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DateROUTING AND TRANSMITIAL SLIP 7/5/91

-0: (Name. office symoo/. room numoer.':Juildlng. Agency/Pos! I

,Initials Oate

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lAction iNote ana Return

i Approval , For Clearance i Per Conversation

I As ReQuested I For Correction I Prepare Reply

C;rculate ,X For Your Information ; ,see Me

.Cornrnent i Investigate I Signature

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This statement was released to the pressby Martin Delaney, ~xecutive Director ofProject Inform.

JO NOT use this form as a RECORD of approvals. concurrences. disposals,clearances, and similar actions I Room"o.-Bldg.

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I (301)496-6ooZOPTIONAL FORM 41 (Rev. 7·76)?rtlc" •• d 'y iSA'PMR (41 CFR) 101·11.208

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Press statement

PROJECT INFORM (US) Calls for End to Harassment and Misinformation~. campaign Against Dr. Robert Gallo

Date: June 16, 1991

continuing press reports in the United states and Europe have falselypre!ent~d information ~bout the AIDS research work of Dr. RobertGallo 3nd have created a campaign of misinformation which is harmfulto progress against AIDS.In recent weeks, press reports claimed that Dr. Gallo had retractedhis c13ims about early AIDS research and admitted guilt that he hadused a contaminant of the virus first discovered by Dr. Luc

,Montagni~r. Thi3 report was reprinted in. papers throughout the world.The papars did not, however, print the' retraction of the story whichwas issued by Associated Press the following day.This incident was th~ most serious of a long series of events createdby Am~rican journalist John Crewdson of the Chicago Tribune, who hasprivately vowedto destroy Dr. Gallo. His unfounded and unpr~v~naccust~t;ons have so far initiated a series of congressionalinvestigations in the united states, as well as many trials_by.thepress elsewhere ~n the,~orld. As a consequence, critically impor~~ntAIDS research in the united states has be~n stalled fo~ two~~~ri~while Dr. Gallo and his team have been required to respond.tolengthy congressional inquiries and internal National Institutes'ofHealth investigations. " .,-,~'~,.~~'.'

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AIDS patients in the United states strongly feel' that this d;sput.e_:l~ ','a' 'terrible waste of time which' threatens the pace of resea'rch. <:',_Enormous amounts of time have already' be~n wasted in ihe Gallo:~,~Jaborartory reconstructing ev-ents in response to the investigations",,:,L~proyoked ,~by Mr. Crewdzon. None of these efforts in any way bene~;~jf~AIDS 'patients or the search for a cure, and we call upon all part~es~~~"including "Dr. Gallo, Dr. Montagnier. and Mr. Crewdson, to end:this~',:

:,,,1udfcrous 'debate. We urge Dr. Gal 10 to forgoe any further defen~_e;'of":'~',..,\,:,himself or hi steam membecs ,••and devote hi s undi vi ded attention,,~<!:_

':,:the critically important Al-OS research work he is involved·ln"':~.':::,-~::;.:espec1a'ly",his work regarding 'Kaposi's Sarcoma. We call upon g,~;:~~i:."~,,..::J4ontagnier,,:'to c~ase his personal and public, attacks on Dr~ Gal10,':~,s:

,~.~,.theylare I,Inprofessional and contrary to the spi ri t of sci ence .:~'And'we.~;~: call' upon Mr. Crewdson to end hi s nakedl y ambi t ious effort to win" e.-

.,>:::pulitzer Prize for his unseeemly pursuit of this matter, J)O',matte.r:'-=:':;~:""whatthe consequences to AIDS patients. -'-:::;,:l;~~:,~<:~:V\~E',~" .' ,._' " ,', ~.~:Y'::'·~;!(/.f(:~r·~

,~7~: "~~;{~'hi'~;';mat'ter' ~as a 1ready done great damage and be nef it noon~::e.x:c;;p;f;\~':"';i:':Mr~,:-Crewdson' and 'the pub 1 ishe r s who use it to se 11 newspap:.r's}:~!W~~":,-.. ;':'f';'Urge,that ..an investigation be initiated into the effortsof.:Mr,;~~;

;:;'Crewdson to learn his motives, his sources, and thenam~s',<?fj~~_~~~:"::,:supporter's. We be l j e ve that he should be required to open~;.:for.:\'. :'.> .~::~.-~:~~t;~Ef;;;~.

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// :.,:;11 his p e r s ona l files, communication:.;, n o t e s , .s n d phon:

L' •j' aco r d 5 jus t ash e has s uc c e s sf u 11y r e qui red 0 fOr.unit~o states is the only country in th-= world in which

can be 30 abused by journalists, and in which journalistsforced to adhere to the same ryles as those people they

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and t re v'" "iGallo. ,hescienti~t3c an nc t .:.eat tac k •

This sad episode must end, here and now, for th-= benefit of allpeople ~crld-wide afflicted with HIV infection.

