Edward Hooper

Edward Hooper (born 1951) is a British journalist best known for his book, "The River", which investigates the origins and early epidemiology of AIDS and makes a case for the OPV AIDS hypothesis, the controversial and disputed claim that the AIDS virus was accidentally created by scientists testing an experimental polio vaccine.

The OPV AIDS Hypothesis

Hooper first encountered the OPV Aids hypothesis when he read a 1992 article in "Rolling Stone" magazine by freelance journalist Tom Curtis. Curtis described a theory advanced by Louis Pascal that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was inadvertently caused in the late 1950s in the Belgian Congo by Hilary Koprowski's testing of an oral polio vaccine (OPV) on human subjects. This is the so-called "OPV AIDS hypothesis." "Rolling Stone" was later sued for defamation by Koprowski and retracted Curtis' article, writing: "The editors of Rolling Stone wish to clarify that they never intended to suggest in the article that there is any scientific proof, nor do they know of any scientific proof" that Koprowski's vaccine was the source of HIV/AIDS. [ [http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/rs93.html Origin of AIDS update] , published in "Rolling Stone" on December 9 1993. Accessed March 20 2008.]

Hooper travelled throughout Africa, Europe, and the United States for 7 years of research before publishing "The River". Hooper surmised that an experimental oral polio vaccine prepared in chimpanzee kidneys or blood may indeed have been the route through which the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) passed to humans and mutated into HIV sometime between 1957 and 1959. Hooper advocated for further scientific investigation of the OPV/AIDS hypothesis and for the observation of appropriate precautions with regard to future use of animal tissue culture in medical applications, particularly in the research and development of AIDS vaccines.

With the enthusiastic support of the eminent evolutionary biologist W. D. Hamilton, Hooper was invited to take part in a symposium at Royal Society of London, the first time a non-scientist had ever been invited to such a discussion. Hooper's presentation and data were heavily criticized and rejected by scientists at the gathering; [cite journal |author=Plotkin SA, Teuwen DE, Prinzie A, Desmyter J |title=Postscript relating to new allegations made by Edward Hooper at The Royal Society Discussion Meeting on 11 September 2000 |journal=Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. |volume=356 |issue=1410 |pages=825–9 |year=2001 |pmid=11405926 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2001.0875] the vaccine expert Stanley Plotkin wrote at the time that "Testimony by eyewitnesses, documents of the time, epidemiological analysis, and ancillary phylogenetic, virologic and PCR data all concur to reject the [OPV AIDS] hypothesis as false and without factual foundation." [cite journal |author=Plotkin SA |title=Untruths and consequences: the false hypothesis linking CHAT type 1 polio vaccination to the origin of human immunodeficiency virus |journal=Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. |volume=356 |issue=1410 |pages=815–23 |year=2001 |pmid=11405925 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2001.0861] Currently, additional scientific evidence has led to a rejection of the OPV AIDS hypothesis by the scientific community. [For summaries of scientific opinion on the topic, see:
*cite journal |author=Cohen J |title=AIDS origins. Disputed AIDS theory dies its final death |journal=Science |volume=292 |issue=5517 |pages=615 |year=2001 |pmid=11330303 |doi=
*cite journal |author=Worobey M, Santiago ML, Keele BF, "et al" |title=Origin of AIDS: contaminated polio vaccine theory refuted |journal=Nature |volume=428 |issue=6985 |pages=820 |year=2004 |pmid=15103367 |doi=10.1038/428820a] Hooper continues to promote the hypothesis on his website, aidsorigins.com, where he criticizes the research and conduct of many of the scientists involved in the investigation and alleges a conspiracy to silence the hypothesis. [ [http://www.aidsorigins.com AIDSorigins.com] , Edward Hooper's website]

References

Bibliography

* Edward Hooper, "The River", Little Brown and Company, 1999, ISBN 0-316-37261-7.

External links

* [http://www.aidsorigins.com/ AIDSorigins.com] : Hooper's website
* [http://imdb.com/title/tt0438938/ The Origins of AIDS] (IMDB entry for the 2003 documentary with interviews of Hooper)