TERRY MICHAEL INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT GALLO at the XIX International AIDS Society Conference

posted by Terry Michael:
I did with Dr. Robert Gallo at the XIX International AIDS Society Conference in Washington, DC, July 22, 2012. I had to transcribe it, because it's a poor quality audio, and Gallo is a hard interview. His syntax makes it difficult to follow him on the audio, but it should be easier with this transcript:

Here's the audio file you can download, as Windows Media Audio (.WMA):

And here it is (much larger file) as an .MP3:

I asked Gallo mostly about Luc Montagnier, and what he (Gallo) thought of his one-time colleague's views on "HIV co-factors" and Montagnier's assertion that we can rid ourselves of HIV "in just a few weeks if you have a good immune system," in the interview from the film "House of Numbers"

I also asked Gallo about his views on use of so-called "ARV's" for PrEP, or "pre-exposure prophylaxis," on which he equivocated, but said he was "not on that bandwagon."

At one point, Gallo tried to go "off-the-record"--even though his press aide early in the interview cautioned him that "you're on the record."  Gallo attempted to go off-the-record in what I regarded as an attempt to slander Montagnier by suggesting he (Montagnier) was trying to personally profit from his theories on nutrition and AIDS. As a journalist, I believe an interviewee has the right to ask if he can go off-the-record, during the course of an interview.  But, in this case, he did not ask to change the on-the-record condition; he just asserted he was doing it. In any case, I don't believe an interviewee should be able go off-the-record to engage in an ad hominem attack. That quote, in context, is copied below.


Regards,
--Terry Michael

TERRY: What do you think led him [Montagnier] to say this?

GALLO: Led him to say it?

TERRY: This..this...that the body can rid itself of HIV in...?

GALLO: I led him to say it?

TERRY: No, no. What do you think led him to say it?

GALLO: You know..what can I say..

TERRY: Is he senile..is he old?

GALLO: [inaudible]

TERRY: No, „Terry.‰

GALLO: Terry, „Is he senile?‰...he‚s a couple of years older than me. I mean, but this is 2006, he was saying things that like that in 2000...he was talking about micoplasma, which can cause human disease, being a necessary co-factor...there was 0.0 evidence for that. Now he‚s talking about homeopathy, where he takes electromagnetic waves from an infinite dilution of bacterial DNA...

TERRY: No, I‚m familiar with homeopathy, I‚ve, I‚ve not...

GALLO: But, this kind of homeopathy. This is how bad it is. I‚ll take bacteria from you...everybody has  bacteria, right? You spit in a jar, dilute it almost infinitely in water and I have a machine that makes electromagnetic waves of this and he‚s going to cure Prion disease with this? People were throwing him out of offices..what, what can I say.

TERRY: I mean there are people, who..I don‚t believe in homeopathy...but there are people who also have intelligent thoughts about other things...

GALLO PRESS AIDE: No, no it‚s not all homeopathy..there are..

GALLO: It‚s not all homeopathy..it‚s the co-factor thing..it‚s the tetracycline...it‚s papaya...he gave the Pope papaya for Parkinson..why don‚t you ask him about that...does he still treat papaya?...I...my guess...off the record...is it‚s commercial ...he‚s..he‚s..making papaya extract to treat Parkinson‚s disease. Is there evidence of that? If you know it, please tell me, because I have friends with Parkinson‚s disease, too, so I‚d like to tell them.