AIDS: THE ITALIAN VACCINE SCANDAL

National preview presentation of the new book by Vittorio Agnoletto and Carlo Gnetti, with a foreword by Robert Gallo.

Translated from Italian by Rudy Andria.

“Aids: The scandal of the Italian vaccine.”

“From whichever point of view one looks at it, the whole question seems trivial to me, because I did not believe then, as I still do not now, that there exists an ounce of logic (not even of data) showing possible efficacy of the Tat protein.” From Robert Gallo’s foreword.

The vaccine heralded as the discovery of the century to fight Aids is an Italian vaccine. But, after the initial excitement, there began to emerge a series of doubts and inconsistencies, including suspicion that the data had been manipulated to “force” the first results. Then, on the eve of a magnificent ceremony in the Capitol organised to celebrate the research progress, some of the protagonists of the Italian research on Aids denounced irregularities and deviations from the protocol.

These are serious charges, which put into question the whole research system.

But the National Institute of Health argues that the opponents are motivated by prejudice and that the study should continue instead. Appropriate funding comes from the Ministry of Health and from the Foreign Office to proceed with the experiment, this time on humans, and in a country where AIDS is definitely a scourge: South Africa.
What will be the fate of the Africans involved in the experiment? How was it possible that no one at the highest levels of the institutions had heeded the warnings? Yet, there is still a risk that experiments on humans could be dangerous. How come so many protagonists, famous names in the world of science refuse to deal with the subject? As it is rebuilding the whole event, this book turns into a kind of thriller, between reticence and fears, omissions and interests, in which a happy end is not guaranteed. (From the back cover).

 

Best regards from

The Staff of “AIDS Vaccine Scandal”.