ENDING PLAGUE

A science book discusses the deplorable state of the field in the United States, the result of bias, greed, and governmental dysfunction.

Ruscetti was skeptical of authority in all its forms from an early age and turned to a career in science, hoping that intellectual irreverence would find a home there. But he encountered a professional world dominated by naked careerism, blind dogma, propaganda, and bottomless vindictiveness. The author enjoyed a brilliantly accomplished career as a virologist, working for decades at the National Cancer Institute, and was part of the team that identified the first pathogenic human retrovirus, HTLV-1. While studying AIDS in the 1980s, he worked closely with Anthony Fauci—Ruscetti found him to be as mendacious as he was ambitious. The author claims that Fauci’s neglect and even repression of important research likely slowed down the fight against the deadly disease. Ruscetti convincingly blames governmental malfeasance for establishing a system that permits bureaucrats like Fauci and Robert Gallo—one of the author’s supervisors—to prosper: “People like Gallo and Fauci thrive because of a system put in place by President Richard Nixon, in which a few leading government scientists were given unprecedented control over funding decisions, while at the same time creating a subservient class of researchers who must vie for their approval.” Mikovits tells a similar story, if more personally harrowing—she claims that she was persecuted for her work demonstrating the contamination of blood and vaccine supplies. While her account is as lucidly compelling as Ruscetti’s, she can veer into conspiracy theory—she contends that Covid-19 was part of “a planned mass murder to cover-up tens of millions of people infected with animal retroviruses because of a contaminated blood supply and contaminated vaccines.” It’s worth noting that Ruscetti does not agree with her. For all her intellectual excesses, Mikovits’ remembrance is a powerful one and confirms Ruscetti’s account of the scientific community as one plagued by incompetence and venality. Especially during a time in which the authority of that community is a matter of dispute, the two scientists’ book—written with Heckenlively—is an important contribution to a gathering debate.

An engrossing exposé of scientific practice in America.