Suppressed Inventions and Other Discoveries (15 page)

The HeLa Affair

The HeLa affair is the story of the contamination of cell cultures around the world and the corresponding refusal on the part of mainstream science to face up to and deal with the problem that presented itself.

The HeLa affair begin in 1951, when the first human cells were grown in long term tissue culture. The HeLa cells were cervical cancer cells taken from a woman named Henrietta Lacks. Although Henrietta Lacks died of her disease, the cells

HeLa—not only from her tumor—given the shortened name survived, but flourished.

Because her cells were so strong, they were other laboratories around the country and from there around the world for experimental
errors allowed HeLa cells
purposes. Unfortunately, laboratory to contaminate other tissue cultures,

and the HeLa cells quickly overtook and replaced the other cells. However, much of the
cultures by HeLa cells
of many tissue cultures
time, the colonization of other tissue went unnoticed, since the appearance is highly similar. Thus, scientists who

believed that they were studying cells from human breast tumors or monkey heart cells, for example, were in many cases studying HeLa cells.

To add to the problem of the spread of HeLa cells, many researchers would share
tumor" or "monkey heart"
their particularly hardy line of "breast cells with their colleagues. It took only

a few years for the problems of

cell lines to have reached crisis

HeLa contamination of other proportions. An investigation by geneticist Stanley Gartler found that of seventeen tissue cultures—obtained from a number of different laboratories—all

contrary to their official designation as were HeLa cell cultures, a variety of human cell lines.

The problem of HeLa finally tackled by Walter Nelson Rees, who was then the head of a cell bank at the University of California. Nelson Rees also held the position of vice president for the Tissue Culture Association —the profesional body
culture work belonged.
to which scientists involved in tissue When he confirmed Stanley Gartler's

findings, Nelson

lines to journals.

Rees submitted long
However, instead of
lists of
promptly

contaminated cell publishing these important documents, many journals others refused to publish Nelson Rees's lists at all. sent to various

contamination of tissue cultures was

procrastinated while still

The Journal of the independent researcher up" case by workers using "illegitimate photographs of chromosomes" and "shoddy logic" to try and prove that the charges of contamination were not valid.

One major supplier of biolgical supplies,
Associates—later M.A. Bioproducts—reportedly
sell a HeLa contaminated culture for thirteen
Microbiological continued to

years after the company was first informed by Stanley Gartler that it was contaminated—and seven years after other scientists had confirmed the contamination.

Nelson Rees's campaign against the contamination of tissue cultures made him so many enemies
forced to retire in 1981, aged just 52. After

funding

run cell

that he was

his retirement, the National Cancer Institute ceased
sounding the death-knell for the best
in the United States.
his laboratory,

culture center National Cancer Institute published what Louis Pascal described as a "cookedpreviously discredited by Nelson Rees,

sought ways to dismiss the theory. Curtis' interviews revealed the extreme hostility with which Koprowski, Salk, and Sabin responded to the theory. This is not surprising, considering the strong emotional investment that leading scientists have in their own ideas.
¹⁴

There are of course many other arguments concerning the theory, ranging from the problems of gene sequences, the species of monkeys used in polio vaccine trials, the spread of AIDS in other countries, and much more. The aim here is not to address these complexities but to outline the theory and point out the failure of the mainstream scientific community to confront it adequately.

This failure has an intriguing self-righteous twist. Many scientists look down upon the mass media and consider that science is only proper when it takes place in professional forums. Koprowski, for example, said that "as a scientist, I did not intend to debate Tom Curtis when he presented his hypothesis about the origin of AIDS in Rolling Stone."
¹⁵
He did condescend to reply after a letter by Curtis appeared in Science. In another example, Luc Montagnier supported the decision of Research in Virology to request Elswood and Stricker to shorten their paper to a letter to the editor by referring to the "extensive publication" of their views in the lay press."
¹⁶

This seems rather unfair, since the reason the story obtained attention in the "lay press" first is that scientists, knowing about the theory for some years, declined to investigate it and editors refused to publish submissions to scientific journals. In other words, the relevant scientific community failed to come to grips with a theory that deserved critical attention, even if only to refute it. Then, when individuals outside the scientific mainstream worked on the theory and obtained media coverage, their approach was denigrated.

