Beth,

    Thanks for the correct update. I apologize for any mis-information I have
passed on to this list. I still have to wonder though. Just don't trust the
estanlishment.

Bobby

Elizabeth H. Thiers wrote:

> Been on vacation so, I'm just now catching up on email.  In light of recent
> discussions, thought you might be interested in the following article:
>
> No AIDS-Related Viruses Or Champanzee DNA Found In 1950's-Era Polio Vaccine
>
>       http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/wi-nar091100.html
>
>       Tests performed by three independent laboratories on 1950s-era polio
> vaccine samples from The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA, failed to find
> any traces of SIV, HIV-1, or DNA indicating that chimpanzee cells were used
> to prepare the vaccine, according to the scientist who coordinated the
> testing. Dr. Claudio Basilico, chairman of microbiology at New York
> University Medical Center and head of Wistar's external AIDS/Poliovirus
> Advisory Committee, announced the findings today at a Royal Society meeting
> in London entitled "Origins of HIV and the AIDS Epidemic."
>       Taken together, the findings provide strong evidence to refute the
> theory that an oral polio vaccine prepared at The Wistar Institute and
> administered to people in the then Belgian Congo in the late 1950s provided
> the route of transmission for HIV or HIV-related viruses from chimpanzees to
> humans, as has been proposed by Mr. Edward Hooper in his book The River
> (Little, Brown and Co., 1999).
>       A linchpin in Hooper's theory is the supposition that chimpanzee cells
> were used in the preparation of the vaccine. For this reason, it is
> significant that the tests identified DNA from only one species of primate -
> the Asian macaque monkey, not the chimpanzee - in the Wistar vaccine
> samples. The two former Wistar scientists who developed the vaccines, Dr.
> Hilary Koprowski and Dr. Stanley Plotkin, have long maintained that no
> chimpanzee cells were used in their preparation.
>       "There is nothing in the results from these tests to support the
> theory that HIV entered the human population during the late 1950s
> poliovirus clinical trials in Africa," Dr. Basilico says. "The different
> tests performed by the three independent laboratories did not find any
> evidence of SIV or HIV in the samples nor did they find chimpanzee DNA. In
> fact, the laboratories were able to determine that all of the Wistar samples
> were grown in monkey cell cultures rather than chimpanzee cell cultures."
>       "We want to thank Dr. Claudio Basilico and the Wistar external
> AIDS/Poliovirus Advisory Committee, as well as the laboratories who
> generously donated their resources to this project, for shepherding these
> tests through to a conclusion," says Dr. Clayton Buck, acting director of
> The Wistar Institute. "We trust that these results will put to rest any
> remaining concerns of a link between a Wistar-produced oral polio vaccine
> and AIDS. The findings should also serve to restore public confidence in the
> production and administration of vaccines and in the response of science to
> public inquiry."
>       For the tests, the Wistar samples were subdivided and coded by Dr.
> Vincent Racaniello, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons,
> New York, NY. Sets of the samples were then delivered to the three
> independent laboratories who had agreed to perform the tests: Dr. Shirley
> Kwok, Roche Molecular Systems, Pleasanton, CA; Dr. Svante Paabo, Max Planck
> Institute, Leipzig, Germany; and Dr. Simon Wain-Hobson, Institut Pasteur,
> Paris, France. Dr. Kwok tested for the presence of SIV/HIV in the samples;
> Dr. Paabo tested for the presence and species origin of mitochondrial and
> nuclear DNA in the samples; and Dr. Wain-Hobson's laboratory performed both
> tests.
>       Additional sets of samples, including control samples, were prepared
> and coded by the Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA, and delivered to
> the three testing laboratories. All codes were provided only to Dr. Basilico
> for later interpretation of the results.
>
> Elizabeth H. Thiers, OTR/L
> homepage: http://www.bv.net/~john
> email: [log in to unmask]