Who believes AIDS is just one big money making business ?!?!

[lifer]

The longer I live with hiv, the more i suspect that the message that there is no cure for hiv is just bullshit. There is, they just dont want us to have it. They want to keep making money off the meds etc. I mean c'mon, they can come up with plenty of different meds every year to keep one alive but they cant entirely fix the issue!!!??? I might be wrong but i dont know, with all that money thats being raised and all the high tech methods, they cant find a cure?!?

Your opinions please..

[27years]

I think they are just trying their best to come up with the cure although its taking long, which ever company or however comes up with the cure would get a lot of money and i would think more than what they are getting now for the medication on the market, I wouldnt think its a money making business, just my option

[RapidRod]

Have the found a cure for the common cold? Have they found a vaccine to prevent you from contracting the common cold? That's all I have to say about the subject.

[Miss Philicia]

lifer, for your little conspiracy theory to work you do realize that it would potentially involve the duplicity of thousands of people, don't you?  That alone tells me that it is not a feasible line of thought.

And you know, you're not the first person to come up with this marvelous postulation.  I really have to wonder what causes some to cling to this.

[mjmel]

Lifer, somebody somewhere is trying damn hard to come up with a formula that works. Not only is there money in a major breakthrough or vaccine, there is prestige and honor galore. I mean, can you imagine being part of the team that discovers a vaccine? Think about that.

Big pharmaceuticals are a big money making business. You can be sure that any of the major pharmaceuticals out there love their profit margins. No doubt about it. Some companies may even want to block something like a vaccine or a cure.......but does that make them in control of every aspect in that industry? Nope! Companies definitely lobby and toot their own horns and perhaps not much incentive or money goes into new research as some are making fat cat dollars by inflating prices. They don't control the world-at-large, lifer. Lots of accusations are made by frightened, uninformed people because there is no cure, or vaccine. Yet.

Many allow those tired conspiracy theories out there to feed each others suspiciousness and are left with foolish notions....with no way to validate claims.  Neither proof or logic are forthcoming. 

Think of how long it took to make major strides with cancer.
Who's to say a cure/vaccine would address the issue of those already infected. But then, it might.

my 2 cents worth,
Mike

[aliveinla]

Have the found a cure for the common cold? Have they found a vaccine to prevent you from contracting the common cold? That's all I have to say about the subject.

I know what you mean but this thought scares me. I believe there are much more people and money working on finding a cure for HIV than for common cold, right? They need to get their priority straight and from my perspective, i also suffers from cold once in a while, hiv is #1. so I am hopeful there might be a cure in my life time for HIV, not for cold, and I don't really care about that either.

[hartiepie]

Information gleaned from a standard high school science class would be enough to show how difficult "cures" can be to find. Also looking online to see what is known about viruses and retroviruses should clue anyone into the intricacies of infection.

Besides, money can be made much more easily than toiling through lab work and bureaucratic redtape in order to produce medications.

While I feel the frustration of someone making a conspiracy theory suggestion, I really just don't get why anyone would think thousands upon thousands of medical professionals would want to keep people sick.

A case can be made, however, for how funds, resources and meds are distributed. I think there is some obvious willfull denial of opportunity to certain groups by those who have power and authority. This occurs worldwide, and it isn't restricted to HIV/AIDS concerns unfortunately.

[keyite]

they can come up with plenty of different meds every year to keep one alive

I'm glad they do. The conspiracy theory is not just far fetched but also totally illogical. There is plenty of money to be made from a cure.

[Oceanbeach]

As others have said, I don't buy into a conspiracy theory, but as a former Commissioner of the Sonoma County Commission on AIDS, an active member of several subcommittees and as a person living with AIDS, we (the actual consumers of HIV services) would through out the term "AIDS Inc." meaning HIV/AIDS creates jobs.

Of course, we are grateful to have these services and some of the positions are actually filled by persons living with HIV.  We (persons living with HIV in Sonoma County) have seen many programs cut locally due to lack of funding, increased costs and expect to lose more within the next fiscal year.  We are not alone, in California 3 of the 9 Title I EMA's have lost their funding while other Title I EMA's have had reduced funding and an increased case load.  I would also like to note, the people who could have and failed to make a significant difference in funding still have their jobs.  Have the best day
Michael

[leatherman]

Think of how long it took to make major strides with cancer.

