Eveniment

VIRUSMYTH HOMEPAGE

GALLO’S HUMOR
By Steven James

May 1999

This test, which has condemned millions of people to a life of fear, suicide, and death, continues to this day to provide Gallo with millions of dollars of ill-gotten gains. Is that a little smile I see on your face, Bob?

But, those limo rides to the bank from his Maryland-based company which currently manufactures the HIV home test kits [and which also receives all sorts of tax payer supplied grants just for the asking], are filled with laughter. Just imagine how many people suffered and died to make this deposit, huh, Bobby? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha... .

But, wait, since every great performance deserves an encore, the next year-- 1985--Gallo and his small band of criminally insane comedians got an even better idea to increase their amusement and happiness, “Gallo’s Humor” in full swing, as it were. Laughter, indeed, was about to become the very best “medicine.” After all, comedy is King!

Based upon Bob’s two previous lies that HIV causes “AIDS” and that the HIV test is an indication of a condition preliminary to “full-blown AIDS,” Bob and his comedy troop came up with AZT as a medicine for people who had fallen for their comical deception. Of course, nobody but they knew that AZT is the most lethal chemotherapy ever invented by American science [in 1964 for cancer] --guaranteed to kill human beings quickly with high dosages... and more slowly at lower dosages. Only they didn’t call it chemotherapy... they called it “anti-retroviral” therapy. Keep ‘em guessing, Bob, that’s part of the FUN!!!

And, who might be the “butt” of their “comedia?” Why, gay men, of course. Why, everybody knows that gay men just love a good time... why else would they call themselves “gay?” And, they just love to laugh! And, they are so trendy... they would be the first to experience “Gallo’s Humor”... they even stood in line waiting for the opportunity to pay $10,000 per year for Bob’s drug with the pathetic desperation of the “terminally” ill. Bob Gallo was on a another roll!

So, in 1985, gay men--acting upon the recommendation of their Gallo influenced doctors--began taking lethal chemotherapy [oops! that’s “anti-retroviral” therapy]--Bob’s deadly AZT--and began to experience “Gallo’s Humor” first hand. They were the first to “get” the joke, but they missed the “punch line.”

But, lest they be the only ones to enjoy Gallo’s Humor, the joke quickly spread to non-gays... women and children, black and white... anyone unfortunate to fall for the HIV diagnosis as “one-liner” [“hiv, the virus that causes AIDS,” a mantra we all know so well courtesy of Lawrence Altman, medical editor of the New York Times and former Centers for Disease Control infectious disease agent--and “Bob Club” member]. With AZT now killing off the gay population, the nation believed that the “AIDS” epidemic was real--that all Americans were at risk--and Bob Gallo leads the charge for the “War on AIDS”. ...“Safe Sex” or “No Sex”... criminal penalties for “spreading” “AIDS”... mandatory HIV partner notification... what a riot!

We all remember the hilarity in Hollywood watching Rock Hudson suffer and die! And, what about all those laughs when Halston succumbed to AZT poisoning! Seventh Avenue was in “stitches”! And, how about Arthur Ashe. Poor thing, trembling so at the end! He forgot all about his “tennis elbow!” Or, how about Broadway’s Michael Bennett, off to that great “Chorus Line In The Sky!” Why I can hardly keep a “straight” face! Oh, stop it Bob... I’m laughing so hard I could cry!!!

Or the movie Philadelphia... brave Tom Hanks acting like Don Quixote tilting at the “Gallo’s Humor” windmill! Or the always fabulous Liz Taylor [wearing her diamond studded “Aids Ribbon”], raising all that money to care for the sick and dying... all because of Bob [Bob, you are too much!!!].

Or the “AIDS Quilt,” spread out in our nation’s capitol with sobbing lovers and friends and family, actually thinking that their dear ones died of “AIDS” when in reality it was just “Gallo’s Humor!” Oh, if only they knew the joke! Really, Bob, what’s the punch line... punch line... punch line???

I remember a carpenter. In his day, they didn’t make gallows. Took too much wood, and death came too quickly. They just used two pieces of wood and made a cross. Then, instead of hanging from the unnecessary cross piece, the victim’s hands were nailed arms extended, and his feet nailed to the upright piece. Death came agonizingly slowly... but much more quickly than death by AZT, which usually takes around 8 or 9 months at the high dosages originally prescribed. Today, with the less toxic chemotherapy protease inhibitor drugs--the AZT diluted “cocktail”--the patients can linger on for years while being slowly and agonizingly poisoned to death. More time to consider their “sins” and point fingers of “blame”.

Then, too, there were sick jokes and laughter--a crown of thorns for a “king” --and the kind of behavior we are beginning to see as the Jesse Venturas become governors of states, and “extreme” boxing declares the winner to be the one who walks out of the cage, or when two kids in trench coats blow away their fellow students and teachers with no logical explanations.

But, that was way before we became literate as a society, before we were able to rapidly communicate globally, before we matured to the people we are today! THAT WAS WAY BEFORE BOB AND “GALLO’S HUMOR!”

Someday soon Bob, when the laughter dies, and the crowd settles down, people may begin to “get it”. When the echoes finally din, and the reality sets in. When “Gallo’s Humor” replaces “gallows humor” in Webster’s Dictionary.

This time, Bob, you really did it. You never really needed a Nobel Prize. You got your IPO. You struck CEO GOLD, BABY! You left ‘em “dead in the aisles!”

This time, Bob, you’ll finally get what you really deserve after entertaining us with your sick brand of humor for these fifteen long years of mayhem.

But, remember Bob, he who laughs last... laughs best. “Hey, Bob, want a ‘doggie bag’, Bob???” Just kidding, Bob! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...

Steven James is a Vietnam Veteran and Dissident “AIDS” Activist in New York City. Contact: sjames7@ix.netcom.com


VIRUSMYTH HOMEPAGE