Friday, June 22, 2007

Goat Serum

(Since the below post was written and posted I've come to realize that both Precious and Rocky Thomas do in fact exist and aren't figments of someone's imagination. I considered removing potentially snide and rude comments I made about both of them but didn't want to appear to "rewriting history" so the thinly veiled jabs stay in the post. I still, however, do not believe that this "Goat Serum Cure" is in any way whatsoever helpful--may in fact be harmful--to someone living with HIV or AIDS. October 13, 2009)

Also known as BB:7075. Or maybe even peHRG 214. More on those later.

The cure for AIDS for this month/week/whatever was "discovered" (i.e., made up out of the blue) by asshole and general practitioner Dr. Gary R. Davis of Tulsa, Oklahoma. (But maybe it wasn't. More on that later.)

Back in December 1992, Dr. Davis apparently shouted a command to the heavens, "If you're God, then act like God!" That night, he had a dream. (Cue mysterious music.) In this dream, he was naked in a barn with a goat. (Cut it with the music!) What kind of goat is never mentioned. That's unfortunate. What's more unfortunate is why was he dreaming about being naked with a goat in a barn. That's just kinda creepy.

Regardless, he stuck a dream-needle into the dream-goat in the dream-barn and drew some of the dream-goat's dream-blood. When he awoke, he realized that he knew all sorts of stuff about HIV he didn't before. Like, for example, what he told his family, "Did you know that a goat cannot contract HIV?"

(No fucking shit, Sherlock! It's called HUMAN Immunodeficiency Virus for a reason.)

Then, much later, and as reported by one Forres McGraw (who claims to be a reporter for the Greenwich Village Gazette), precious 7-year-old Precious Thomas had AIDS, was being seen by doctors at the National Institutes of Health and had a Viral Load of 118,119 (which seems a bit too precise, by the way). But, after using Dr. Davis' bullshit Goat Serum (I guess retrieved by squeezing a part of the goat that might get you arrested and charged by the Humane Society), precious Precious' precious viral load went preciously to "ZERO [sic]". (Never mind that viral load tests aren't fucking accurate to anything less than 50 (or maybe 25, I'm not sure); that's why it's called "undetectable".)

Here's the story. In 1995, Dr. Davis "developed" his treatment, one year later, he applied to the FDA to perform a clinical trial with his Goat Juice. While apparently initially approved, that approval was revoked.

Meanwhile, back in Bethesda, MD, Rocky Thomas, Precious' precious unfortunately-named mother, was apparently comforting Precious who was "in the hospital". Whatever that means. Heck, if you step inside the doors of a hospital, you are "in the hospital". Regardless, Ms. Thomas "vowed" to do whatever it took to help her daughter. Admirable; but in this case stupid.

Mrs. Thomas apparently recalled a news story on Dr. Davis' "treatment" and flew off to Tulsa to meet with him. According to the story, Dr. Davis was "barred" by the FDA from administering his "treatment". So, he apparently cancelled all his remaining appointments for the day and spent "much of his afternoon" with the Thomases.

So, standing by her vow, Rocky broke the law and stole a vial of the Goat Serum and administered it to her daughter. Afterwhich, precious Precious was "cured" of her awful HIV infection.

~~~~~

This story has so many problems it's amazing. But let me touch on a few.

First, an undetectable viral load is NOT cured! Sheesh! I would think even a GP (General Practitioner) would know this!

Second, this Rocky Thomas twit could have done some horrible things to the daughter she claimed to love so much by using an unproven and utterly untested "serum" on her! If this Rocky Thomas exists, I would love to see her prosecuted for child endangerment!

Not only that, Rocky Thomas admittedly broke the law by stealing the serum! This possibly fictional woman is a danger!! (One wonders if this "Mrs. Thomas" is the one who stole the goat serum from a "holding facility" in North Carolina as referenced on an FDA Web page warning persons not to use the Goat Serum at all....)

And the author of the "article", Mr. McGraw, attempts to twist the denial of the clinical trial by the FDA into some sort of racially-based discrimination! He states, "Why is the brilliant work of an African American General Practitioner being suppressed?" What an asshole!! Not everything "bad" that happens to an African American is because of his or her skin color! Fuck you, Mr. McGraw!

And, I found absolutely no references to Mr. McGraw's articles nor to this Precious Thomas on the web site for the Greenwich Village Gazette. (To be fair, I'm not sure how far back the Greenwich Village Gazette keeps articles. And, Mr. McGraw could have been summarily canned, booted, fired, kicked to the curb or otherwise dismissed from his duties after writing his article.)

Finally, there is a lot of information on the internet about this Goat Serum. It's called BB:7075 by Dr. Davis. And, a quick search on "BB:7075 HIV" yields an interesting page at the Ghana AIDS Commission's web site. And that page is really where this bullshit Goat Juice really crashes and burns.

Most notably:

"The Commission further stated that no pre-clinical studies have been conducted on BB: 7075 with respect to HIV 1 Virus." (Remember precious Precious from earlier? If she was infected in the US, chances are that she has HIV 1 and the fucking Goat Juice has NEVER BEEN TESTED ON HER STRAIN OF THE VIRUS!!

And, I leave you with this lengthy-ish bombshell from near the end of the Ghana AIDS Commission's web site:
Contrary to the above [claims that Dr. Davis discovered or invented BB:7075], further search about BB:7075 on the internet and particularly on the [United States Food and Drug Administration] website, seems to suggest that Dr Davis is not the inventor of peHRG 214 [the name possibly given to the serum in a US clinical trial] as there is no documentation on the product except those placed on the internet by Dr. Davis himself. Drug development should generate substantial date. To date, Dr. Davis has not been able to provide any scientific date on his product."

What an asshole this Dr. Davis is!

(The references for the dream above came from Eightball Magazine and The Quiet Hour. Never let it be said that I don't publish my sources...)