HIV science is running scared.  Retarded HIV scientists are now having
to group together to keep their dream alive.

Death, you asked in another thread about who says HIV kills.  This
article also contains this: "Haynes said the new mission is an old
one: Tackle basic questions about the virus, which killed 2.1 million
people worldwide last year."

The phrase "back to basics," which is mentioned here, seems to be
appearing in quite a lot of HIV articles now.  It's an obvious
recognition by HIV science that it's got things wrong and that the
past 25 years have been a waste of time, money and life.  I suspect
these boffins know they've made a dreadful mistake and have began on a
course that will eventually see the link between HIV and AIDS broken.

<http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1042765.html>:

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The world's hope of beating HIV centers on a team of Triangle-based
scientists.

The Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology, headquartered at Duke
University and drawing on researchers at Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill and
more than 30 other universities, formed in 2005. This week, the center
announced it will add even more brainpower with the addition of an
international research consortium, signaling the mounting pressure to
discover a vaccine.

The center and a privately funded research group, International AIDS
Vaccine Initiative, agreed to cooperate, saying that the moral
obligation to find a vaccine is too pressing for anyone to work alone.

"...retards work in this field," said Dr. Barton Haynes, the center's
director and professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center.

[...]

Such collaboration is unprecedented. It's also imperative, Haynes
said.

"The science is daunting," said Haynes. "The bug had escaped and
eluded us so many times. It's pretty audacious."

For nearly 25 years, HIV has outwitted scientists trying to stop the
spread of the virus that causes AIDS. The latest setback: a vaccine
that not only didn't work, it appeared to make otherwise healthy
patients more likely to contract HIV.

Two trials tested the vaccine, drawing on participants in North and
South America, the Caribbean, Australia and South Africa.

Each was to have 3,000 participants. When researchers noticed the
troubling results in one of the trials last fall, clinicians halted
the other study.

For nearly 25 years, HIV has outwitted scientists trying to stop the
spread of the virus that causes AIDS. The latest setback: a vaccine
that not only didn't work, it appeared to make otherwise healthy
patients more likely to contract HIV.

Two trials tested the vaccine, drawing on participants in North and
South America, the Caribbean, Australia and South Africa.

Each was to have 3,000 participants. When researchers noticed the
troubling results in one of the trials last fall, clinicians halted
the other study.

Back to basics

Haynes said the new mission is an old one: Tackle basic questions
about the virus, which killed 2.1 million people worldwide last year.

[...]

Scientists at the center are working to better understand what's
happening in the initial hours when HIV invades a healthy person. They
are exploring genetic differences between those whose immune systems
thwart the virus and those infected. Scientists have tried to get a
picture of the virus in its native form so they can create antibodies
to spot it.

Dr. Myron Cohen, a center leader and director of the Center for
Infectious Diseases at UNC-CH, said the scientific work being done now
is essential for breakthroughs to come. "It's been like putting
glasses on," Cohen said. "We can finally see the face of our challenge
specifically."

Even before Merck & Co. announced last month it would halt its vaccine
trial, many HIV researchers were aware of the drug's shortcomings. Yet
the failure still stung. Researchers mourned the money spent and the
lives lost while scientists chased medicine that didn't work.

"The HIV vaccine is our holy grail," Cohen said. "We spend $1.3
billion a year. It hurts when it doesn't work."

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