Real Science: What We Learned From Public Health About Viruses and How We Are Winning.

Viruses are real and cause disease. Vaccines Help. RFK Jr. and His Band Of Science Deniers Are Deadly.

From Mother Jones

Beyond Fear and Stigma: The Real Science of HIV's Origins

In 1996, my first book, "AIDS and HIV Related Diseases," was published by Hachette Book Group. As any author knows, publication is just the beginning—then comes the challenge of promoting your work through presentations. This was particularly daunting given the subject matter. There was still tremendous stigma surrounding AIDS (and frankly, there still is today). Where stigma exists in medicine and healthcare, fear and junk science inevitably follow close behind.

I remember one presentation vividly—I was speaking to a group of graduate students in Buffalo, New York. Experience has taught me that whenever you give a presentation on an illness that affects, or is perceived to affect, a marginalized group of people, there will always be someone in the audience ready to play the role of "protagonist for the day"—a champion of bigotry carefully packaged as "conservative" intellectualism.

With AIDS and HIV having a disp…