HIV is not the cause of AIDS. In fact, HIV may not even exist. If it does, it’s just a harmless passenger virus brought along by other ailments. The HIV antibodies have never been adequately isolated, and testing for the virus is highly inaccurate. AIDS itself is caused by a variety of factors, such as recreational drug use, malnutrition, poor sanitation, and the side effects of the anti-retroviral medication used to "treat" HIV.

Sound insane? It is!

But these views are being promoted in a new film on Apple Trailers called House of Numbers. The tag line for the film states that "a world without HIV/AIDS may be closer than you think."

In a review for the New York Times, Jeannette Catsoulis writes:

Couched as a “personal journey” through the history of H.I.V. and AIDS, “House of Numbers” is actually a weaselly support pamphlet for AIDS denialists. Trafficking in irresponsible inferences and unsupported conclusions, the filmmaker Brent Leung offers himself as suave docent through a globe-trotting pseudo-investigation that should raise the hackles of anyone with even a glancing knowledge of the basic rules of reasoning.

Seeing this on Apple Trailers, I immediately wrote the following very short e-mail to Apple. I am thinking about writing another e-mail since I suspect trailers [at] mac [dot] com will ignore this one.

Dear Apple,

As a frequent visitor of Apple Trailers and iPhone owner, I am offended that you are promoting the film House of Numbers by featuring its trailer on your website. This film promotes a conspiracy theory known as AIDS denialism that portrays AIDS as not being a real disease. This is deeply hurtful to the relatives of the more than 25 million people who have died as a result of AIDS in the past few decades.

Please remove this trailer from your website.

This film is hardly limited to promotion by Apple, however. It’s also being pushed by The Spectator in the UK, where political editor Fraser Nelson wants to "discuss the strength of the link between HIV and AIDS."

In the US we have charlatans like Gary Null, who is a prominent member of the AIDS denialist community, and who keeps being allowed to push his quackery on National Public Radio and other major media outlets. While I don’t know if he is aware of this specific film, Null promotes other AIDS denialist films on his website. Null is notable for having a PhD, ostensibly in a scientific field, from a university not accredited to award scientific degrees. Thankfully, Pacifica’s WBAI New York station had the sense to kick him off, but he retains a large fan base.

These views are dangerous. Writing in the Guardian, Ben Goldacre notes:

Despite international outcry, from 2000 to 2005 South Africa implemented policies based on the belief that HIV does not cause Aids, and declined to roll out adequate antiretroviral therapy. It has been estimated in two separate studies that around 350,000 people died unnecessarily in South African during this period.

We need to get people like this off the airwaves.

I’m going to write a letter to NPR right now calling on them to pull Null’s show.