Group's Board Meets in Berkeley
Strohman and Johnson make room for Giraldo and Maggiore
For the third time in three years, a meeting took place among the Board of Directors
of the Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis, which publishes
Reappraising AIDS
. The Sunday, July 12, summit took place in Berkeley, at the Bancroft Hotel, across
the street from the University of California, a few blocks from Peter Duesberg's
laboratory.
The Board elected two new members, physician and researcher Roberto Giraldo of New
York City, and HEAL-Los Angeles founder and director Christine Maggiore. In order
to make room on the Board for the new members, two founding Directors, UC-Berkeley
biologist Richard Strohman and UC-Berkeley law professor Philip Johnson, stepped down. Neither
Strohman nor Johnson attended, but remain vocally supportive of the Group and its
activities, and their criticisms of the HIV-AIDS model, and support for alternative
explanations, are unchanged.
The Board elected David Rasnick, a visiting scientist in Duesberg's lab, to continue
as President, Detroit engineer Paul Philpott to continue as Editor, and Chico State
University African history professor Charles Geshekter to continue as Corresponding
Secretary. Attendees changed the title Chairman to President, the title Publisher/Editor
to simply Editor, and the title Board of Editors to Board of Directors.
Rasnick called the meeting and offered Group funds to pay domestic travel costs. Eight
of fourteen sitting Board members attended, constituting a quorum: Rasnick, Duesberg,
Philpott, Gesheckter, California Monthly
Editor Russell Schoch, American Spectator
DC Correspondent Tom Bethell, writer John Lauritsen, and Nature Bio/Technology
Editor-at-Large Harvey Bialy. The only three USA residents who did not attend were
unable due to travel conflicts: retired Harvard School of Medicine professor Charles
Thomas, actuary Peter Plumley, and writer Celia Farber. None of the three overseas
members were able to attend: Australian medical ethics professor Hiram Caton, retired epidemiology
professor and physician Gordon Stewart of Scotland, and University of Sydney mathematics
lecturer Mark Craddock.
Attendees resolved that the Group's existence still serves a productive purpose, and
identified activities for which they hope to obtain funding. Among these proposals:
providing lecturers to local HEAL groups, staging AIDS reappraisal conferences, sending representatives to attend
conventional AIDS conferences, revamping the newsletter
to include photographs, and conducting annual Board meetings.