djm wrote:Its the same with the controversy over whether HIV causes AIDS, or whether cell phones cause brain cancer. You can point out statistics that show how many people who have HIV get AIDS, or statistics that show brain cancer rates increase in areas where cell phones are introduced, but the actual mechanism hasn't been proven scientifically. For AIDS, no-one wants to hear that HIV isn't involved.
The connection between HIV, the virus, and AIDS, the immune deficiency disorder, is more than a little clear. It is far more than just "statistics that show how many people who have HIV get AIDS." Yeah, there are statistics on that, and they even show how long it takes, but those aren't the data which demonstrate that HIV is the cause of AIDS.
Viral replication and infection of cells in the immune system interferes with the body's ability to defend itself and opportunistic infections have their opportunity to infect.
It's not just speculation and it's not a conspiracy. There is a direct relationship between the number of viral particles and the degree of immunosuppression, treatment aiming to control viral replication controls the onset of AIDS, AIDS does not occur in the absence of HIV, etc.
The brain cancer - cell phone connection hasn't been shown to hold water yet, though.