Background: The Crewdson Charges and Tactics

Mr. Cr~wd30n has repeatedly and deliberately misrepresented thefacts .. This is an e xt r eme l v complicated scientific matte,', one whichthe public has found difficult to understand. Crewdson has takenadvantage of this by supplying simp\istic and misleading informat."The real truth of the matter:

Dr. Gallo and united states Government ney~r claimed to be the firstto discover the AIDS virus. They have never disputed that the Frenchwere the first to isolate the virus in 1983. Gallols claim was thathis team had been the first to grow the virus in a continuous cellline, the first to prove that it was the cause of AIDS, and the firstto pr'oduce a blood test. These claims have never been disputed by theFrench Government or ~~. Luc Montagnier. The French lawsuit settledseveral years ago questioned only the origin of lhe virus used in thedevelopment of the blood test. .

Crewdson today cont i nues to imp 1y that Ga 110 i ncorrectl y c l ai m~d,'·:~g·first discovery, and that he did 50 by appropriating th!3'French~,1:'

-v t r-us . This is false. A united states_formal inquiry has already .• -i;determined that se t l o t s laboratory had more than 20 independeot-~'"

_.isolates of HIV at the time they a~e accused of stealing the French -,;"Virus. If the French virus showed up in the blood test,it could onlY-~:··'·

·~·...~·...':.·;\::~have been through contamination, 'not by intent. "..! ~:':3F;;::~:':'~;~.~';~:.

I.' In last week's press furor, Gallo did not retract any of the claims ~made on behalf of his team, although the media c I a i med that he d t d,".'.""

. ;:~Gallo did, however, acknowl6~oe the virus used in the development of ~_.: ..:...:the blood t e s t may have included a contaminant from the virus sent to '

::.<:.'''''the u.S By Dr. Montagnier. But tni's ;s not news, and it had not been"'-':-~,'"~:':J":-previously denied. It was in fact Gallo himself, in 1984, who first':

;'.'::told the French of·this possiblity. The acknowledgment last week was"'~',,,,,~,~'::'not a response to Crewdson's articles, but only a repitition OT,':!~,:'~''':::;:somethi ns said' long ago. . ... _.::;.c::~-.L+,;~: : '''- . -" .. .: .....:,-: :,:: ":"::".:~._· -·:~So what di d Dr. Gallo retract last wet::;K, if anv t h i n'3? The retracti on~-::

: ~ ':was in reference to a scientific paper published a few months.,ago,~.'jn-"-'.;. :which Gallo and Jean-Claude Cherman announced that retesting of some:

",:,::::'samples of the old virus in question showed them to be dissimilar to::'~_the French virus afteral1- This implied that the dispute of the last

_ _ few yea r s co u1d hay e . bee n c a use d b y a con tam ina t ion .i. nth e.. F.r e nc h .: .

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labor~tori~sl r~t~er than in Dr. Gallo's. In the Gallo - Chermane r t i c le , theY3Cknowledged that this f Ind i nq was be sed en testingonly 5 of 3 samples of the virus sent to .~merica, the only 5 whichthey cculd recov~r in. 1990. Dr. Montagnie~ and the Pasteur Institutewer~i ~~~~d for additional samples of the remaining thr3e but refusedto supply them. After the paper was published, Dr. Montagniar thenretested the 3 remaining samples on his own (which he had r~fused toshare with Gallo and Cherman), and found them to be similar to thevir us i I) que stion in I 9 S 4 • Con seq uen t 1 y, 0 r. Gallo ret ract edt hepaper ~nd apologized for any confusion caused, while once againacknowl~d9in~ the possibility of contamination in his laboratory.~imi13i~ cont~min~tion has recently been reported in the laboratory ofOr. Rob i n ',of e iss 0 f the U. K ., so itis not .;S nun u sua lor ne far i0 u5

event.This wss all that happened last week. Thera was no admission ofguilt, no retraction of the claims'of 198~. These findings changednothin3 !xcept the Gallo-Cherman articl~'of this y~ar.In this matter, it is utterly impossible to make a fair judgementabout the acc~sations- against Dr. Gallo, because he alone has beenforced to prove and document all of the actions of the 1983-1985period. The p re ss arid others simply take Dr. ~10ntagnier at his word -there has b~en no examination of his records and files. likewise, thepress and the United states Congress and much of the publi~ havetaken Mr. Crewdson at his word, with no investigation of his motivesor the accuracies of hi~~ources and accusations4 This imbalance andunfairness makes this entire inquiry what·is colloquially' called aIIKangaroo Court" in America.It must end now. Gallols record of continuing contributions in thefight against AIDS are unmatched by those of his critics. Thus, thepress should not be surprised that we feel compelled to come to hisdefense. Mr. Crewdson will never find a cure for AIDS, nor has everhelped the research in anyway. .::!..:r.:.,

:-:.~.~...:.';.•...:- '~~'.II' 'Background on Project Inform:"project Inform in one of the best known and largest AIDS Treatment

Information and Advocacy organizations in the united states. It'supplies treatment information to more than 50,000 people worldwide

'. and .has been a spearhead o~·regulatoryand research reform in the..' United states since 1985. It 15- also active in the field of.

:•...../...Gommunity-based research and is we') known in government and media in~..::·l.·~t.heUnited~ states and abroad.

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