Operation Denver/Detrick

May 28, 2020 2:26 PM

Lessons From Operation "Denver," the KGB’s Massive AIDS Disinformation Campaign: Historian Douglas Selvage talks about what the Russian government did in the 1980s to spread a conspiracy theory about the origins of HIV, and how that reverberates to the effects of misinformation campaigns currently promoted about the novel coronavirus
posted by They sucked his brains out! (2 comments total)

I remember that conspiracy theory, but I was still in grad school and didn't know I'd end up at Fort Detrick and have to constantly deny I was up to something.
posted by acrasis at 6:45 PM on May 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

Thanks for posting.

I did my medical residency in a big city hospital at the height of the AIDS epidemic. It was terrifying and physically and emotionally exhausting. I recently heard a poem that reminded me of several of those patients and it put me into a mood for days.

---

Our attempts to understand the early history and spread of HIV is fascinating. The Wikipedia article on History of HIV/AIDS is probably a good starting place. Back in the day I read Grmek's History of AIDS: Emergence and Origin of a Modern Pandemic (1990!) and I recommend it still.

And, obviously, Randy Shilts's masterpiece: And The Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic.
posted by neuron at 9:52 PM on May 28, 2020 [2 favorites]