Wrongful Death: The AIDS Trial

by Stephen Davis

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “Bill? I’m home.”

  Sarah drops her briefcase and keys on the kitchen counter and finds Bill on the couch watching GNN. She kisses him on the cheek, but he only perfunctorily returns her affectionate greeting. He’s too engrossed watching Laura Begley on TV. Sarah sits down beside him.

  “With us again is Dr. Frank Keating, GNN's chief health correspondent. Dr. Keating, what do you have for us tonight?”

  Keating had been given his own news desk so that he didn’t have to share the camera with Laura; and tonight, he’s ready to deliver his own bombshell.

  “Laura, we're not getting very much of the other side of this question, since the defendants have chosen to sit on their hands and not even cross-examine many of these witnesses. I thought it would be good to provide some balance. So I did a little research, and I found that way back in March of 1993, Nature Magazine published a string of articles finally offering definitive proof that HIV caused AIDS, supposedly ending this question forever.”

  A picture of the cover of Nature Magazine appears to the left of Keating’s head.

  “For example, Dr. Michael Ascher and a team of epidemiologists wrote that among a group of a thousand drug-free San Francisco men, only those with HIV had developed AIDS. Then, two weeks later, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institutes of Allergic and Infectious Diseases…,” and a picture of Dr. Fauci replaces the Nature Magazine cover, “…and a good friend of Dr. Robert Gallo, published a paper claiming that he had found large amounts of the actual HIV hiding in the lymph nodes of infected patients. A third article then supported Dr. Fauci's discovery of the virus. I have those articles right here.” He holds them up in his hand so the camera can see them clearly. “And I thought they would put the whole issue to rest. I fully expected the defense to present these studies in cross-examination of one of these witnesses, and that would be all they needed to end this trial and send the jury home.”

  The screen switches back to Laura. “I take it you found out why the defense hasn’t done that, Dr. Keating.”

  “Yes, Laura, I did. It turns out that Dr. Ascher and his colleagues had used improper and misleading statistical methods on poorly collected data. Every one of the 1,000 San Francisco AIDS patients in Ascher's study – every one of them – was a homosexual who were far from being drug-free, and had in fact used a number of recreational and medicinal drugs. That's hardly something you can write off. Since then, there have been independent reviews of Dr. Ascher's studies confirming that there were no drug-free AIDS patients at all. None.”

  “And what about Dr. Fauci's claim to have found active HIV in patients, Dr. Keating?”

  “It turns out it was a total of three patients that he worked with. I guess three is enough for him to use the word ‘patients,’ plural, in his study, but I still think that's a pretty small sample. In addition, what he actually found was a tiny amount of dormant HIV genes and no live, active, infectious virus at all. Ironically, Dr. Ascher and his colleagues later turned on Dr. Fauci, criticizing his paper in a letter published, again in Nature Magazine, for his, quote, skimpy data on virus in AIDS patients, unquote.”

  “Talk about calling the kettle black!”

  “Laura, what I’m finding is that all the studies and the research and the evidence that Dr. Gallo and Dr. Fauci and others have been claiming for years is out there that proves HIV causes AIDS, doesn’t actually say what they claim it says or prove what the defendants in this trial claim it proves. But I’m still looking, and if and when I find it, I'll get back to you.”

  “All right. Thank you, Dr. Keating. Oh, by the way, if you can't find it, come see us again anyway.” Laura gives Keating a big smile. “And now, turning to other news...”

  Sarah had found the remote and turns off the TV. She gets up and starts walking to the kitchen.

  Bill calls after her. “Hey…Sarah…what do you think about that report?” Bill assumed they’d have some discussion when it was over, and Sarah would share the day’s events in court, like she usually did.

  “I’ve got to cook dinner,” was the only answer Bill got, and all he was going to get for the rest of that night.