“How Positive Are You” is currently hosted by David Crowe, Celia Farber and Terry Michael. The show also owes a debt of gratitude to co-founder Christine Maggiore, who died suddenly in late 2008, after laying the groundwork and taping more than 10 episodes.

About Terry Michael

Terry Michael is a teacher, independent journalist and former press secretary. He is the founder and executive director of the Washington Center for Politics and Journalism (WCPJ), which sponsors “The Politics & Journalism Semester”, to teach future political reporters about politics.

Since 2007, as an investigative journalist (independent from his work as director of WCPJ), Michael has researched and written about the anomalies, inconsistencies and distortions of orthodox HIV and AIDS theory.  Though he had watched the AIDS health crisis unfold as a young gay man, he was unaware of dissent from HIV=AIDS theory until February of 2007.  “Then 59 years old”, he explains, “I literally stumbled on the re-thinking community while reading a political blog, which linked to the web site of AliveAndWell.org.  I read Christine Maggiore’s book, and invited her to come to Washington to speak to my students. Meeting Christine set me on a path of prolific reading and independent research about HIV and AIDS, and eventually to writing about the mysterious retrovirus and the amorphous immune deficiency syndrome.”  In December 2009, Michael published a long investigative piece on HIV and AIDS at his personal web site,  www.terrymichael.net

Michael’s reporting is informed by a four-decade career in journalism, politics, and journalism education, and a recent self-education in science and epidemiology related to HIV and AIDS.

Michael was a reporter and political press secretary from 1969-88. He is former press secretary for the Democratic National Committee (1985-87), two Members of Congress, and the Democratic Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives. He was a presidential primary campaign spokesman, serving as director of communication for the 1988 Paul Simon for President committee.

Michael began his career in 1969 as a reporter for the Mt. Vernon (IL) Register-News and then wrote for the Champaign (IL) News-Gazette before beginning work in politics in 1973.  He is the recipient of the “Distinguished Service Award” for 2001 of the Washington, DC Professional Chapter, Society of Professional Journalists, and the “Presidential Award” for 2002 of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.  He was founder and first president, in 1977, of the Assn. of House Democratic Press Assistants.

Michael has served as a guest lecturer on media and politics, in both the U.S. and abroad, for the U.S. Dept. of State. He is a former adjunct professor at The George Washington University, where he taught, from 1998 to 2002, “Journalism 100: Theory and Practice.”  He has a B.S. in journalism from the University of Illinois (1969).

Michael lives on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, and can be reached at terrymichael@terrymichael.net.

About Celia Farber

Celia Farber is an American writer and journalist who has been chronicling the HIV debate since 1987. She was one of the original signatories to the letter establishing the Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis.

Between 1987 and 1995 Farber wrote a monthly investigative feature column in SPIN magazine, entitled “Words From The Front”, focusing on the earliest critiques of the HIV/AIDS hypothesis, the AZT genocide, and all facets of the emerging HIV dogma – medical, sociological, political, and economic, both in the West and in Africa.

Her articles, translated into many languages, have been used as course material at universities in discussions about critical science reporting. Farber has also been a vocal and persistent critic of political correctness and the McCarthyism that reigned in sexual harassment law in the 1990s. In 1999, she co–founded the non–profit organization Rock The Boat, which had as its aim to use rock music to stimulate independent thinking, by arranging concerts around particular subjects that had been darkened by media censorship. She has written for Harper’s, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Salon, Gear, the New York Press, Red Flags, and others.

In March 2006, Harper’s Magazine published a 16–page article by Farber entitled, “Out of Control: AIDS and the Corruption of Medical Science” (PDF). The article was originally commissioned to cover Peter Duesberg’s cancer research specifically, but Farber and Harper’s editor Roger Hodge decided to shift the emphasis of the story to Jonathan Fishbein and the HIVNET 012 Uganda trial of nevirapine. The article attracted an enormous amount of media exposure, including coverage of the article by the New York Times and by National Public Radio.

Also, at this time, Celia authored a book, Serious Adverse Events: An Uncensored History of AIDS, published in 2006 by Melville House Press.

More recently, Celia has founded an online magazine, “The Truth Barrier”

About David Crowe

David Crowe received an honours degree in biology and mathematics in 1978 from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Canada with a thesis and later publication based on computer analysis of many-dimensional biological data to estimate evolutionary relationships. This research was the first to hypothesize and provide evidence that a species of plant (Bidens connata) was most likely actually a hybrid of two other species.

In the early 1990s, David became interested in the scientific controversy of whether HIV causes AIDS after hearing a CBC radio program by Colman Jones. Knowing about the corruption that exists in science from his experiences as an environmentalist, and also knowing the limits of scientific knowledge, he started a project that would enable him to render an informed decision on the question of HIV. The project–still ongoing–is to read all the major scientific literature on HIV and AIDS.

In 1999, David founded the Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society with the goal of providing science-based information to people around the world in order to enable them to make their own decisions about HIV testing and treatment.

In 2000, David became active in AnotherLook, a research organization established by Marian Tompson, one of the co-founders of La Leche League International in the 1950s. Another Look is dedicated to scientific verification the common view that breastfeeding by HIV-positive women is dangerous. As a member of the advisory board of Another Look, David has contributed to a number of articles and letters on the topic of HIV and breastfeeding that have been published in the medical literature or Another Look’s web site

After reading in the news about the case of Sophie Brassard, a Montreal woman who was losing custody of her children because she refused to give them AIDS drugs, David became concerned with the human rights violations that take place under the banner of HIV prevention. He now works with legal professionals around the world to help prevent or remedy situations in which people are coerced into taking drugs, separated from their children or sent to jail based on unfounded assumptions about the transmission of HIV and the development of AIDS.

