Some of them are well educated yet determined to be "contrarian." Others obviously never fully understood the subjects they studied. Others were merely grifters capitalizing on the fears and ignorance of the masses... Unfortunately for those who caused immeasurable suffering with their denialist lies re: HIV as the cause of AIDS-- leading to some horrendous policies and persecution across the globe, the risk to these charlatans from contracting the disease itself was in their own hands and limited. So, they went on to do their damage throughout their careers, sans any real karmic intervention.
From the Wiki page on HIV/AIDS denial:
Several scientists have been associated with HIV/AIDS denialism, although they have not themselves studied AIDS or HIV.[9] One of the most famous and influential is Duesberg, professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, who since 1987 has disputed that the scientific evidence shows that HIV causes AIDS.[23] Other scientists associated with HIV/AIDS denialism include biochemists David Rasnick and Harvey Bialy. Biologist Lynn Margulis argued that "there's no evidence that HIV is an infectious virus" and that AIDS symptoms "overlap...completely" with those of syphilis.[71] Pathologist Étienne de Harven also expressed sympathy for HIV/AIDS denial.[72][73] AIDS researcher Seth Kalichman lists biochemist Kary Mullis "among the who's who of AIDS pseudoscientists" despite Mullis winning the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role in the development of the polymerase chain reaction.[74] Mullis, who did not do any HIV research, expressed skepticism about the relationship between HIV and AIDS in his 1998 autobiography.[72]: 124
Additional notable HIV/AIDS denialists include Australian academic ethicist Hiram Caton, the late mathematician Serge Lang,[75] former college administrator Henry Bauer, journalist Celia Farber, American talk radio host and author on alternative and complementary medicine and nutrition Gary Null, and the late activist Christine Maggiore, who encouraged HIV-positive mothers to forgo anti-HIV treatment and whose 3-year-old daughter died of complications of untreated AIDS.[76] Nate Mendel, bassist with the rock band Foo Fighters, expressed support for HIV/AIDS denialist ideas and organized a benefit concert in January 2000 for Maggiore's organization Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives.[77] Organizations of HIV/AIDS denialists include the Perth Group, composed of several Australian hospital workers, and the Immunity Resource Foundation.[78]
HIV/AIDS denialism has received some support from political conservatives in the United States. Duesberg's work has been published in Policy Review, a journal once published by The Heritage Foundation but later acquired by the Hoover Institution,[79][80][81] and by Regnery Publishing. Regnery published Duesberg's Inventing the AIDS Virus in 1996,[82] and journalist Tom Bethell's The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, in which he endorses HIV/AIDS denialism, in 2005.[83] Law professor Phillip E. Johnson has accused the Centers for Disease Control of "fraud" in relation to HIV/AIDS.[84] Describing the political aspects of the HIV/AIDS denialism movement, Sociology professor Steven Epstein wrote in Impure Science that "... the appeal of Duesberg's views to conservatives—certainly including those with little sympathy for the gay movement—cannot be denied."[85] The blog LewRockwell.com has also published articles supportive of HIV/AIDS denialism.[86]
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