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New Study Shows HIV Epidemic Started Spreading In New York In 1970, Clears the Name of 'Patient Zero' (nbcnews.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: A new genetic study confirms theories that the global epidemic of HIV and AIDS started in New York around 1970, and it also clears the name of a gay flight attendant long vilified as being "Patient Zero." Researchers got hold of frozen samples of blood taken from patients years before the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS was ever recognized, and teased out genetic material from the virus from that blood. They use it to show that HIV was circulating widely during the 1970s, and certainly before people began noticing a "gay plague" in New York in the early 1980s. "We can date the jump into the U.S. in about 1970 and 1971," Michael Worobey, an expert on the evolution of viruses at the University of Arizona, told reporters in a telephone briefing. Their findings also suggest HIV moved from New York to San Francisco in about 1976, they report in the journal Nature. Their findings confirm widespread theories that HIV first leapt from apes to humans in Africa around the beginning of the 20th century and circulated in central Africa before hitting the Caribbean in the 1960s. The genetic evidence supports the theory that the virus came from the Caribbean, perhaps Haiti, to New York in 1970. From there it spread explosively before being exported to Europe, Australia and Asia. The Worobey team also sequenced samples of virus taken from Gaetan Dugas, a Canadian flight attendant named as "Patient Zero." Dugas died in 1984 and stunned researchers when he told them he'd had about 250 sexual partners a year between 1979 and 1981, although it later became clear that was not uncommon. The sequences make it clear he was a victim of an epidemic that had already been raging, and not its originator, Worobey said. "It's shocking how this man's name has been sullied and destroyed by this incorrect history," said Peter Staley, a former Wall Street bond trader who became an AIDS activist in New York in the 1980s. "He was not Patient Zero and this study confirms it through genetic analysis," Staley told NBC News. "No one should be blamed for the spread of viruses," Worobey said.
Bullshit. Your responsibility is to self-quarantine until you are sure that you aren't infectious. Otherwise, you're culpable for the people you infect. That jerk who comes to work with an active flu and infects the whole place should have to suffer with ten consecutive flus for that.
The only special pass in this case is that the HIV infected people of the 1970s and 80s had no idea they were sick.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
How is this guy somehow vindicated by not being the first carrier? He still did every single irresponsible act he did when we believed he was the first. I would say this actually makes him look worse because due to the revision of the timeline there's a bigger chance that he might have heard about some mysterious new illness and should have been more careful. I mean, it's not like STDs were unheard of before the 80s
Yeah, we may not be able to blame Dugas for bringing AIDS to the US, but the man was a psychopath. He had unprotected sex with hundreds of men after he was made aware of the fact he had "gay cancer", a fatal infectious disease spread by sexual contact.
Any theories as to why Slashdot attracts so many garbage people? And to be clear, by "garbage people", I mean seriously shitty, messed-up human beings.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Didn't you just contradict yourself? I agree that, say, coming to work when you know that you have the flu because your boss expects it is a voluntary act (ignoring for a moment the motivation behind it, which, IMO, is coerced) because you KNOW that you have an infectious disease. When you have no idea that you are carrying/passing a virus because the government willfully ignored the evidence for many years therefore exacerbating said situation, well.....
It's not suddenly, in 1979, tens of millions of gay men suddenly started showing signs of immunological deficiency. Because HIV infections take some time to develop into full blown AIDS (and that can be highly dependent on the individual), it would have taken a long time before there would be confirmation that there was something infecting gay men. And once you've established that there is some sort of sexually transmitted disease that leads to AIDS, you now have to literally pour through all sorts of tissue samples, blood samples, lymphatic samples, and so on and so on looking for the needle in the haystack. You'll probably end up going down a few false roads because many of these individuals probably had other STD infections, so you have to also be thinking "could this be some sort of mutated syphilis or hepatitis infection?"
It is largely because of diseases like AIDS and the technology developed to isolate infectious agents that we are so much better today than we were thirty or forty years ago. To judge the medical community of the early 1980s by the standards of the 21st century is absurd.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Any theories as to why Slashdot attracts so many garbage people? And to be clear, by "garbage people", I mean seriously shitty, messed-up human beings.
You misspelled "troll" but I'll float a theory as to why they're attracted to Slashdot: (1) anonymity; (2) minimal consequences for posting offensive material, especially as AC; and (3) an easily-provoked audience whose responses feed their egos.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
"If people had any idea they were sick we could probably have stopped the STD epidemic years ago."
It's like STDs have evolved to spread without causing obvious symptoms that prevent the carrier from getting laid and spreading them or something.
Very rarely with 100s of partners a year, yet this is "not uncommon" in the gay male community.
They are on average promiscuous on a level heterosexuals just don't get close to.
Heterosexual men are equally promiscuous, they just lack similarly willing partners.
Science you say?
Are the two samples (and statistics derived from them) comparable? (92% of the OkCupid userbase is straight, only 8% are gay).
Are the samples drawn independently from the population? We don't know why people choose to sign up for OkCupid so we cannot say if they are representative of the general population. Possible bias skews in the sample (depending on the observer's prejudices) could include: only slutty people, only people who are not getting laid enough, etc etc.
Is your primary source peer-reviewed, or is it a marketing piece?
Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
Fags are not known for their mental powers. Sticking your penis into a rectum is not very smart.
Sticking your penis in anything is not very smart. That's why lust evolved, to make you wanna do it anyway.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
AIDS was probably the first instance of a communicable disease that SHOULD have been reportable been exempted for political reasons.
The Gay community resisted all efforts to shut down bath houses which was a major source of infection and they continued (and many still) to practice dangerous sexual activities that have a high potential to spread HIV.
AIDS is a political disease that has been embraced by the SJWs and is even a status symbol in various gay subcultures where they actually try to become infected.
Regardless of what you think of the Gay lifestyle itself, the community has behaved selfishly, irresponsiby, and in some instances criminally.