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What causes AIDS? It's an open question. (Cover Story)

From: Reason  |  Date: 6/1/1994  |  Author: Johnson, Phillip E.; Mullis, Kary B.; Thomas, Charles A., Jr.

Most Americans believe they know what causes AIDS. For a decade, scientists, government officials, physicians, journalists, public-service ads, TV shows, and movies have told them that AIDS is caused by a retrovirus called HIV. This virus supposedly infects and kills the "T-cells" of the immune system, leading to an inevitably fatal immune deficiency after an asymptomatic period that averages 10 years or so. Most Americans do not know--because there has been a virtual media blackout on ...

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