Health - Resources and discussion for everything health-related

2461 readers

26 users here now

Health: physical and mental, individual and public.

Discussions, issues, resources, news, everything.

See the pinned post for a long list of other communities dedicated to health or specific diagnoses. The list is continuously updated.

Nothing here shall be taken as medical or any other kind of professional advice.

Commercial advertising is considered spam and not allowed. If you're not sure, contact mods to ask beforehand.

Linked videos without original description context by OP to initiate healthy, constructive discussions will be removed.

Regular rules of lemmy.world apply. Be civil.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

507

Joe Rogan and Bret Weinstein Promote AIDS Denialism to an Audience of Millions (www.vice.com)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

99 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Weinstein repeated discredited theories to Rogan about HIV not being the cause of AIDS, alarming and infuriating public health experts.

Bret Weinstein, the evolutionary biology professor turned podcaster and ivermectin guy, repeated a series of discredited pseudo-theories about AIDS in a recent appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Weinstein, a frequent guest, told Rogan that he found the theory that party drugs like poppers cause AIDS to be “surprisingly compelling.” (It is not.) Weinstein also told Rogan he came to these ideas by reading a recent book by anti-vaccine activist and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, creating a sort of unholy turducken of misinformation passed onto an audience of millions.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I'm a biologist, during my graduation I had an entire 8 month virology class, with a module dedicated to HIV. Viruses and how HIV works also appeared in physiology, microbiology, farmacology and I believe cell morphology. The professor who taught me virology is one of my country's leading experts and the most cited expert in his area - this person only decided to teach the bio students (he is a biologist himself) so the med students didn't get to learn from the main expert in the building.

Should a biologist provide somebody with an HIV infection diagnosis? No. Could a biologist recommend some sort of treatment or medication? No. Should a biologist instruct somebody to go against the recommendations of their doctor? No. Where I live, any of that would be illegal in fact, and no trained biologist would disagree.

But biologists are absolutely capable of talking about HIV, how it works, how it spreads, and are indeed commonly the ones actually doing research into the virus and treatments.

Your comment would be like saying "this physicist isn't qualified to talk about gravity though. He's not even an engineer!"

(though yes, the mere suggestion that HIV comes from party drugs is moronic)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I mean, are there many people who can talk about gravity?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I mean, he made an idiotic comment that goes against the entirety of what we know about hiv and aids. Biologist or not, he's using an appeal to authority to spread misinformation.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Sure, I agree. But that's not what your comment said. Your comment specifically questioned why a biologist would talk about HIV and not a medical expert.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

And I stand by that comment. An evolutionary biologist has no business commenting on something he's not an expert in.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

So yes - my comment perfectly applies. If you believe a biologist has no business commenting on HIV, you don't really understand what a biologist does or studies.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Do you hold multiple PhDs in computer science? No? Log off.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I mean, he made an idiotic comment that goes against the entirety of what we know about hiv and aids

Actually, I don't know it. I haven't studied medicine or aids.

I doubt that most of the other people here have either.

We're just repeating what we hear.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You can literally google it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago

That would be the "repeating what we hear" to which I referred