Nicoli Nattrass is director of the AIDS and Society Research Unit at the University of Cape Town and visiting professor at Yale University. She has a doctorate in economics from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She is a recognized expert on the political economy of antiretroviral treatment. Her research helped change South African AIDS policy, and her current work on AIDS denialism and conspiracy theories-both of which undermine scientific approaches to HIV prevention and treatment-have informed the work of AIDS scientists and activists across the globe.
Nicoli Nattrass does a wonderful job uncovering the dangerous consequences of following fringe ideas in health and medicine. Her new book puts medical myths and misinformation square in front of us, and she tells the story with such passion, we dare not look away. -- Seth C. Kalichman, Ph.D., University of Connecticut, author of Denying AIDS: Conspiracy Theories, Pseudoscience, and Human Tragedy Nicoli Nattrass's book is long overdue. She provides a comprehensive, definitive rebuttal to the genocide that AIDS denialism continues to propagate around the world. Nattrass succeeds in educating the public and arming them with truth based on proven science -- not pseudoscience. Nattrass should be widely commended for her work. -- Robert C. Gallo, M.D., director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine A rigorous and illuminating investigation into the anatomy of AIDS conspiracies, this book ought to be read by anybody interested in the relationship between science and ordinary people. -- Jonny Steinberg, Ph.D., Oxford University, author of Sizwe's Test: A Young Man's Journey Through Africa's AIDS Epidemic A must read for anyone interested in confronting the anti-science backlash causing so many unnecessary deaths across the globe. -- Paul A. Offit, M.D., F.A.A.P., chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and author of Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure In this important book, Nattrass...deftly examines widespread misconceptions about the origin, transmission, and health effects of AIDS. Publishers Weekly 12/5/2011 A remarkably well argued case against unscientific approaches to AIDS and a brilliant defense of evidence-based medicine. Library Journal (starred review) 2/15/2012 The AIDS Conspiracy is essential reading for anyone who is curious about why some people will not accept scientific facts about the nature, origin and lethality of HIV. -- Robin A. Weiss Nature 2/23/2012 a highly accessible, impeccably referenced, scholarly work, which should be essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the role of conspiracy theories in the social and political history of the AIDS epidemic. -- Neil Bennet Lancet 8/12/2012