Liberal democratic societies can and do handle a certain measure of ignorance, of incompetence, of dishonesty, of single-issue activism, of bureaucracy, of a corporate focus on profit-making, even of outright crime and terrorism, sometimes even warfare. But there was a perfect storm when “AIDS” first came along: ignorance, jumping to conclusions, incompetence, bureaucracy, careerist competition, and perhaps above all failing to heed dissenting voices from well-informed, well-qualified people, all combined to mis-diagnosis of AIDS and belief in a non-existent virus. The result has been four decades of harm to hundreds of millions of people and the wasting of hundreds of billions of dollars. read more: