Ebola outbreak a reminder of other deadly viruses and the rumors surrounding them

Reports of reluctance by some villagers to cooperate with health authorities in their efforts to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa should come as no surprise given the dark rumors constantly swirling around modern eugenics.

The reports reminded us of conspiracy theories which suggest certain viruses – like SARS, Ebola and Swine Flu – were created by pharmaceutical technicians in labs. The intention being to spread deadly diseases to combat the population explosion in certain Third World countries.

ebola virus disease liberia workers

Health workers combatting Ebola virus in Liberia.

Some conspiracy theorists even claim HIV/AIDS is a man-made disease rather than a freak of nature. These theories suggest HIV was originally either a biological warfare virus that escaped from a laboratory by accident, or was released on purpose, as a tool for population control and eugenics implementation. The culprits are said to be shadowy, elitist organizations with New World Order ambitions.

Extreme accusations indeed, but perhaps not without some form of precedence.

We explore the history of modern eugenics in our book THE ORPHAN CONSPIRACIES: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy.

Here’s an excerpt from the book:

From 1932 until 1972, the US Public Health Service deceptively conducted a clinical study known as the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. The notorious study was designed to monitor the progression of syphilis in African-American men who were led to believe they were receiving free treatment from the Government for the sexually transmitted disease. The infamous 40-year experiment involved medical professionals surreptitiously refusing treatment to black patients infected with syphilis.

Flashback to the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.

Revelations by whistleblowers of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment led to US law changes concerning patient protection and informed consent for medical studies.

Several prominent African-American celebrities have made comments in public about the Tuskegee experiments, including comedian and film star Dave Chappelle whose grandfather was a Tuskegee survivor who was permanently blinded as a result of the experimentation. Shortly after the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans, leading film director Spike Lee mentioned the Tuskegee experiment on an episode of the TV series Real Time with Bill Maher. Lee alluded to a racial conspiracy in the Katrina aftermath by comparing the Government’s apparent lack of response to African-American communities with the ill treatment of patients in the syphilis experiment.

Director Spike Lee alluded to a conspiracy.

Various groups, including the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers, believe the CIA purposefully infected African-Americans with HIV. Reminiscent of Tuskegee, this is said to have been carried out under the guise of hepatitis vaccinations. Those who subscribe to this theory have suggested HIV was spread by some pro-eugenics splinter group to decimate the black race, both in the US and in Africa.

The concept of AIDS being a sinister experiment seems to be reasonably accepted in the African-American community at least. In 2005, The Washington Post did a survey on the subject, questioning 500 African-Americans. The newspaper reported over 50% of those surveyed believed HIV was man-made and over 25% believed it was created in a US Government laboratory.

In Nigeria, there have been theories amongst locals that the World Health Organization (WHO) was spreading HIV via polio vaccines. As a result, there has been a decrease in the amount of Nigerians vaccinated against polio in recent years as many parents choose to keep their children away from WHO needles.

In 1986, American Physician Doctor Robert Strecker (right) stated that HIV was not only a man-made bio-weapon created by the US military, but that it was disseminated by the WHO in Africa in the 1970’s by inserting the killer virus into smallpox vaccines.

Strecker’s theory went on to suggest the distribution of HIV did not stop with Africa, but continued in the US. According to the doctor, the outbreak of AIDS in America wascaused by government-sponsored hepatitis B vaccine experiments in San Francisco, New York City and Los Angeles in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The vaccines were said to be contaminated with HIV and were apparently only given to gay men and African-American men.

Although TIME magazine and most other mainstream media outlets condemned Strecker’s theory, it has since been supported by several prominent doctors and scientists. One of the supporters included Doctor Alan Cantwell who authored the 1988 book AIDS and the Doctors of Death: An Inquiry into the Origin of the AIDS Epidemic.

South Africa’s former president, Thabo Mbeki, has claimed HIV/AIDS is a grand conspiracy involving the CIA and Big Pharma.

Thabo Mbeki…alleges a grand conspiracy.

But probably the most famous supporter of the theory that AIDS is some kind of Unit 731-style biological weapon is the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and environmental and political activist Wangari Maathai (1940-2011).

The Kenyan was quoted by Nairobi-based newspaper The Standard in 2004 as saying AIDS was “deliberately created by Western scientists to decimate the African population”. This lead to a flurry of world headlines including this one by Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty on December 10, 2004, ‘Africa’s First Female Nobel Peace Laureate Accepts Award Amid Controversy Over AIDS Remarks’ and this one on the same day in The New York Times, ‘Nobel Laureate Seeks to Explain AIDS Remarks’.

Maathai was also reported in a December, 2004 edition of TIME magazine as saying, “I do know things like that don’t come from the moon. I have always thought that it is important to tell people the truth, but I guess there is some truth that must not be too exposed … I’m referring to AIDS. I am sure people know where it came from. And I’m quite sure it did not come from the monkeys”.

As UNICEF has called AIDS “the worst catastrophe ever to hit the world” the idea that certain governmentsor agencies created the virus to attack minority groups is hard to even consider, let alone believe. Personally, we feel this theory is veering into the sort of crackpot conspiracy ideas promoted by the Tinfoil Hat Network. Then again, as Spike Lee was alluding to in his TV interview, history is riddled with malicious, eugenics-style medical experiments like Tuskegee, so you never know.