A case can be made, however, for how funds, resources and meds are distributed. I think there is some obvious willfull denial of opportunity to certain groups by those who have power and authority. This occurs worldwide, and it isn't restricted to HIV/AIDS concerns unfortunately.

Though there have been great strides in cancer in 40 yrs (which would seem like "forever" if you were afflicted with a type), so that it's no longer "shameful" to have or called "the big C", there still isn't a complete "cure" for many cancers. In the last two weeks in the hospital with my partner (just diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma), I've seen nearly half a dozen people pass away from cancer.

HIV is one of hundreds of illnesses killing people everyday with no cure on hand. Even plain old pneumonia is considered an epidemic killer, while many people still are treated and cured. On one hand, I don't see HIV as any more "special" a disease than say cancer, diabetes, or MS; on the other hand, I do think it's one of the more "intricate" diseases, and therefore probably harder to cure than some of the others. But on the other hand (oops, I think that's too many hands LOL), AIDS is the illness I have and therefore the one I'm most concerned about.

I'm sure that monies are "misallocated" for breast cancer research as they are for HIV/AIDS research. What's the solution? To take action now, while you are healthy enough. If you'd rather not suffer from aids-related non-hodgkins lymphoma in 5, 10, 15 yrs from now, then you need to be raising dollars, talking to your politicians, and the local agencies in charge of the funds, and pushing for research now. Do it now, cause I can tell you, you sure won't feel like doing any of those things when you get sick with some complication.

As I've read in many of Sonomabeach's posts, even taking action doesn't guarantee any success; but can you imagine how much worse things would be now without people like Michael trying to actively change bad policies of money distribution? I'd like to think that if we all took more action, we could end the "conspiracy", if such a thing even existed.

mikie

[lifer]

Well, it's not that I think that there is a conspiracy out there. It's just you often ask yourself and others about a cure. One says there will be one very soon, within ten years, another one says within 25 years and another one even says not in your lifetime. Well first, I'm not a medical person so I don't know anything about research etc etc, just an hiv sufferer like all of us. But it just makes you wonder, will all that research that theyre doing now and that has been done already why cant they just make a prognose on how long they think its going to take before its cured(even if). It's been around 25years now, thats quite a long time, the disease has moved from terminal to long life therapy and while its still deadly in many cases in the world despite what docs say, i think the light thats being shed on it is not enough. I mean im not suffering from any symptoms now, knock on wood, but I can imagine that once you do, once you start unravelling, it pretty much only goes downhill. I dont want to spend my life visiting hospitals, being confronted with my illness the whole time. I dont want to become an activist either, i just wanna forget this whole thing but I cant cause its here and I have to face it. Running away from it is not gonna help me.

So as for conspiracy, i guess there is none, but youd just think with all the progress nowadays and the news, theyd be able to make a steady prognose on the next ten years. Meds are fine dont get me wrong and we're already blessed we have access to them, but the stigma that still lies on the subject is just unbearable. Its just a new coming out term for me, and i know that that coming out is not going to happen. Not now at least.

[BT65]

Lifer, HIV is such a complex virus (all the mutations, etc), that trying to find a 'cure' for it will probably not happen anytime soon.  While for some insurance companies, HIV is profit, think of all the people who cannot pay for treatment/meds etc., to whom it's provided for.  I don't think anyone is trying to get rich off the virus.  I do think there are dedicated scientists who are trying to better therapy.  It has been around awhile now, but the treatments for HIV are soooo much better than what they used to be.  And medicine is learning more about it all the time. 

[david25luvit]

You mean like cancer, muscular dystrophy and health care in general.....
Yeah its a money game....
and then there's the pharmaseutical companies....
don't get me started!

[allopathicholistic]

There are definitely business angles in the world of HIV but to say it's "one big money making business" is just too outlandish in my book.

[ryeguy]

It would be so much more productive to think about one can do, and not; what others are not.

