This might in some sense be another long shot for our encyclopedia. Culshaw is definitely Canadian, but she works at and is affiliated with the University of Texas at Tyler. I guess that is enough to count. Especially since the world really needs to be informed of this truly dangerous, misguided and ignorant nutjob.Rebecca Culshaw is an HIV-denialist who knows math but very little epidemiology or the necessary biology. That does not prevent her from, without qualms, claiming that it is OK for HIV-positive mothers to breastfeed their children, refuse HIV tests or special care for their children and so on. This is not just innocent kookery.
Culshaw is the author of “Science Sold Out: Does HIV Really Cause AIDS?” wherein she uses mathematics to show that HIV was never an epidemic and that therefore it doesn't exist. Or something along those lines.
Here’s a useful guide to HIV denialism. For a good scare, you might try the comment section here.
Diagnosis: Seriously deluded (confirmation bias, double standards and arguments from ignorance abound) and extremely dangerous, to the extent that she should possibly be held accountable for several deaths already.
It is my understanding that Blondie no longer works at UT-Tyler. 'Her contract was not renewed', and she is currently a house wife.
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Why do you have to resort to referring to someone based upon their hair colour. It shows a great lack of respect for the efforts of an individual to attempt to find truth in an otherwise convoluted & confusing mired mess. This comment is being written by a person with AIDS for 5+ years & no medication. Your comment shows your adolescent side never grew up. Science isn't about I'm right your wrong, its about finding facts.
DeleteJust for your information yogaflex, ERV is Dr. Abbie Smith who received her PhD for AIDS research at the Un. of Oklahoma. She is a full time AIDS researcher and has far superior qualifications to comment on the subject then does Ms. Culshaw. You should also be aware that "Prof." Behe declined to accept a challenge to debate on the subject of AIDS evolution from Dr. Smith on the grounds that she was only a graduate student. Apparently, like Bill Dumbski, Behe has some chicken feathers where his intestinal fortitude ought to be.
DeleteThanks for the update - that's certainly good for UT-Tyler. If she has moved back to Canada it may be hard to justify including her in the Encyclopedia at all, though I suspect we may have a duty to make as many as possible aware of the fact that she is, well, not a trustworthy source of information.
ReplyDeleteA good rebuttal to her: http://knol.google.com/k/james-mclarty/common-sense-rebuttal-to-an-aids/10ri3veudxu0b/1#
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to read how she reasons. Unlike some bloggers, mathematics should be able to reason rather logically than emotionally.
ReplyDeleteWhy don´t you pick up her points, try to understand them, and then go and explain calmly why you think they aren´t valid.
Simply claiming these hiv denialists are wrong, without disproving their arguments, is poor and indicates you have never read anything from them.
Tim: you have seriously misunderstood the purpose of the Encyclopedia. The purpose is to enumerate prominent American loons and briefly explain why they are loons. Just like any encyclopedia, it does not offer any thorough rebuttals of the insane claims made by these loons. However, it does offer links to takedowns of their idiocy. You could try to follow some of those if you for some reason need to have Culshaw's claims discussed in detail. There is even a link to a useful guide to HIV denialism in the post. You can find it if you follow the hyperlink embedded in "Here's a useful guide to HIV denialism". As usual, the underlined, blue letters suggest that there's a hyperlink embedded there.
ReplyDeleteI do want to remind you, in case you forget, that science is not about arguments, but about evidence obtained through careful and methodologically sound research. "Disproving their arguments" is an oxymoron (or a category mistake) to begin with, but apart from that: even people with a solid ability to reason faultlessly (I'm not saying Culshaw is) need to have true (or at least justified) premises to draw their inferences from, and with respect to scientific matters those premises require empirical evidence (not intuition or reasoning abilities). Culshaw demonstrably doesn't know much about the science, and doesn't seem to care.
Wow! When I stumbled across this political blog I would have never guessed that HIV Conspiracy Theorists would taint the great wall of Google with Denialist this! and Denialist that!
ReplyDeleteAnyone who opens this phony blog will notice the stench of propaganda, it's that transparent.
Culshaw made you do it! Laugin My Ass off.
Abby the "ERV" witch didn't croak yet? With her ERV-Related Attitude and her HIV-Related buck teeth and her AIDS Related IQ?
Kudos to Horseshit denial
I read her book, & in it says that none of the proceeds go to her, they go to a foundation unrelated to her. So even if you doubting thomases don't want to put money in her pocket by buying it, you won't be. So buy the book, read it yourself and come to your own conclusion instead of riding the backs of others... Basically mental plagiarism.
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