Los Angeles Times - August 8, 2003
Paul M. Anderson**

"So here's this 3-year-old kid watching slideshows and observing science," Dick said. "When I started going to Sunday school and they started pushing mythology on me, I said, 'I don't believe this [garbage].' I guess that's why I doubt things. I look for logic. I guess you could say I'm a heretic."

That's for sure. Dick's been on a self-described "quixotic" mission for seven years to find a class-action attorney willing to take on the pharmaceutical companies and scientific community in a "fraud" lawsuit based on a challenge to the firmly established belief that the HIV virus causes AIDS. The longtime Claremont resident says his son, who is gay, is HIV-positive. He has asked that his last name not be used.

Dick reached out to me after reading my column a couple of weeks ago about AIDS in Africa. He e-mailed me a mountain of articles challenging the establishment's opinions about HIV and AIDS. Taking it all in was like cramming for a final exam after you've blown off the last few weeks of class.

These so-called experts on both sides of the debate have let loose over the years with withering arguments featuring a bewildering flurry of jargon. So why not just dump Dick's e-mail into the delete file? Because over the years as I struggled with severe and chronic stomach pain I was repeatedly told that I worry too much.

In the 1980s, a couple of Australian scientists discovered that the vast majority of ulcers were caused by a bacterial infection that two weeks of antibiotics would knock out. Most of the establishment laughed at them and ridiculed their theory. But they were right. A couple of weeks of pills alleviated years of suffering for me. I learned a valuable lesson from the experience. Doctors aren't gods. Some physicians I saw clearly weren't up to date on the latest research and some even dispensed downright silly advice. Others, though, really helped improve my health immensely. Let's face it, some people are good at their jobs and others aren't.

Dick's been in contact with some of the leading proponents of a theory that HIV does not lead to AIDS and that some of the medicine prescribed to treat HIV causes AIDS. The proponents question the research done linking the virus to the disease. Their arguments certainly carry an authoritative tone. But then so did some of the experts I talked to.

Some UCLA experts I contacted advised me to ignore Dick's e-mail. They sent me a copy of a 1997 critique of the theory that HIV does not cause AIDS written by Stephen J. O'Brien of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Sohan Bassi, a physician on staff at San Antonio Community Hospital in Upland who specializes in infectious diseases, studied AIDS while working on his fellowship at the University of Illinois Chicago. His take on the dissenters?

"That's crackpot" theory, Bassi said. "There's no question that HIV causes AIDS. I don't know why people have these particular agendas."

In Dick's case, his agenda is to save his son's life. He loves his son a great deal and like most parents he wants to protect him. And just like most parents, he's driven his son nuts over the years with his nagging - to the point where they had serious fallings out and weren't speaking to each other. When Dick finally promised not to raise the issue anymore, they reached a truce and are on good terms now.

That's why Dick's trying to find a lawyer to handle a class-action suit and he's e-mailing reporters. He's trying to do an end-around. I don't know if he's on the right track, but he's right about one thing. He is tilting at windmills. He thinks if he exposes this "fraud" that he'll be able to change his son's mind. Don't get me wrong. I think his cause is just about hopeless, but it's admirable.

"I can't convince him myself. I'm not the best arguer. That's why I'm trying to get this lawsuit started," Dick said. "It's a little rough on me because of this waiting for an attorney to do something. I've gotten turned down time after time again. It's become a crusade for me, a compulsion. I keep clipping things out of the newspaper. I'm a Don Quixote tilting at windmills but I can't give it up. When I see something that's so wrong and people making money off it it's criminal."

Dick worked as an electronic engineer for 37 years. He retired in 1985. Science and logic are twin beacons for him, guiding how he looks at life. He refuses to take any prevailing theory for granted because science has trained him to be skeptical and question things.

But there's one thing that goes unquestioned. It's his devotion and love for his son. Although he said he was disappointed when he realized his son was gay because it meant he would not get a grandchild from him, he loves his son unconditionally.

"There've been times at some of these support meetings I've gone to where I've spoken when one of the gay guys comes up to me and says how much they admire me because his father threw him out of the house. And here I've not only accepted him, but I'm trying to help him. It's not his fault he's gay. It's not a choice. It's the way the genes are made up somehow."

I don't know if these theories about HIV and AIDS that Dick so firmly believes are correct. And I don't know if I can help him in any way with this column. But I admire his love for his son. If you're so inclined, do the research yourself on the Web and make up your own mind. It's fairly simple to find the O'Brien article. For the dissenting opinion, do a search on virologist Peter Duesberg.

And let's keep Dick and his son in our prayers.

**Paul M. Anderson is the city editor of the Claremont-Upland Voice. Reach him at 484-7082.

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