Greetings from Berlin,

[bear60]

Hi Chris
Here is a post you made a while ago:
i have nothing to complain about but sometimes all these questions just leave me saddened because im still young and even though my situation is pretty manageable it feels like the desire to live in me has died. i now just live and see what happens. i dont have plans in life anymore and has really picked up partying 24/7. and what i fear is that i will eventually become this shallow person who does drugs en goes out every night and has hot anonymous fucks just to forget the harsch reality of having hiv. i dont wanna be that!! i dont wanna scream out my status either i just wanna have a good social life where i feel happy and still feel accepted and driven to live... and my biggest fear is that i will never have a boyfriend. a good fuck yes a hot guy for a one night stand yes. but never someone who will love me for who i am and especially also because of my hiv status. thats why i dont think i would ever be able to tell someone that im hiv positive..."  quote you

Well, Chris, I know its hard being 19 or 20 and HIV positive. But.....if you surround yourself with negativity you will find that you may become what you fear the most.  Whereas,  if you become a more positive person, your outlook as well as your health improves. I hope you are doing well.
Good luck
joel

[MitchMiller]

Of course HIV is a big $$$ for pharma and docs.  Look how many ID specialists there were 20 years ago and how many thre are today... mostly treating hiv patients.  Look at Gilead (GILD), who's primary profit is based on HIV drugs (market cap nearly $48B).  One man's misery is another's big money making cash cow. 

I think there would be less resistance to a "cure" than to a vaccine.  In fact, a "cure" might actually INCREASE the revenues of the holder of that patent.  A "cure" doesn't mean eradication of HIV.  In fact it would probably become rampant... like other treatable STD's are today.

A vaccine would really put an end to the party.  In fact, the stock price of GILD would probably be halved over night if a vaccine were suddenly discovered.  Yeah.. that would be a definite incentive to slow vaccine research.

[Matty the Damned]

Feh!

In Australia HIV is not treated by infectious disease specialists or immunologists. It's treated and managed by GPs who've taken the appropriate training (usually the Short Course in HIV Medicine) and sexual health physicians who work in free public health clinics on a fixed salary.

A healthy and generous salary, but certainly not the riches of Croesus.

None of these people do it for the money. They treat HIV because it's their professional calling and they're good at it. Each and everyone of them could have gone on to far more lucrative fields of medicine, but they didn't. They work with us. As ungrateful and as venal and as grasping as we are. Every HIV doctor I've ever had (including Tong the Terrible) has had a personal connexion to his or her patients.

I have a strong suspicion that the same applies in the US.

Enough with this cretinous prattle about the AIDS industry I say! People who advance such an argument are borderline denialists and whackjobs seeing conspiracies and chasing shadows in every dark corner.

Be grateful you have access to the resources that you do. In my experience the only people who whine about HIV services are those who can afford to.

 

MtD

[randym431]

I wouldn’t be surprised if it was man made. And now a big money maker?
After all, during the cold war after WWII, the military started doing all kinds of germ warfare experimenting.
They have all the money in the world, and are accountable to no one, and they hate gays big time.
Then you hear of the experimenting on groups of monkeys in Africa, that they infected to study if and how the virus could or would spread.

I don’t think hiv was created, if it was man created,  to be directed at gay men. But if they had this in a bottle on the shelf, I wonder if
at some point someone realized what they could do with it.

The dark secret part of our government no doubt did study and thought up all kinds of scenarios to conduct war. The "what if" Game.

There were rumors in the late 70's and early 80's that many gays were talked into getting a HPV Vaccine.
And some thought, later, that is how it was spread in the beginning.
Doctor’s would have no clue. But if we can get tainted flu vaccine from China, then who might have been the source of  the HPV vaccine in the 1970’s – 80’s?

Its a little strange how fast this took over and spread in the gay community during the 1980's. At least to me.

Again, if this was military controlled, no one would be accountable. A top secret mission?

Then you had strange days back pre 1980's, like president assassination. Could JFK discovered what the military was up to,
and decided to protest?

Add too, it did not take too long to discover a test for the virus thus protecting the general public from "bad blood".

Or the rumors after the USSR collapsed, and how they were said to have uncovered proof of the conspiracy.

I don’t "really" believe all this, but there seems to be some puzzle parts that one could connect together. Or at least question.

Money, opportunity, ability, unaccountability, and motive.

The plan was successful, for a time. And it was only natural the science and medical community would break the virus mystery, eventually.
In the mean time, it worked. At least for a while.
You have to wonder, especially after WWII, Hitler and the use of the atomic bomb, if a government would be capable of such evil?
Hitler wanted to exterminate all the Jews. He thought he was justified, and morally correct. He nearly succeeded. And the German people,
for the most part turned their heads or were unaware.
The question is, how far could a government go if they perceived a threat from a group or people?

