Era of aids-denialism revisited as Covid-19 conspiracies flourish

When new diseases emerge, conspiracy theories abound. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Aids-denialism was rife in South Africa. Living in a household where both my parents were medical doctors, I took it for granted that doctors and scientists were the ones likely to know about the nature of this terrifying disease that at the time, meant certain death.

I will never forget coming across a crazy, Aids-denialist pamphlet published and distributed by the ANC titled, “Castro Hlongwane, Caravans, Cats, Geese, Foot & Mouth and Statistics”. I remember reading the nonsensical gobbledegook in that pamphlet with great shock, especially because it was from the ANC, a liberation movement that had some  of the brightest minds in the country.

While it is generally accepted that the paper was written by the late youth firebrand Peter Mokaba, former president Thabo Mbeki was to later say it reflected his views as the head of state and party leader. Among its bizarre and shocking claims, the “Foot and Mouth” document stated that: i) “It rejects as illogical the proposition that Aids is a single disease caused by a singular virus, HIV”; ii) “It rejects as baseless and self-serving the assertion that millions of our people are HIV-positive”; and iii) “It therefore rejects the suggestion that the challenge of Aids in our country can be solved by resorting to antiretroviral drugs.”

The core claims of the document were that the very idea of virus-induced Aids was a conspiracy from pharmaceutical companies to make profits from Africans. (A copy of this infamous document can be found through Google.)

Today, with the Aids pandemic under control and ARVs widely available, the claims about HIV/Aids made in the document will sound strange and laughable. But in 2002, this document was being presented and discussed by serious intellectuals inside and outside of government. Imagine how foolish some of the defenders of the “Foot and Mouth” Aids pamphlet feel today.

With the novel coronavirus sweeping the globe, conspiratorial thinking is rearing its head again; absurd theories abound. A popular theory is that Bill Gates and other unknown shadowy villainous forces in the West want to kill Africans through vaccination programmes. Of course nobody bothers to ask why Gates would want to kill Africans when his company needs our 1-billion consumers to buy his products. Gates can get richer with more Africans alive, not the opposite.

Another weird conspiracy theory is that governments are doing shutdowns because they want to control their populations like sheep by destroying their own economies.

This particular conspiracy theory seems to have taken hold among the Right-wing-leaning white people in SA. Because of the lockdown extension, right-wingers now label President Cyril Ramaphosa a communist and socialist trying to destroy white businesses even though he is known to be an ardent capitalist who famously put in an R18m bid for a buffalo and intervened at mining company Lonmin during a strike which tragically led to the Marikana massacre in August 2012.

Another conspiracy movement gaining traction claims that all the scientists are wrong about lockdowns and only the Swedish government with its no-lockdown policy of “herd immunity” is correct. Many have forgotten that in mid-March, as horrifying images of dying Italians and Spaniards were coming in, they were the same people screaming at the South African government to institute a lockdown. When Ramaphosa tried to keep the economy open by emphasising social distance and handwashing, he was being mocked for only preaching about “handwashing”.

The key feature of this conspiratorialism is that it seems to flourish because people think that simply having contrarian views makes one a maverick intellect. This is silly — simply holding an “oppositional” view does not make you a genius.

The reality is, we still know little about this disease. Scientists are trying their best. Just like the Aids-denialism of the “Foot and Mouth” pamphlet, many of our “clever” little theories will look really stupid with time.