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Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

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Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#131

Post by billfruit »

sampo wrote: post #111
djaque wrote: post #3

I didn't understand the AIDS epidemic until I listened to a podcast [1] where they interviewed a gay survivor. I can't imagine my friends dying off one by one around me from an unknown specter. The government pretending you didn't exist and ignoring you because it was a "gay problem". Society demonizing you. He said that even after it was understood that AIDS was not transmissible by touch, morgues would refuse to ac…

And The Band Played On, the whole 1993 film (2h20min) is on YouTube. It's based on a 1987 book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KthBMpST7Q

The Randy Shilts book it is based upon is a very engaging and detailed record of the AIDS epidemic in the US. He himself sadly died of it, shortly after finishing the book.

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#132

Post by ngold »

at_a_remove wrote: post #94

I remember how little was known in the beginning, when it was called GRID. For a while it was theorized in the media that semen hitting the bloodstream was causing the immune system to freak out; my friends, who had just started puberty, asked me (as the designated science nerd) what I thought of that, as they had somewhat random scenarios of nocturnal emissions striking road rash from skateboarding. I thought it unl…

Grew up at the tale end of that, during reagan 80's. Learned how to hide under a desk for nukes. Hide under a doorframe for quakes. But Ghostbusters was good.

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#133

Post by acqq »

prox wrote: post #129
acqq wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also relevant to demonstrate now that this virus too hasn't been made in the lab. The "lab origin" is a claim that some like to spread on every outbreak, even in spite of the fact that virologists know that nature produces the viruses very easily and there are no facts supporting anything else this time too. From the abstract: "Our phylogenetic analyses date the origin of the pandemic lineage of HIV-1 to a time…

Interesting you mention this, in the WP series Operation Infektion, one of the disinformation campaigns by the Soviet Union is placing an article in a small newspaper in India, wherein the claim is made HIV was made in a lab in the US.

I was referring to the same claims spread in the West, e.g.:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/03/16/historys-greates...

"Based on the theories of Dr William Campbell Douglass, many believe that that HIV was genetically engineered"

"William Campbell Douglass, M.D. Education: BS, University of Rochester, New York; MD, University of Miami School of Medicine; Graduate, U.S. Navy School of Aviation and Space Medicine" (1)

"Survey data from the United States (US) and South Africa (the only countries for which quantitative data exists) suggest that a significant minority of people endorse such beliefs and that this matters for public health." (2)

And "we know who" now spreads the disinformation about the COVID-19 virus (I won't intentionally mention him, he has too much fans here).

(Additionally, the biggest stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons were always in the U.S., apparently more of 10% of the chemical weapons are still not destructed.)

1) http://ncoic.com/aidswar.htm

2) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-9566...

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#134

Post by rewoi »

acqq wrote: post #119
ImaCake wrote: post #110

People might be interested in why this useful. Much like with Covid today, scientists are interested in understanding when the disease first appeared. Because that gives us clues about where it came from and how quickly it is changing now. You can estimate this based on changes in the sequence of the genome. Changes (mutations) will appear in the genome at a predictable rate ("mutation rate"), and is measured as muta…

It's also relevant to demonstrate now that this virus too hasn't been made in the lab. The "lab origin" is a claim that some like to spread on every outbreak, even in spite of the fact that virologists know that nature produces the viruses very easily and there are no facts supporting anything else this time too. From the abstract: "Our phylogenetic analyses date the origin of the pandemic lineage of HIV-1 to a time…

The question is not really "was this particular one man made?", but "is it possible?" It is pretty obvious 1970ties technology was not advanced enough to pull this stunt. But times change.

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#136

Post by joering2 »

groby_b wrote: post #85
etrabroline wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Regan administration had two options. The first was to spend billions of dollars hoping to find a cure while certain behaviors continued to spread the virus. (what these activists wanted) The second option was to reduce the occurrence of those behaviors, namely intravenous recreational drug use, and unprotected sex with large numbers of sexual partners, which is particularly widespread among homosexual males. The…

They did absolutely nothing. Reagan didn't even say the name of the disease for FIVE years. He did, however, relish that it affected gay men. See e.g. his comment from 1981, "maybe the Lord brought down the plague because illicit sex is against the Ten Commandments." He finally, in 1986, allocated funds - so ridiculously low that congress allocated the five-fold amount. He tried to cut it down before passing that. In…

I think its possible Trumps is actually striking the tune with fellow Republicans to get their likes learning anout Reagan slow approach to AIDS - I was shocked when during last SOTU, Trump announced that within one decade we will finally find a cure for AIDS/HIV. What gives??

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#137

Post by pinkfoot »

foldr wrote: post #128
pinkfoot wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google 'dry sex and AIDS' first. You might have to broaden your definition of normal.

My definition of 'normal' includes men fucking each other in the butt. I hope yours does too. Everyone who's at all serious about tackling AIDS in Africa (rather than making some kind of veiled political or moral point) is focused on reducing unprotected sex.

Absolutely - I'm the poster child for tolerance.Why would you jump to such an ungenerous assumption?

Would you say, on reflection, that you followed the site guidelines by taking the most positive interpretation of my post possible?

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#138

Post by ikonst »

qubex wrote: post #71
drewbug01 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The first was to spend billions of dollars hoping to find a cure while certain behaviors continued to spread the virus. And yet here we are, with governments spending billions of dollars to find a cure when we can stop the spread of COVID-19 by reducing certain behaviors. The difference in government response to the (ongoing, btw) AIDS crisis and COVID-19 has a hell of a lot to do with the fact that COVID-19 is not…

Funnily enough, in Italy (where I grew up) there was next to no association in the public mind between HIV/AIDS and homosexuality. It was linked to drug use and sexual promiscuity, but it was drilled into us that any kind of unprotected sex (and for most people, that was automatically construed as heterosexual sex) was a risky behaviour. I was honestly very surprised when, towards the end of the nineties and early 20…

Same (growing up in Israel). Didn’t realize it’s “gay” until much later.

Here’s from 1992: https://youtu.be/rQTbSFojYRE

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#139

Post by adrianN »

acqq wrote: post #119
ImaCake wrote: post #110

People might be interested in why this useful. Much like with Covid today, scientists are interested in understanding when the disease first appeared. Because that gives us clues about where it came from and how quickly it is changing now. You can estimate this based on changes in the sequence of the genome. Changes (mutations) will appear in the genome at a predictable rate ("mutation rate"), and is measured as muta…

It's also relevant to demonstrate now that this virus too hasn't been made in the lab. The "lab origin" is a claim that some like to spread on every outbreak, even in spite of the fact that virologists know that nature produces the viruses very easily and there are no facts supporting anything else this time too. From the abstract: "Our phylogenetic analyses date the origin of the pandemic lineage of HIV-1 to a time…

Something being impossible unfortunately in no way makes it less likely to be part of a conspiracy theory. I have the feeling that it's actually the opposite.

Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

#140

Post by gumby »

drewbug01 wrote: post #49
gumby wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know how public restrooms in the USA always have paper toilet seat covers? This dates to that era (the product existed already but was extremely uncommon). Because of that whenever I see those I think of the bigoted attitude that lead to their deployment and won't use them.

I respect your commitment to fighting bigotry, but I mean - those toilets can be pretty nasty. May as well use them, now that we have them. :)

Well, I survived for decades before they were widespread, and have survived since, so...
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