Maybe we don't want to know some answers... Like I said, I don't "really" believe all this, but I like to play "what - if" too.
And if I'm never heard from again, you know they GOT ME!      


 

[BT65]

Randy, HIV didn't affect just the gay communities in the early days.  It also spread among IV drug users, and the Haitian population.  Then it started spreading amongst the straights via transfusions.  I don't buy all the conspiarist hogwash.   Like the Damned One said, it borders on denialist rhetoric. 

My doctor is an HIV speciailist.  But he runs the clinic at the Center for the Homeless and is certainly one of the lesser paid doctors in this town.  There are plastic surgeons that make better financial gains and have a much higher social profile than my doctor.  He takes care of throw-away people.  There's just not a ton of glory there, other than respect for the lengths he's willing to go to treat people. 

I also agree with the Damned One that the people who complain the most are the ones who are getting more than adequate treatment.  Other people are just extremely grateful that they have any kind of access to modern medicine.

I suppose there will always be people who think every disease is man (or government) made.  But I won't buy into it nor will I argue it.  I attempt to realistically see things, instead of wasting time believing everyone is 'out to get us.'

[Miss Philicia]

Belief in conspiracy theories is just some simple need to assert control on that which we can't control.  Accept that life is meaningless and random and move on.

[thunter34]

If it is, I'm definitely on the wrong side of this enterprise.

[allopathicholistic]

A vaccine would really put an end to the party.  In fact, the stock price of GILD would probably be halved over night if a vaccine were suddenly discovered.  Yeah.. that would be a definite incentive to slow vaccine research.

"In fact"?  (shakes head) and then you tag on the word "probably" - Contradiction in terms, sorry. In fact, what you said is speculation, especially about Gilead's stock price. I think if we see an end to HIV/AIDS the people who did make money from it will say "Well, we had a good run being in the right place with exact timing." (Exact timing instead of "right time" since there's never a right time for AIDS) It's just the way it is.

[keyite]

Enough with this cretinous prattle about the AIDS industry I say! People who advance such an argument are borderline denialists and whackjobs seeing conspiracies and chasing shadows in every dark corner.

Couldn't agree more. What really angers me is how insulting this drivel must be to the people who go to work every day to provide care for us or to research potential developments in treatment.

 

[Matty the Damned]

What really angers me is how insulting this drivel must be to the people who go to work every day to provide care for us or to research potential developments in treatment.

I couldn't agree more. Especially considering they do it for free.

MtD

[RapidRod]

I don't think Matty could have explained it any better. Just be thankful we have the drugs that we have now and the Doctors that will care for us. They've came a long ways to where we are now.

[Matty the Damned]

I don't think Matty could have explained it any better. Just be thankful we have the drugs that we have now and the Doctors that will care for us. They've came a long ways to where we are now.

Absolutely Roddles.

You and I are so blessed. We don't have to do a damn thing for our health care, yet somebody else picks up the tab. Socialised medicine is good, but I'm sure you agree with me when I say that universal health care is what we're all working towards.



MtD

[RapidRod]

I don't think Matty could have explained it any better. Just be thankful we have the drugs that we have now and the Doctors that will care for us. They've came a long ways to where we are now.

Absolutely Roddles.

You and I are so blessed. We don't have to do a damn thing for our health care, yet somebody else picks up the tab. Socialised medicine is good, but I'm sure you agree with me when I say that universal health care is what we're all working towards.



MtD

You are right Matty, they've got to come up with something better for everyone.

[Matty the Damned]

Very true Rod. What might that "something better for everyone" be?

MtD

[RapidRod]

Who knows? All we do know is that all the talk that our "Representatives" do (I use that term sparingly)  isn't getting anywhere. Our "Representatives" work slower than slow here in the US. (or do they actually work when they get in office?) I don't know Matty, if that question can be answered by us peons on the lower end of the totem pole. It's something that will always come up around election time but when the elections are over I believe everything the candidates have said, gets erased. The US is known to be good at loosing tapes and files. 

[northernguy]

lifer, you're take on this strikes me as an American one.  Keep in mind that in most advanced western nations (except the USA) universal healthcare means that the government is paying for HIV treatment and care.  Don't you think if there was a way to cure HIV, that big government would be all over it to reduce their healthcare costs?