Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1991. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle; Saturday, August 24, 1991
The defendant, William Lucas Barker, is charged with two counts stemming from an alleged sexual assault on an ex-prostitute and consensual sex with another woman. Neither knew Barker had tested positive for the virus that is blamed for causing AIDS.
Attorney Harold L. Perry indicated that he would present opening arguments in Barker's trial yesterday in Alameda County Superior Court based on a hotly contested theory by a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, who contends that HIV is not infectious.
Dr. Peter H. Duesberg has provoked controversy with his theory, which runs counter to the insistence by most AIDS researchers that there is conclusive proof that HIV is infectious and is spread through bodily fluids.
The link between HIV and AIDS is circumstantial but has convinced virtually the entire scientific community.
Duesberg contends that AIDS is a collection of many diseases, none of which is caused by HIV. He says the mainstream explanation does not explain why HIV causes AIDS as long as 10 years after infection.
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