Nevertheless, some inroads into mainstream practice may yet occur. The Wistar committee, in spite of its assessment of the polio vaccineAIDS theory as highly unlikely, have recommended that polio vaccine no longer be cultured using monkey kidneys,* because "There may well be other monkey viruses that have not yet been discovered that could possibly contaminate vaccine lots."
¹⁷
This was exactly the thing that Pascal has been warning about for years. It took an article in Rolling Stone for scientists to take it seriously.

The implications are wider than just polio vaccines. All transfers of material from one species to another should be scrutinized. For example, it has recently been found that many cattle in the United States are infected by bovine immunodeficiency-like virus or BIV, which has a genetic structure similar to HIV. This is not a scientific curiosity, Pascal points out, because bovine hemoglobin is being used to manufacture substitutes for human hemoglobin. The danger of introducing new diseases to humans may be low, but at the very least it should be investigated.

Thus, even if the theory is wrong, it may be valuable in leading to discoveries or revised practices that will advance the understanding of AIDS, how to deal with it, or how to prevent similar diseases. That is the most that can be asked of any scientific theory.

I want to thank Tom Curtis, Blaine Elswood, and Louis Pascal for valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Editor's Note: In December 1992, Mr. Koprowski sued Tom Curtis and Rolling Stone magazine for defamation. This effectively quashed further investigation into the story by mainstream media. Brian Martin publicised the lawsuit through the Sci-Tech Studies electronic mailing list, and also wrote a letter to Nature about the dangers of allowing legal action to stymie scientific debate. This seemed to stimulate renewed interest in the theory within the scientific community. Finally, in November 1993, just before Mr. Koprowski was to undergo deposition, his lawyers settled out of court. Rolling Stone, facing legal costs of $500,000 paid Mr. Koprowski damages of $1.00.

* As of January, 1998, a spokesperson for the New Zealand Ministry of Health confirmed that at least some of the polio vaccine used in New Zealand is still grown on monkey kidney tissue.
The alternative growth media is a human diploid cell line derived from aborted fetuses.

CORRESPONDENCE:

Brian Martin
Department of Science and Technology Studies
University of Wollongong
NSW 2522, Australia
Phone +61-42-213763
Fax +61-42-213452

REFERENCES

1. Seale, U. Crossing the species barrier—viruses and the origins of AIDS in perspective. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Vol. 82, Sept. 1989, pp. 519-523.

2. Curtis, Tom. Vaccines not tested for HIV? Houston Post, 18 March 1992, p. A-l.

3. Pascal, Louis. What happens when science goes bad. Science and Technology Department Analysis Research Programme Working Paper #9, of Science and Technology Studies, University of

Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia, December 1991.

4. Gillon, Raanon. A startling 19,000-word thesis on the origin of AIDS should the JME have published it? Journal of Medical Ethics, Vol. 18, 1992, pp. 3-4.

5. Lecatsas, G. and Alexander, J.J. Safety testing of poliovirus vaccine and the origin of HIV infection in man. South African Medical Journal Vol. 76, 21 October 1989, p. 451.

6. Els wood, B.F. and Strieker, R.B. Polio vaccines and the origin of AIDS. Research in Virology Vol. 144,1993, pp. 175-177.

7. Curtis, Tom. The origin of AIDS, Rolling Stone, issue 626, 19 March 1992, pp. 54-55, 61, 106, 108.

8. For example, Brown, Phyllida. US rethinks link between polio vaccine and HIV. New Scientist, 4 April 1992, p. 1; Cohen, Jon, Debate on AIDS origin Rolling Stone weighs in. Science, 20 March 1992, p. 1505.

9. Koprowski, Hilary. Letter. Science. Vol. 257, 21 August 1992, pp. 1024, 1026-1027.

10. Basilico, Claudio et al. Report from the AIDS/Poliovirus Advisory Committee, 18 September 1992.

11. Gold, Michael. A Conspiracy of Cells: One Woman's Immortal Legacy and the Medical Scandal it Caused. State University of New York Press, 1986.

