From Lugo Teehalt:

Re: World Science (Sept. 20): I find this article odd.

'"HIV is the odd man out," be­cause most oth­er vi­ruses of its type, called im­mun­od­e­fi­cien­cy vi­ruses, "im­pose a much low­er mor­tal­ity, "' -- It certainly is, it kills essentially everyone infected, this is completely unheard of. Odd a journalist does not make this dramatic point. There is no serious evidence for these assertions. Incidentally no other retrovirus cause illness, or even kill cells in vivo.

'Worobey then com­pared DNA se­quences of the vi­ruses' -- they are retroviruses, RNA viruses.

'short-term changes of vi­ruses like the flu or HIV, ' -- all flu and HIV have in common is the word virus: you might as well talk about mammals and bacteria in the same breath.

The tea party lot: do I take it we must assume that all AIDS 'denialists' are similarly unhinged.