Celia Farber

Celia Farber is an author and activist who has been chronicling the AIDS epidemic since 1987, from a perspective endorsing the fringe claim that AIDS is not caused by HIV. She wrote and edited a monthly feature column in Spin magazine entitled Words From The Front [1987-1995], denying that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the cause of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Her work on AIDS
Farber's work emphasizes the role played by pharmaceutical side effects in the decline of health in many early AIDS patients; she also describes flaws in the methodology used by some early HIV & AIDS researchers. Her view of the American scientific community and the National Institutes of Health is that they are "totalitarian" structures.

Her Harper's magazine article, Out of Control: AIDS And The Corruption of Medical Science, criticized the ethics and industry of antiretroviral drugs and favorably presented the claim that HIV does not cause AIDS. In response to Farber's article, the Treatment Action Campaign, a South African group campaigning for greater access to HIV treatment, posted a 37-page rebuttal written by eight prominent AIDS researchers. The rebuttal described over 50 errors in Farber's article, ranging from misleading or false statements to implications of sinister motives without evidence. A group of AIDS dissidents posted a response to Gallo's rebuttal.

In June 2006, Farber wrote an article in the independent paper Los Angeles City Beat in defense of Christine Maggiore, an HIV-positive AIDS dissident who avoided antiretrovirals during pregnancy and did not have her children tested for HIV. The death of Maggiore's 3-year-old daughter was attributed to complications of AIDS.

The scientific accuracy and objectivity of her articles has been widely disputed, as she has favorably presented the views of Peter Duesberg. The Duesberg hypothesis, which holds that HIV is a harmless "passenger" virus unrelated to AIDS except by association, has been examined and rejected by the medical and scientific communities.

Other work
Farber describes herself as "a vocal and persistent critic of Political Correctness and the McCarthyism that reigned in Sexual Harassment law in the 1990s." During her time as a writer at Spin, Farber was romantically involved with the magazine's publisher, Bob Guccione, Jr. In 1994, a Spin employee filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Guccione, Jr. and the magazine, alleging sexual discrimination and favoritism. Farber was a key witness in the ensuing trial, as the prosecution alleged that Farber's relationship with Guccione, Jr. led to her promotion and other job opportunities. Ultimately, the jury found that Spin editors had created a "hostile environment" and awarded $90,000 to the plaintiff; the remainder of the charges, including those of sexual favoritism, were rejected.

In 1999, Farber co-founded the non-profit organization Rock The Boat. The organization's mission was to arrange rock music concerts to stimulate independent thinking about subjects which the organization's proponents believed had been censored by the media. Farber has written for Newsmax, Harper's, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Salon.com, Gear, the New York Press, Red Flags, and others. Her book Serious Adverse Events: An Uncensored History of AIDS was published in July 2006 by Melville House Press. Farber was one of the original signatories to the letter establishing the Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis.

Response to criticism
In response to criticism of Out of Control, Farber claimed that she did not endorse the Duesberg hypothesis. She also claimed that she had approached the story as an objective journalist without a preconceived opinion, stating, "People can't distinguish, it seems, between describing dissent and being dissent." Her claim of objectivity was immediately disputed, with critics pointing to Farber's long history of arguing that HIV does not cause AIDS.

Farber also claimed that her article did not unduly disparage antiretroviral medication, writing that "...it does not, for example, say that all AIDS drugs are ghastly, or worthless." Farber also argued that, "...in each article where I have addressed HAART I have included, clearly, the fact that the regimens have absolutely helped people who are very sick." Again, her claims were disputed, with critics pointing to a number of prior writings by Farber in which she argues that HIV medications are deadly and ineffective. For example, writing on protease inhibitors in 2000, Farber claimed, "...a batch of new drugs flooded the market. Four years later, those drugs are wreaking unimaginable horror on the patients who dared to hope. What went wrong?"