119-130 Martin.indd

In London on September 11-12, 2000, the Royal Society—the independent scientifi c academy in Britain, the counterpart to the U.S. National Academy of Science—hosted a discussion meeting on the “Origins of HIV and the AIDS epidemic.” The brochure about the meeting gave this synopsis: “HIV-1 and HIV-2 causing AIDS are new human viruses of animal origin. When, how and why these cross-species infections occurred is the topic of this meeting. Discussion will focus on possible natural and iatrogenic routes of transmission in zoonosis and the subsequent epidemic spread of HIV.” Since 1992, there had been fi erce contention between advocates of two contrasting AIDS origin theories. Both sides agreed that AIDS arose when a simian immunodefi ciency virus (SIV) from a monkey or chimpanzee was transmitted to and took hold in the human species, becoming the human immunodefi ciency virus (HIV). The question of how this occurred divided the two camps. One theory was that SIV jumped species when a hunter, while butchering a monkey, had gotten monkey blood in a cut or, alternatively, virus transfer occurred through a monkey bite or from eating undercooked monkey meat. This theory, commonly called “natural transfer” or “cut hunter,” was held by most researchers in the AIDS fi eld (Hahn et al., 2000). The competing theory was that SIV entered humans through contaminated oral polio vaccines—cultured on monkey kidney cells—given to a million people in central Africa in the late 1950s. Called the polio-vaccine or OPV (oral polio vaccine) theory, it was advanced by a small group of journalists, independent scholars, and scientists (Hooper, 2000b). Many other theories have been proposed for the origin of AIDS, including that it was due to smallpox vaccines or to a biological warfare experiment gone wrong (Hooper, 2000b:151-69; Lederer, 1987/1988). As well, the idea that AIDS is not a distinct disease at all and that it is not due to HIV has received considerable visibility, especially through the efforts of molecular biologist Peter Duesberg (Duesberg, 1996; Maggiore, 1999; for a critique see Harris, 1995). HowAbstract. The Royal Society of London held a scientifi c meeting in September 2000 focusing on two theories of the origin of AIDS: one, that it occurred through “natural transfer” of immunodefi ciency virus from monkeys or chimpanzees to humans; and the other, that it occurred through iatrogenic transfer via contaminated polio vaccines used in Africa in the late 1950s. This meeting was the culmination of years of public contention over the polio-vaccine theory. Several dimensions of the politics of science are revealed by analysis of this issue, including the power of scientifi c editors, the use of the mass media, decisions regarding selection of speakers and organization of the meeting, and epistemological assumptions made by participants.