On Thursday, in a letter, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) slammed Dr. Anthony Fauci for permitting the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to keep making use of monkeys in the vaccination experiments of HIV and AIDS.
NIAID Using Monkeys for Vaccination Experiments for Almost 40 Years
The letter reads that for experiments into a potential vaccine for HIV and AIDS, NIAID has been utilizing macaques, a type of monkey, for almost 40 years.
The letter notes “The macaque model for developing a vaccine for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has failed. After nearly 40 years of painful, deadly, expensive experiments — a vaccine is still not on the market.”
HIV Is Human-specific
Further, it was stated in the letter that HIV is human-specific, and macaques’ have attributes that help in preventing HIV reproduction in their tissues and so they are not able to develop AIDS.
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PETA issued the letter in consideration of Fauci’s World AIDS Day statement, in which he said that “finding a safe, effective and durable HIV vaccine remains an NIH priority.”
A senior science advisor for PETA, Lisa Jones-Engel, made assertions that the experiments on macaques have turned out to be an “unqualified failure.”
PETA referenced one situation where Fauci claimed that preclinical research on a remedy for HIV engaging monkeys “might have been a fluke” following it did not prove to be helpful for humans infected with the virus.
The Existence of Valley Fever in Monkeys Has the Potential to Damage the Reliability of HIV Research
Jones-Engel also stated that Fauci neglected the “presence of unintended infections” that develop in monkeys utilized in these experiments, referring that according to an investigation by the Arizona Republic, it represents that the existence of Valley fever in monkeys can destroy the credibility of HIV research.
The PETA letter reads “This has cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and condemned hundreds of thousands of monkeys to miserable lives and deaths,” adding further “And the public is still waiting for a vaccine to prevent HIV. Please stop funding and conducting HIV/SHIV/AIDS experiments on monkeys.”
One National Institutes of Health grant for a project in 2020 lists Fauci as the project leader and claims that monkeys were utilized to test their theory. The NIH had provided an amount of minimum $1,001,661 to this project.
Fauci has also been the co-author of multiple studies pursuing to find a remedy for HIV and the simian immunodeficiency virus, which engaged monkeys for testing.
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PETA Pushing Fauci to Shift to Relevant Research That Reduces Animal Involvement
Rather, PETA is forcing Fauci to switch to “modern, human-relevant research,” that minimizes animal research.
The Senior Vice President of PETA, Kathy Guillermo said “Anthony Fauci’s agency at the National Institutes of Health has funded 36 years of horrendous HIV experiments on monkeys — and there is still no vaccine,” adding “Fauci has publicly stated why the monkey HIV experiments aren’t working — yet he fails, decade after decade, to stop them.
He even co-led many of these experiments himself. Monkeys don’t get HIV, and Fauci needs to end experiments on them and instead fund modern, human-relevant research.”
