Posted by: Barthélemy Barbancourt in Blog on Mar 05, 2010
The blood discussion reminded me of another issue where the scientists lied to the public.
AIDS is primarily a disease that affects homosexuals and drug users. This is a fact. Doctors knew this very early on. The odds of two healthy heterosexuals transmitting AIDS is very low.
In order to develop sympathy for AIDS victims and get millions in grant money for research, doctors lied to the public about the likelihood of heterosexual transmission of the disease. There isn't much debate about this as the heterosexual epidemic predicted never occurred.
Those that question why scientists would lie about Man Made Global Warming need only to look at the AIDS scare to see why. Scientists are driven by the need for money and fame like everyone else. Even if they aren't the one lying, they often keep quiet about the truth rather than rock the boat and endanger the precious flow of grant money.
Maybe if we highlight more stories like this one we can get people to take scientist down from a pedestal and rank them right next to used car salesmen and Congressmen on the trust scale.