“HIV Does Not Cause AIDS”: A Journey into AIDS Denialism

HIV is a virus that causes AIDS. This fact is well established. And yet a vocal group of fringe scientists, freelance journalists, and Internet bloggers persistently deny the existence of HIV. AIDS deniers share the same strategies and tactics seen in other denialist groups, including climate change deniers, Holocaust deniers, and anti-vaccine activists. Refuting the basic science of HIV has caused the early death of people infected with the virus who have ignored their diagnosis and refused life-saving treatments. In South Africa, AIDS denialism resulted in hundreds of thousands of senseless deaths. Most recently, AIDS denialism has infiltrated the criminal justice systems in the US, Canada, and Australia. AIDS denialism is best addressed by correcting medical misinformation, improving science literacy and calling out the pseudoscientific backgrounds and fraudulent claims of AIDS denialists.