This year, 2024, marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of the paper by Drs. Robert Gallo and Mikula Popovic in the journal Science that set the world ablaze over the identity of a virus that causes AIDS. Over the years that paper, however, has been proven to have been riddled with crucial errors, including intentional deletion of facts, misrepresentation and fabrications of its original findings, and very probable misconduct. The Science article has been subject to two lawsuits against Dr. Gallo and the National Cancer Institute, a thorough federal investigation by the U.S. Office of Research Integrity, and a Congressional subcommittee reevaluation by Rep. John Dingell. In each case, the conclusions of these legal suits and investigations ruled against Dr. Gallo although no legal actions or penalties were taken. The evidence is overwhelming and inconvertible. Nevertheless, Dr. Gallo’s Science paper has continued to be foundational to the central AIDS narrative. Despite the paper now having been largely debunked, Science refused to withdraw it from the public scientific record. It is a standard practice that when peer-reviewed studies are found by consensual evidence to be erroneous or fraudulent that they are retracted. This is how scientific integrity is sustained. But this is not the case for Dr. Gallo’s study and three subsequent papers based upon the former’s conclusions, which remain in circulation.
In 2008, a group of 37 scientists from 13 nations submitted a petition to the Chief Editor and CEO of Science to retract Dr. Gallo’s paper from the public record. Neither was the paper withdrawn nor did Science‘s executives have the professional courtesy to respond. Therefore, we are reintroducing a new petition to Science‘s Chief Editor and executive staff to reconsider the evidence that unequivocally warrants the paper’s retraction. If Science fails to act ethically in response to this demand, we plan to petition for an independent Congressional hearing with witnesses involved to testify under oath.
We ask that you take a moment to review and sign the new petition below. The strength of petitions rely on the power of numbers. We also appreciate you sharing it with your colleagues, friends and professional networks. Forty years is too long for a scientific paper that has been discovered to be based upon falsehoods and lacking in scientific integrity to remain in the public domain. It now needs to be expunged from the historical record of medical science.
