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Revision as of 23:45, 3 October 2013
House of Numbers: Anatomy of an Epidemic is a propaganda video to deny a link between a HIV infection and AIDS disease originating from the Canadian filmmaker Brent W. Leung in 2009. Filmmaker Leung describes his movie as an "objective examination" of the hypothesis that HI-virus causes AIDS.
An interesting thing about the movie is the fact that to date it is not known who funded the movie. A German version of the DVD is available from the publisher Kopp Verlag.
"House of Numbers"
The name of the movie derives from Leungs view, that statistical numbers about HIV infection and AIDS patients were fabricated and manipulated by an international conspiracy. Alas, a discussion of the WHO numbers is not part of the movie. According to Leungs view the importance of global poverty is undervalued, since it is the real cause for the AIDS deaths. Also (older) AIDS drugs like AZT are in his lay opinion one of the reasons for the death of HIV infected people. The filmmaker suggests furthermore, that he has doubts, that the HI virus even exists.
In the movie interviews with several scientists (among them Luc Montagnier), known "AIDS denialists" and selected AIDS patients are shown. Several people who where interviewed for the film declared after the release that they were interviewed under false pretense and that the movie itself promotes pseudoscience.[1] 18 scientists interviewed for the film have issued a statement saying that their answers were cut and put together in a way to fit Leungs intentions. He tried to make it seem as if the scientific community was in disagreement over AIDS. Two interviewers, Neil Constantine and Robin Weiss, give examples where their answers were wrongfully and selectively quoted.[2]
Interview with Christine Maggiore
One of the interviewed persons is Christine Joy Maggiore, a HIV-positive women and until her death a well known HIV/AIDS-denialist. Maggiore founded the organization "Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives" (previously "HEAL-LA"). This organization advised HIV-positive and especially expecting mothers to stop taking anti-retroviral drugs to prevent vertical infection of the child. She wrote a book "What If Everything You Thought You Knew about AIDS Was Wrong?". Her own three year old daughter Eliza Jane Scovill died from untreated AIDS.[3] Maggiore had infected her own child with the HI-virus, and refused a HIV test and an antiretroviral therapy of the child. Her son was tested HIV-negative. Maggiore was criticized for breastfeeding her own children, since it is known that HIV may be transmitted through breastmilk. Christine Maggiore died on December 27, 2008 on AIDS, half a year before the film "House of Numbers" was published on June 21, 2009. This fact is mentioned in them movie only in small letters in the credits, under the false claim that she did not die from AIDS but from a different cause. In truth, Maggiore died from pneumonia and other typical symptoms of AIDS. Her views are also promoted on pages of the Germanic New Medicine.[4]
Reception
The film was rated generally critical. Especially Leungs claims that he had approached the issue from an "objective point of view" were dismissed. The film was repeatedly called a mix between AIDS denialism and conspiracy theory, for example by the renowned professional journal "The Lancet".[5] The New York Times called it a "weaselly support pamphlet for AIDS denialists".[1] The "Wall Street Journal" called its content conspiracy theories from "persons, that know the 'real story' behind everything".[6] Author and doctor Ben Goldacre wrote in "The Guardian", that the film "House of Numbers" was "AIDS-denialist propaganda" sei.[7] The Portland Oregonian criticized Leung for "not being entirely honest with viewers," and decried the film's reliance on "selective editing, anomalies and anecdotes, unsupported conclusions... and suppression of inconvenient facts."[8]
Versions of this article in other languages
- Deutsch: House of Numbers
Weblinks
- Inside House of Numbers, a critical website, rebutting many of the claims in the film
- A Mother's Denial, a Daughter's Death, L.A.Times about Christine Maggiore, September 24, 2005
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Catsoulis, Jeanette: "AIDS Seen From a Different Angle", "New York Times" September 4, 2009. [1]
- ↑ http://www.aidstruth.org/features/2009/constantine-and-weiss
- ↑ Diagnosis after autopsy: Pneumocystis pneumonia in the setting of advanced AIDS
- ↑ http://www.neue-medizin.com/intermag.htm
- ↑ Burki T (2009). "House of Numbers". Lancet Infect Dis 9 (12): 735. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(09)70316-0. [2]
- ↑ David Aaronovitch, "A Conspiracy-Theory Theory. How to fend off the people who insist they know the 'real story' behind everything", "The Wall Street Journal", 21.12.2009. [3]
- ↑ Ben Goldacre: "House of Numbers". The Guardian, September 26, 2009. [4]
- ↑ 'House of Numbers' blurs facts on HIV, Portland Oregonian, Hall, Stan, January 21, 2010.