<<< Go to start <<<
| Page 3 of 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
For a start, Porter Stansberry said, he had “about 400 pages of research and scientific evidence” and followed that by citing what he described as “two major reasons” why AidsVax “will succeed”:
#1: The guy who is developing this vaccine knows more about AIDS than anyone else in the world.
This was Dr Donald Francis, at the time president of VaxGen, who was actually not widely regarded among experts as a central figure in Aids research. But nevertheless:
Dave and I are on a first name basis with this scientist. We’ve joined him for several-hour meetings on multiple occasions. He’s a medical doctor (USC), with a Doctorate of Science in virology from Harvard University. His doctoral thesis was one of the first formal works on feline Leukemia, a retrovirus that is essentially AIDS in cats. (AIDS/HIV is a retrovirus, which means it uses your body’s own DNA to reproduce.)
This guy has more real-world field experience than anyone in the AIDS vaccine business:
He was a member of the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) elite Disease Surveillance Team.
He helped stomp out smallpox in India.
He was one of only two doctors flown from the United States to Sudan to fight the Ebola virus.
Before AIDS, he was the co-principal investigator of the Phase III trial for the Hepatitis B vaccine.
While working at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he was part of the team that confirmed the identity of the AIDS virus.
You get the point. He is THE expert in the field. He’s even been the subject of a Hollywood movie – Matthew Modine starred in the role.
Okay, that’s the first reason – pretty short on science. So what’s the second? Porter gave it:
#2: This vaccine has passed every test along the way with flying colors.
It hadn’t. Before the phase III trial commenced, scores of independent scientists made an unprecented protest, aimed at the US government, claiming that on the basis of laboratory, animal and initial human tests, VaxGen’s technology had failed and should not even be allowed to proceed to a phase III evaluation, demanding the recruitment of volunteers who would gain no benefit, but might actually be harmed by the product.
In place of the scientific consensus that the AidsVax technology – which dated to the 1980s – simply couldn’t be effective at tackling the Aids epidemic, Porter Stansberry cited (without author attribution) VaxGen’s in-house papers and promotional materials, which were bound to tell the story he wanted.
Next, the company entered a three-stage human test, following U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines.
The first two stages of the human tests, Phase I and II, proved successful. The AIDS vaccine is 100% safe. And everyone who takes it develops the all-important antibodies needed to fight the disease.