Editing Peter Duesberg (section)

==Consequences of AIDS denialism==
In 2000, Duesberg was the most prominent AIDS denialist to sit on a 44-member Presidential Advisory Panel on HIV and AIDS convened by then-president [[Thabo Mbeki]] of South Africa.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.aegis.com/news/re/2000/RE000702.html |agency=[[Reuters]] |title=S.Africa AIDS panel to validate HIV tests |last=Sithole |first=Emelia |access-date=2008-11-24 |date=July 4, 2000 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828194331/http://www.aegis.com/news/re/2000/RE000702.html |archive-date=August 28, 2008 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> The panel was scheduled to meet concurrently with the 2000 [[International AIDS Conference]] in [[Durban]] and to convey the impression that Mbeki's doubts about HIV/AIDS science were valid and actively discussed in the scientific community.<ref name="NattrassAA"/>

The views of the denialists on the panel, aired during the AIDS conference, received renewed attention.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.villagevoice.com/2000-07-04/news/debating-the-obvious/ |newspaper=[[Village Voice]] |title=Debating the Obvious |last=Schoofs |first=Mark |date=July 4, 2000 |access-date=2008-11-24 |archive-date=April 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150415083724/http://www.villagevoice.com/2000-07-04/news/debating-the-obvious/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Mbeki later suffered substantial political fallout for his support for AIDS denialism<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2002/03/thabombekiscatastrophe/ |publisher=[[Prospect (magazine)|Prospect]] |title=Thabo Mbeki's catastrophe |last=McGreal |first=Chris |access-date=2010-10-24 |date=March 2002 |archive-date=July 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728072023/https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/thabombekiscatastrophe |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20010329215109/http://tpan.com/publications/positively_aware/sept_oct_00/mbeki_fails_to_break.html ''tpan.com'', "Mbeki fails to break the silence," by Charles E. Clifton, September/October 2000], accessed January 6, 2007,</ref> and for opposing the treatment of pregnant HIV-positive South African women with antiretroviral medication.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,43510,00.html/ |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|TIME]] |title=Why South Africa Questions the Link Between HIV and AIDS |first=Tony |last=Karon |date=April 21, 2000 |access-date=2007-01-06 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050319230132/http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,43510,00.html |archive-date=March 19, 2005 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> Mbeki partly attenuated his ties with denialists in 2002, asking them to stop associating their names with his.<ref>[http://www.journaids.org/politicsofhiv.php#aidsdissidents Journ-AIDS:Factsheet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070702083352/http://journaids.org/politicsofhiv.php#aidsdissidents |date=July 2, 2007 }} ''Mbeki Distances Himself from AIDS Dissidents (April 2002)''. Accessed May 14, 2008.</ref>

In response to the inclusion of AIDS denialists on Mbeki's panel, the [[Durban Declaration]] was drafted and signed by over 5,000 scientists and physicians, describing the evidence that HIV causes AIDS as "clear-cut, exhaustive and unambiguous".<ref>{{Cite journal |author=<!-- not given --> |title=The Durban Declaration |journal=Nature |volume=406 |issue=6791 |pages=15–6 |year=2000 |pmid=10894520 |doi=10.1038/35017662 |s2cid=205007392}}</ref>

Two independent studies have concluded that the public health policies of Thabo Mbeki's government, shaped in part by Duesberg's writings and advice, were responsible for over 330,000 excess AIDS deaths and many preventable infections, including those of infants.<ref name="chigwedere"/><ref name="NattrassAA"/>

A 2008 feature story on Duesberg in ''[[Discover (magazine)|Discover]]'' addresses Duesberg's role in anti-HIV drug-preventable deaths in South Africa. Jeanne Lenzer interviews prominent HIV/AIDS expert [[Max Essex]], who suggests that,
{{blockquote|...history will judge Duesberg as either "a nut who is just a tease to the scientific community" or an "enabler to mass murder" for the deaths of many AIDS patients in Africa.<ref name="redemption"/>}}