Comment Re:Maybe Duesberg was right (Score 2, Interesting) 316
Let me give an illustrative anecdote here. Not long ago, I came across the autobiography of a gay man who joined the U.S. Navy in the late 1940's. He recounted the large number of sexual adventures he had in Japan, Korea, Germany, Austria, Italy, and the United States. I doubt very much that his story is unique.
It's true that air travel increased in the 1960's. It's probably also true that the average number sexual partners increased somewhat during that time (although people were also discuss sex more openly, so it's hard to say how much of the apparent increase is real).
Still, the original claim was that HIV requires certain circumstances which didn't exist until relatively recently. I'd claim that the circumstances did exist. The probabilities might have increased somewhat, but I think it could have happened earlier.
If the guy in the anecdote I mentioned had chanced to contract HIV, he very well could have been the vector who led to a larger outbreak much earlier. I think it's just an accident of history that that didn't happen.