Due to this wasting lifestyle Hudson was already a seriously ill man in his mid/ late 50s, which was also reflected in his heart surgery at the age of 56. In this very unstable physical stage, the Hollywood legend received drugs such as HPA-23, which has liver-destroying effects, over the twelve (or even more) months before his death. And once the liver is gone, death is inevitably not far away.
Therefore it can only be concluded that the highly toxic medication played the crucial part in Hudson’s death on the 2nd of October 1985.
„Ultimate Scepticism.—But what after all are man’s truths?— They are his irrefutable errors.“
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE „THE JOYOUS SCIENCE“, APHORISM 265
From Virus Mania ...
by
Torsten Engelbrecht & Claus Köhnlein
No comments:
Post a Comment