Rating: 
Summary: Required Reading
Review: Edward Hooper's theory is that chimpanzee kidneys which were used to grow the polio vaccine. Were in fact infected with "Simian HIV". So when the contaminated vaccines were injected orally into the gums of Africans in the 1950s. HIV and eventually AIDS was able to cross the species barrier by being transmitted from apes to man through medical assistance. The Polio vaccines were hastily developed in dirty conditions by two American scientists aided by the former Belgium colonists of the Congo. The first case of AIDS ever reported was of a man living within a radius of the vaccination center. The United Nations and the World Health Organization have tried to suppress the truth behind the origin of AIDS because they beleive that people will distrust vaccines and refuse to under go vaccinations. The American govt and media have suppressed and ignored Edward Hoopers book because they do not want to be held liable for the murder of millions of people world wide Feeble attempts have been made by the American scientific establishment to ridicule Edward Hoopers theories by suggesting that a "super computer has proved that AIDS existed in 1902" However few beleive this since Africans have existed along side apes for over 10,000 years without AIDS ever coming into existence. No deaths from AIDS existed in the 1900's and even if it did the diseases incubations period does not last a whole century in dormancy. Which means that external factors must have brought about the current catastrophe. That external factor was man or more accurately the ambitious motivations of American scientists seeking a noble prize for the creation of a Polio vaccine. This crude vaccine intended to prevent the crippling effects of polio was to be manufactured at great cost. The price being the destruction of half of humanity by the AIDS virus. This is a cautionary tale but one that must be told none the less.
Rating:
Summary: The River- a journey to the source of HIV and AIDS
Review: Having read the other reviews, there isn't much to say!!! A well written book detailing (and eliminating) other theories of the source of AIDS and HIV, before getting down to the nitty gritty of his own theory. As someone who is in NO way connected with Public Health or the like, I still managed to grasp the fundamentals of the book. If you understand all the weird and wonderful terms- fine. If not prepare to learn!!! Nice one.
Rating: 
Summary: Pseudoscience with an agenda
Review: He begins with a conclusion and works his way backwards, disregarding any evidence that contradicts his theory and lending credence to any shred of speculation which supports it. This is what happens when a journalist goes into the science world with an agenda. This colossal book would go down in history as a folly of monumental proportions if anyone with influence ever listened to him to begin with. His theory has been disproved more thoroughly than any other regarding the origin of HIV.
Rating: 
Summary: Intelligent, well thought out but yet to be proven.
Review: Hooper has put considerable thought into the emergence of HIV infection. As to whether he is right you'll have to make up your own mind. I found Hooper's book both fascinating because of the detail and some of the conclusions Hooper comes up with to explain the sudden appearence of HIV/Aids related viruses. The least that can be said about this terrific book is that Hooper asks some provocative questions that no one has seriously attempted to answer. Even if he is wrong (and we'll never know as long as the scientific community doesn't investigate his theories with less rancor) Hooper has provided considerable food for thought;will a world altered because of immunization have less risks (or just different ones)? Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Chilling and convincing
Review: Hooper has truly written something great. He has found not a smoking gun, but rather dozens of warm firearms. At first glance, his thesis involves so many repetitions of "some of" and "may have" and "perhaps" that one is left wondering at the remote odds of all these coincidences coming together in one fateful vaccine dose. But as the book goes on, Hooper elegently proves that not only is his thesis viable--it is by far the most likely explanation. Despite being epidemiology, the book reads like a novel and is very engaging; I wolfed two to three hundred pages at a time. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Tragic and unintended consequences
Review: Hooper's book is a probing, thoughtful assay into the unintended consequences (HIV) of good intentions (preventing polio); his response to a reader comment confirms that view, and skewers the understandably reactive comments of Dr. Koprowsi's son. (I agree, with the son, however, that Hooper falts his father's failing memory too much to be seemly.) What Hooper proposes is an unlikely (but like many unlikely things, quite possible) chain of events beginning with an unlikely transmission of SIV to humans; but Hooper shows (1) that it was distinctly possible and (2) that a small number of infections, and not mass infection, of humans with SIV was all that was needed to start the AIDS epidemic. And he repeatedly seeks the means to prove or disprove it, which are denied to him by those with the information and materials to do so (who have pride and position, at least, to lose). If nothing else, the publication of this book may force the hands of insitutions that have the material (old polio vaccine lots) that could largely disprove this theory to make those samples available for testing. Moreover, this book also may cause us to be more careful, as we tinker with nature and science (think of BGH and genetically engineered corn), to consider whether the unintended, and sometimes unforeseeable, consequences of our present actions create such that present needs must go unmet in light of those risks. If Hooper's theory is right, Dr. Koprowski did not set out to be careless and to expose the world to disease (quite the opposite is true); but even he knew at the time that he could have been much more risk averse that he chose to be.
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Summary: "Some beautiful facts have destroyed an ugly theory."
Review: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1295000/1295171.stm Three independent research teams have debunked this theory.
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Summary: Like mysteries? Here is a nonfiction mystery.
Review: I am delighted to be able to read Mr. Hooper's and Dr. Claude Koprowski's comments on this site. I bought this book because I read the Tony Curtis article in Rolling Stone when it first appeared. I didn't think then, and I don't think now, that Curtis was doing anything more than noting the coincidence of the origin of the earliest cases of AIDS and areas of particular polio vaccinations. I thought Rolling Stone subsequently printed "a retraction" that retracted nothing specific in the Curtis article. My point here is that we may never have "proof" of the origin of the AIDS epidemic. The lapse of time, the poor memory of the principals and missing or incomplete records may make proof impossible. Edward Hooper's genius is to let the known facts speak for themselves and to allow the reader to draw his own conclusions about the behavior of the principals in this matter. The significance of this book, at least for me, is its detailed illustration that science is only as good as the people who practice it. And that the practice of science is changing as it moves from an academic setting to a commercial one. Certainly scientists who hide behind lawyers may avoid legal liability but may also loose the trust of the public. As I finished this book I wondered "If scientists don't published their work because they consider it "intellectual property" to be patented or licensed and they never admit a mistake because they seek to avoid legal liability, how will science progress?"
Rating:
Summary: gratitude
Review: I am greatly surprised at some people's reaction of Dr. Koprowski's role. First of all, nothing is scientifically proven yet, it is only a hypothesis. Dr. Koprowski saved millions of people from poliomyelitis and tested this vaccine on himself, his colleages and family members. Maybe it is time to admit that he developed this vaccine before Salk and Sabin did and, at least, give him credit for helping to elliminate such horrible disease from the face of the earth. And this has been already proven! Where is our simple gratitude?
Rating:
Summary: inspiring
Review: I bought the River as a Christmas gift for my father, but as I casually started reading the first pages, I couldn't stop and had to take the gift home with me after Christmas. I was amazed how I had to keep turning the pages of this massive book, which is filled with medical and biological abracadabra that is difficult to grasp for a layman. Hooper, however, explains everything patiently and with such enthusiasm you can't help wanting to know more. I was inspired by the way Hooper conducted his research. Knowing now that common sense, discipline and loads of interviews can produce somthing more valuable than most traditional "scientific" research I've come across, I feel strengthened to pursue my career as a journalist/investigator. Near the end the book tends to get repetitive and Hooper seems a little out of control trying to convince the reader he is right. This made me suspicious and left me with a feeling there might be many other explanations of the origin of HIV/AIDS not explored in this book.
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