section_path: Anti-vaccine advocacy and conspiracy theories on public health/HIV/AIDS denialism
section_name: AIDS denialism
paragraph_text: AIDS denialism
  
  In his 2021 book The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the War on Democracy and Public Health, Kennedy writes that he takes "no position on the relationship between HIV and AIDS",: 347 but spent over 100 pages quoting HIV denialists such as Peter Duesberg who question the isolation of HIV and the etiology of AIDS. Kennedy refers to the "orthodoxy that HIV alone causes AIDS": 348 and the "theology that HIV is the sole cause of AIDS",: 351 and repeats the false HIV/AIDS denialist claim that no one has isolated the HIV virion and "No one has been able to point to a study that demonstrates their hypothesis using accepted scientific proofs.": 348 He also repeats the false claim that the early AIDS drug AZT is "absolutely fatal": 332 due to its "horrendous toxicity".: 298
  
  Molecular biologist Dan Wilson noted that Kennedy falsely claims that Luc Montagnier, the discoverer of HIV, was a "convert" to Duesberg's fringe hypothesis. Wilson concludes that Kennedy is a "full blown" HIV/AIDS denialist. Epidemiologist Tara C. Smith suggests that Kennedy's book "even flirts with outright germ theory denial", quoting from a portion in which Kennedy contrasts the germ theory of disease with terrain theory and another in which he writes that Louis Pasteur "is said to have recanted" germ theory on his deathbed in favor of Antoine Béchamp 's terrain theory,: Table 1 an unproven claim that circulates among germ theory denialists.
  
  In his 2021 book The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the War on Democracy and Public Health, Kennedy writes that he takes "no position on the relationship between HIV and AIDS",: 347 but spent over 100 pages quoting HIV denialists such as Peter Duesberg who question the isolation of HIV and the etiology of AIDS. Kennedy refers to the "orthodoxy that HIV alone causes AIDS": 348 and the "theology that HIV is the sole cause of AIDS",: 351 and repeats the false HIV/AIDS denialist claim that no one has isolated the HIV virion and "No one has been able to point to a study that demonstrates their hypothesis using accepted scientific proofs.": 348 He also repeats the false claim that the early AIDS drug AZT is "absolutely fatal": 332 due to its "horrendous toxicity".: 298
  
  Molecular biologist Dan Wilson noted that Kennedy falsely claims that Luc Montagnier, the discoverer of HIV, was a "convert" to Duesberg's fringe hypothesis. Wilson concludes that Kennedy is a "full blown" HIV/AIDS denialist. Epidemiologist Tara C. Smith suggests that Kennedy's book "even flirts with outright germ theory denial", quoting from a portion in which Kennedy contrasts the germ theory of disease with terrain theory and another in which he writes that Louis Pasteur "is said to have recanted" germ theory on his deathbed in favor of Antoine Béchamp 's terrain theory,: Table 1 an unproven claim that circulates among germ theory denialists.