12. Pascal, op. cit., pp. 34-35.
13. Voronoff, Serge. Life, E.P. Dutton, 1920, p. 106.
14. Mitroff, Ian L. The Subjective Side of Science. Elsevier, 1974.
15. Loprowski, op. cit., p. 1024.
16. Montagnier, Luc. Fax to Raphael B. Stricker, 10 September 1992.
17. Basilico et al., op. cit., p. 7.

Oxygen
Therapies,
The Virus
Destroyers

Ed McCabe

There exists a little known yet very simple way to treat almost all diseases. It's so simple it befuddles the great minds. Unlike our healthy human cells that love oxygen, most of the primitive bacteria and viruses, including HIV and others found in cancer, AIDS, Ebola, flesh eating bacteria, chronic fatigue, tuberculosis, arthritis, and a long list of other diseases are like most lower life from viruses and bacteria that can't stand oxygen. Bacteria and viruses are almost all anaerobic. "Anaerobic" means these microbes cannot live in oxygen

What would happen to the primitive anaerobic viruses and bacteria that cause disease if they were to be completely surrounded with a very energetic form of pure oxygen for a long time? What if enough of this special form of oxygen (O
₂
), or its higher medical grade form called "ozone" (O
₃
), were to be slowly and harmlessly introduced directly into the body day after day, every day, over the course of several months, by high concentration methods that usually bypass the lungs, and yet saturate every body cell with oxygen? All the disease-related, or disease-causing, bugs and microbes that can't live in oxygen also can't live in oxygen saturated body tissues and fluids. See how simple it is? It's amazing you were never told this.

What would happen to any HIV in your body if it was caused to be continually surrounded with oxygen, or its higher form, ozone? See the October 11, 1991 issue of The Journal of the American Society of Hematology, "Inactivation of HIV type 1 by Ozone in vitro" (page 1881): "Ozone, a higher form of oxygen, inactivates the HIV virus 97-100 percent of the time, and is harmless to normal cells, when used correctly." What currently over-hyped and over-prescribed AIDS drug can make anywhere near these claims for effectiveness and safety?

I just got off the phone with another of the long list of AIDS sufferers who have unsuccessfully gone the route of toxic drugs, and has ended

86

washed up at the door to ozone. Typically, his liver had been destroyed before he arrived. Now he is willing to look at alternatives (if they would only look sooner) but, unfortunately, denial, and letting someone else be responsible for your own personal well being, is strongly ingrained in our society. Ozone is unknown in this country by you or your doctor due to the influence the drug companies wield over our healthcare system and the media. They are not your friend. Ozone is. In the Greek ozone translates into "the Breath of God." Millions of dosages of ozone have been given in Europe by thousands of doctors over the past fifty years with complete safety. Why isn't its use taught in medical schools here in the United States?

All fifty or so oxygen therapies have the same method of action. The point in oxygen therapies is always to slowly and increasingly flood the body with Nature's single oxygen atoms. Singlet oxygen and its by-products are very energetic oxidizers—they "burn up" or oxidize disease-causing waste products, toxins and other pollution, and send them out of the body. Unless your body rids itself of toxins at 100 percent efficiency, some waste is left behind, still in the body. Over time it accumulates within you, setting the stage for diseases to occur as the inner pollution accumulates. This is why you get more and more diseases as you get older. This is the cause of virtually all disease. It is very important. Remember this as the viral plagues get worse, and the air becomes less and less able to sustain us. Your body no longer naturally has or gets enough clean energetic oxygen. Your body can no longer take out the trash that causes disease.

As an example of how dirty we have become internally, I have witnessed hundreds of AIDS, cancer, arthritis, and other patients getting oxygen/ozone therapy. When they start out their blood is filthy, diseased, and so empty of oxygen that it is almost BLACK. Put the medical oxygen/ ozone in them daily, and after a few weeks of oxidizing/oxygenating detoxification their blood starts to turn a bright cherry RED, clean and full of LIFE.