Ethan Nulton February 1, 12 Special topic 3

Yes, the contaminated source of Polio vaccine was in fact, the source of HIV. (gotcha) There is substantial scientific evidence proving that the contaminated polio vaccines did not create the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Polio vaccine contains weakened poliovirus produced is vast quantities that grow in live primate kidney tissue (1). Supporters of the hypothesis believe that chimpanzees, humanities closest genetic relatives, were used to manufacture the virus, instead of macaques. This is problematic for two reasons. The first reason is that microorganisms are highly adapted to a specific species or niche. It is very hard to acquire the dog flu from your pup. But, the genetic distance between chimps and humans is less than 2%; possibly close enough for a pathogen to cross the species barrier (2). This would be inconsequential if it werent for the second problem. There is evidence to believe that chimpanzees were the original niches that HIV lived in (3). Therefore if the poliovirus was grown on live chimpanzee tissue, it presented an ideal route for the virus to enter the human body. While it is unsettling to think that a vaccine could spawn a new disease, it is not the case however for HIV. Many of the lab workers producing the suspected CHAT polio vaccine in the Stanleyville laboratory produced sworn testimonials dismissing the claims that chimpanzee kidneys were used (4). Also, the annual reports from the laboratory do not mention using chimpanzee kidneys instead of

macaques for the CHAT poliovirus. Polymerase Chain Reaction experiments were also performed on remaining CHAT vaccines, which, unsurprisingly, displayed no traces of HIV or SIV genetic material (4). Furthermore, there is epidemiological evidence that HIV originated over 20 years before the OPV trials in Africa, making the hypothesis moot (5). It is a bold statement indeed to claim that a vaccine infected the first persons with a lethal virus if people were already infected with the same virus before the inoculations. It is so counterintuitive that it calls into question the intellect of proponents of the hypothesis. In conclusion, there is absolutely no reason to believe that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus originated from a contaminated batch of poliovirus CHAT vaccines.

1. Brown, D. 2001. Polio vaccine-AIDS theory refuted. The Washington Post, pp. A.092. Chen, F.C. & Li, W.H. 2001. Genomic divergences between humans and other hominoids and the effective population size of the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees. Am J Hum Genet 68 (2): 444456. 3. Bailes, E., Feng, G., et. Al. 2003. Hybrid Origin of SIV in Chimpanzees. Science. 300: 5613. 4. Plotkin, S. 2001. Untruths and Consequences: the false hypothesis linking CHAT 1 to the origin of HIV. The Royal Society. 10:20.98 5. Murray, T. 2000. Wrong geography, species buries AIDS origin theory [theory that AIDS epidemic started by experimental polio vaccine made from chimpanzees, in central africa in the 1950s]. Medical Post, 36(34), 26-26.