Hello, I’m Paul Franks and I’ve written a conspiracy-thriller called ‘A Dive Into Darkness’ based upon my four years researching HIV/AIDS. In this original podcast series, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about the story behind the story, the four-year research and writing process from inspiration to publication, and all points in between.

In previous episodes I have stated that the CDC regarded AIDS / GRID as a complete mystery. In future episodes, I’ll explore the extraordinary lengths they went to ‘discover’ the source of AIDS. In my opinion the CDC’s AIDS Task Force, led by James Curran and Don Francis, deceived the public, because they were desperate to find some kind of widespread medical problem that would preserve the organization and their jobs. As James Curran stated in his Global Chronicles interview: ‘The political background, at least as I remember it, was that Ronald Reagan had just been elected President to replace Jimmy Carter. The main thing was the concern about a decrease in domestic spending. There was a hiring freeze at the CDC and a freeze on a lot of budgetary aspects of CDC, as well as a commitment to close the Public Health Service hospitals and to cut back on domestic spending.’ There must have been a real concern that the CDC might be closed too, especially on the back of the 1976 Swine Flu fiasco, and the six months it took to get to the bottom of the Legionnaire’s disease outbreak the same year. So, to be saved from the chop, as Kary Mullis said, ‘The CDC needed a good plague.’

In Episodes Fifteen and Sixteen, I outlined the clear links between CMV and PCP pneumonia and CMV and KS. Today, in Episode Seventeen of ‘A Dive Into Darkness’, ‘CMV and Toxoplasmosis’, I will explore in more detail the close association between CMV and another marker disease of ‘early’ AIDS, Toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmosis is a common infection that you can catch from the poo of infected cats, or infected meat. It's usually harmless but if you have a weakened immune system toxoplasmosis may cause problems with your eyes, brain, heart or lungs. In ‘And The Band Played On,’ Nick Rock’s toxoplasmosis is finally diagnosed in November 1980 after the top of his skull had been removed (p45). As I said previously, two months later CMV was running rampant through Rock’s body as he approached death.

As I’ve also said previously and as I’ll repeat ad nauseum the CDC were desperate to propagate the idea that AIDS/GRID was a complete mystery. However, in 1979, a paper was published titled ‘Pneumocystis carinii, Toxoplasma gondii, Cytomegalovirus and the Compromised Host’. It states, ‘Pneumocystis carinii and Toxoplasma gondii are the two major parasitic protozoan pathogens in the immunocompromised host, both parasites are associated with cytomegalovirus infection in immunosuppressed hosts. Although Pneumocystis and Toxoplasma will be the major focus of this paper, infection with these two organisms cannot be discussed without reference to cytomegalovirus. Infection with one of these organisms, especially cytomegalovirus, may facilitate secondary infection by Pneumocystis carinii or Toxoplasma gondii. There has been ample documentation of concomitant infection with Toxoplasma and cytomegalovirus in the compromised host. In 1956, simultaneous disseminated cytomegalic inclusion disease and toxoplasmosis in an adult with myeloid metaplasia was described. In 1968 the National Cancer Institute was the first to call attention to the striking concurrence of disseminated cytomegalovirus and Toxoplasma infection in patients with altered host defenses. They suggested that this association might be more than a fortuitous occurrence and that there might be a symbiotic relationship. Individual human cells infected with both organisms also have been observed.’

The paper also confirms that ‘dual infections with cytomegalovirus were noted in the earliest clinical series of immunosuppressed patients with P. carinii pneumonitis. In a recent electron microscopic study of P.carinii, structures were found within the cytoplasm of this parasite that resemble cytomegalovirus.’

The summary is clear, ‘Toxoplasma and Pneumocystis are important opportunistic pathogens that account for significant morbidity and mortality in the compromised host. There is obviously a need to understand the pathogenic mechanisms responsible for disease production by these organisms. The occurrence of concomitant infection of these parasites with Cytomegalovirus suggests more than a fortuitous relationship.’

When the first AIDS, or GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficiency) cases were reported, gay males afflicted with PCP and KS, the CDC declared it was all a huge mystery and we were ‘all doomed.’ However, the medical literature pre-1981 contained extensive evidence that PCP and KS were both closely associated with a virus carried by 90%+ of sexually active gay males, CMV, and that these combinations could have fatal consequences. It was clear that Toxoplasmosis and CMV were also close bedfellows. Perhaps AIDS/GRID wasn’t such a huge mystery after all….

Thank you for listening to Episode Seventeen of ‘A Dive Into Darkness’. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please tell your friends about it. In Episode Eighteen of ‘A Dive Into Darkness’, I will tell you more about CMV and the many reasons why I believe it should, by itself, be considered to be one of the causes of AIDS. Till the next time, goodbye and happy reading.

‘A Dive Into Darkness’ is available both as an ebook and paperback, with Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-dive-into-darkness-paul-franks/1145527746?ean=9781917129855

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dive-Into-Darkness-Paul-Franks-ebook/dp/B0D32DP97S

James Curran interview

https://www.globalhealthchronicles.org/aids CDC’s fantastic AIDS resource

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1238480/pdf/westjmed00245-0044.pdf ‘Pneumocystis carinii, Toxoplasma gondii, Cytomegalovirus and the Compromised Host’

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cascades.substack.com