After serving three years as a board member of Rethinking AIDS, an international organization of doctors, scientists and journalists who question the HIV=AIDS theory, David was appointed president in 2008. During his tenure as RA president he hopes to make the organization a leader in the provision of uncorrupted scientific information to the media, scientists, politicians and anyone who is interested in whether the HIV hypothesis of AIDS is a fact or a grand illusion.

Dispelling the notion that AIDS rethinkers are political conservatives, David was one of the founders of the Green Party of Alberta in 1990. He is also involved with the Green Party at the federal level.

David has written for a number of national magazines on a multitude of subjects including health, science and technology. He has also provides summaries of AIDS science through categorized lists of thousands of direct quotations from medical journals, government documents, test and treatment manufacturer documents and the popular media. This extensive collection of quotes is referenced by educators, legal professionals and concerned citizens throughout the world and can be found at the web site for Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society http://aras.ab.ca and Rethinking AIDS

Married and the father of three, David enjoys cooking, cycling, learning Italian, and the great outdoors. He currently works in the telecommunications industry as a consultant, a position that often requires him to travel to China, India and other areas of the world where AIDS is thought to prevalent. Through his travels David has met people from many countries who question the idea that HIV=AIDS.

In his not so ample spare time, David is writing “The Infectious Myth,” a book that will cover AIDS and other health conditions wrongly blamed on germs.

About Our Co-Founder Christine Maggiore

Christine Maggiore was a successful entrepreneur in international business when she unexpectedly tested HIV positive during a routine medical exam in 1992. Shortly thereafter, she became a very passionate public speaker for several prominent AIDS organizations including AIDS Project Los Angeles, LA Shanti Foundation, and Women at Risk.

In 1993, at the request of an AIDS specialist, Christine took a new HIV test which led to a series of tests that fluctuated inexplicably between HIV positive, HIV negative and indeterminate. This unsettling experience compelled Christine to take a closer look at the “AIDS awareness” she had been taught to teach as a public speaker. Following a trail of unanswered questions eventually led Christine outside the confines of conventional wisdom and into a body of scientific, medical and epidemiological data that challenged everything she thought she knew about HIV and AIDS.

In 1995, Christine established a monthly public forum in Los Angeles for the discussion of unanswered questions about HIV and AIDS. This effort eventually evolved into Alive & Well, a non-profit education and peer support network that raises questions about the validity of HIV tests, the safety and effectiveness of AIDS drug treatment, and the foundation of most popular beliefs about HIV and AIDS. Alive & Well’s mission is to inspire open dialogue on these subjects and enable people worldwide to make truly informed choices about their life and health.

In 1996, while trying to summarize 10 key questions about AIDS in a simple brochure, Christine created the first edition of her book, “What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?” which quickly became an important addition to the international debate on the HIV hypothesis.

Over the next nine years, Christine’s persistent questions and tenacious pursuit of answers aroused both admiration and animosity, evoked invitations to debate and dialogue at various universities and medical schools around the country, and led to countless speaking engagements in a variety of venues ranging from the Rand Corporation to Reverend Al Sharpton’s Action Network and a medical conference in Russia. Her work and life story inspired a number of news segments (CNN, NBC Nightly News, ABC’s 20/20, Court TV,), magazine articles (Newsweek, Mothering, SPIN, GQ, Elle) television episodes (Judging Amy, ER), book reports, dissertations, and documentary films (The Other Side of AIDS, This Child of Mine).

In May of 2005, tragedy struck when Christine’s three year-old daughter, Eliza Jane Scovill, died suddenly and unexpectedly following treatment with an antibiotic for a simple ear infection. Four months later, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office declared Eliza Jane’s death was due to AIDS-related pneumonia. News sources around the world reported on the announcement and followed the drama of a 12-month criminal investigation (see JusticeForEJ.com for details) that focused on potential charges of negligent homicide.

Critics of her controversial work celebrated the coroner’s conclusion and openly expressed hope that Christine would be arrested and silenced. Instead, after a year of inquiry, the police investigation was closed with no charges filed, and Christine and her husband filed a civil suit against the LA County coroner’s office for maliciously claiming a cause of death for their daughter that is not supported by biomedical evidence.

For 17 years after testing HIV positive Christine continues enjoyed remarkable good health without the use of AIDS treatments or other pharmaceutical interventions, living in a suburb of Los Angeles, California with her husband and partner of 12 years, Robin Scovill, a filmmaker and real estate investor, and their son Charlie, age 11, whose interests include studying cello and piano and playing ice hockey.

Christine had never fully recovered from the death of EJ – what parent can? Unlike most parents who can grieve in private, Christine’s story was splashed across the media and into the courts, forcing Christine to relive the trauma many times. Coverage was mostly unsympathetic if not outright hostile. Shortly before her death the popular TV drama “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” made a program based on a distorted view of her life, including a sudden death. Distortions of her life included a dead HIV-positive husband (reality: living, HIV negative husband), no other child (reality: HIV negative son) and a daughter who died from AIDS (reality: EJ died from an adverse reaction to amoxicillin). It appears that this program was assisted by the Bill Gates Foundation and the CDC.

At the time of her death Christine was working on a book about Eliza Jane and the witch hunt inspired by her death, she was running Alive & Well, working as supervised visitation monitor for family court, and heading up The Shaken Justice Project, an effort that provides legal, medical and peer support to innocent parents and caretakers wrongly accused of crimes after the sudden and unexpected death of a child.

Christine died in late 2008 from a sudden onset of pneumonia and we miss her dearly.