iClinic (Johannesburg) - December 18, 2000
Marjolein Harvey

The panel, set up at Mbeki's behest, comprised 33 scientists from 14 countries, more or less evenly balanced between mainstream scientists and dissidents such as Peter Duesberg and David Rasnick of the US and South African Sam Mhlongo, who argue that the root causes in Africa and other developing regions of immune deficiency, symptomatic of AIDS, is poverty, malnutrition, poor hygiene and local diseases.

Mbeki called the panel together to help government become as broadly informed as possible about the true nature of AIDS in Africa and what to do about it.

At the panel meetings, evidence for and against were presented for the following four propositions about AIDS: AIDS is a contagious disease AIDS is sexually transmitted HIV causes AIDS anti-HIV drugs prolong the lives of HIV positive people or at least improve the quality of their lives "Virtually every participant here has strongly, even passionately held views about AIDS that have become entrenched over the years," says David Rasnick, PhD, a "dissident" scientist part of the panel.

"I admit to holding strong, passionate views that are opposed to those of mainstream AIDS researchers. It is unlikely that a two-day meeting will change the views of any of the participants," he said.

The results of the deliberations of the AIDS Panel were therefore very much as expected: the two sides remained at odds and no agreement was reached.

The composition of the R2 million panel has led to international and local criticism of Mbeki, which eventually caused him to publicly withdraw from making any more statements on the topic of AIDS.

The local press and opposition parties likened Mbeki's flirtation with the dissidents theories to listening to "flat-earthists," and the Democratic Party declared the panel would find no fresh answers because the dissidents would drag the debate back to square one.

"It will be a tired rerun of long-extinct speculations," it said. "Rather than learning from his mistakes, he seems intent on ensuring that each new enterprise is more farcical than the rest. The president's irresponsibility in this matter verges on the criminal."

The New National Party said the government had allowed itself to "be manipulated by fringe lunatics and nut cases" and was wasting time and money.

Mail & Guardian loses court case Meanwhile, an appeal board of the South African Press Ombudsman has ruled on Friday that the Mail & Guardian's coverage of Mbeki's AIDS panel was in breach of its Code of Conduct, reported Fintan Dunne for eYeIreland Online News on Monday.

Dunne says that the ruling upheld a complaint by the Forum for Debating AIDS South Africa (FDASA) over an M&G article "All the president's scientists: diary of a round-earther", by an anonymous author on September 8, 2000.

Robin MacGregor, who represented the interests of the public on the Appeal Panel, was reported by Dunne as slamming the M&G article as "snide, sarcastic and offensive [to] individual . . . members of the Panel". He deemed it "unbalanced and seriously biased" against the alternative view on AIDS.

Dunne says that the media representative, Dennis Pather - a working member of the media - believed that the Mail & Guardian was fully justified.

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