David Rasnick

David Rasnick
Born	1948 (age 75–76)
Alma mater	Georgia Institute of Technology
Known for	HIV/AIDS denial
Scientific career
Thesis	Affinity labeling of metalloendoproteases (1978)

David William Rasnick (born 1948) is a chemist and biologist known for his work in the area of HIV/AIDS denial.

Education and views

Further information: AIDS denialism

David Rasnick received a Ph.D. in chemistry from Georgia Tech in 1978; his thesis was entitled "Affinity labeling of metalloendoproteases." In a 1998 interview, he stated that he had studied proteases and their inhibitors for twenty years. According to PubMed, Rasnick has contributed to 18 scientific papers on protease-related research, and has also written a book about the aneuploidy theory of cancer.

Rasnick is best known for his views regarding HIV/AIDS denial. His claim that HIV is not the main cause of AIDS puts him at odds with the scientific community. Regarding his level of expertise on HIV/AIDS, Rasnick states that his own research on rat proteases did not involve HIV/AIDS: "my own research...had nothing to do with AIDS."

However, his observations, based on his understanding of retroviruses and collaboration with AIDS denialist Peter Duesberg, that retroviruses are not sexually transmissible and have never been shown to cause disease, are distressing to the mainstream scientific community, who for this reason refuse to engage with him. His position that AIDS is not caused by HIV and is not an infectious disease is very much a minority view. He claims that the consequences for the medical and political establishments of admitting that they have wasted a quarter of a trillion dollars prevents any open debate around the issue.

Rasnick has proposed that HIV testing be completely outlawed, because it has no standard baseline to objectively describe its result. As the insert in the test acknowledges this to be the case, and as a positive or negative is influenced by a variety of external factors, it serves no useful purpose. Furthermore, it instils fear into those diagnosed. He acknowledges that there is a link between a positive test and a diagnosis of AIDS, but sees this as a priori true, insofar as the diagnosis depends upon a positive HIV test.

Work with Rath Foundation

Rasnick has worked with Matthias Rath in South Africa, where they have emphasized the purported risks of antiretroviral therapy and urged HIV/AIDS patients to use vitamin and nutritional supplements instead.

Rasnick and the Rath Foundation became the subject of a lawsuit by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in South Africa. The lawsuit was brought as a result of clinical trials conducted by Rasnick and the Rath Foundation which were not approved by the appropriate authorities in South Africa and did not undergo any ethical review. The trials involved recruiting poor black South Africans with HIV, instructing them not to take effective antiretrovirals, and providing them instead with vitamin supplements. These trials resulted in at least five deaths known to TAC, and possibly up to twelve.

In June, 2008, the South African Cape High Court ruled against Rasnick and other defendants associated with the Rath Foundation, declaring their vitamin trials illegal and prohibiting the publication of false advertisements for vitamins. The Court also stated that health authorities in South Africa have an obligation to investigate and stop illegal activities of Rasnick and the Rath Foundation.

University affiliation claims

David Rasnick has claimed to be a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, and his website states that he was a visiting scholar from 1996 to 2005 in Peter Duesberg's lab. However, in response to a 2006 editorial in which Rasnick claimed affiliation with the university, the chairman of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley wrote:

I understand David Rasnick claimed an affiliation with our department in an article. David Rasnick has no affiliation with the University of California, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. One should obviously be concerned that someone who misrepresents his own affiliation might also misrepresent data and arguments in other areas.

David Rasnick responded:

Visiting scholar status with UC Berkeley had been terminated, without my knowledge, in 2005, after I had moved to SA. I now list my affiliation as Senior Researcher for the Dr Rath Health Foundation. Critics of Aids orthodoxy must be as pristine as possible. Otherwise we are subject to attack instead of addressing our arguments, as evidenced by Professor Harland's comments.