Joep Lange
About 100 of the 298 people killed in the Malaysia Airlines crash were heading to Melbourne for a major AIDS conference, conference attendees have been told.
Delegates at a pre-conference in Sydney were told on Friday morning that about 100 medical researchers, health workers and activists were on the plane that went down near the Russia-Ukraine border, including former International AIDS Society president Joep Lange.
Crash claims top AIDS researchers heading to Melbourne (The Age)
Thanks Mark Geary
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I know this might be a conspiracy theory too far, but the Russians are pretty anti gay, AIDS was discovered first and affected most the gay community, now a plane full of AIDS experts is shot down over Russian airspace………………..
you’re an idiot
I do not see why George is an idiot? Seems pretty logical to me.
Why would Russia take this action just to shoot down some AIDS researchers? The incentives don’t line up at all. It destabilizes the situation, it hugely increases international pressure, and for what? To mildly interfere with AIDS research that they probably don’t care about either way?
Even if you’re virulently anti-gay the risk:benefit ratio is terrible.
Yes, it is a conspiracy too far. It was shot down over Ukrainian Airspace by a bunch of idiot rebels who know how to aim, and fire a SAM system, but not how to distinguish between a Boeing 777 and an Antonov 26.
Ukrainian airspace should have been closed when the military knew that serious SAM systems were in the field. These are not Mujahadeen with an RPG aiming at a low flying aircraft.
just shut up, you are a pathetic fool.
..or it was just a bunch of pig-ignorant peasants dressed up as Cossacks playing with a sophisticated missile system that they had no business using.
or, y’know, the thing you said.
George, just stop please.
But is the point of this post not to make people put 2 and 2 together?
I think it was highlighting the loss of expertise in the fight against AIDS. A unfortunate consequence of this sad event.
No it is to make retarded fools idly speculate and then abuse each other with vapid meaningless consequence free online gibberish.
Is that not the same thing?
Isnt the whole point of this site and sites like it to make retarded fools idly speculate and then abuse each other with vapid meaningless consequence free online gibberish……well that and some easy advertising revenue for what ever media conglomorate operate this site ( while obivouslt pretending its a home grown cottage industry)
I thought the same – I doubt it was in any way intentional but I’d say Putin’s delighted all the same.
Why? HIV is a chronic condition in the west, with which people live full lives.. It’s sub Saharan Africa that’d suffer if Putin’s out to kill doctors. They don’t take their already-made advances to the grave.
Eh… I’m pretty sure that in total, much more straight people are infected with AIDS than gay people.
I doubt even Putin wants the AIDS epidemic to get worse…
Jeez.
Its a striking blow to those fighting AIDS., researchers and those with knowledge have now passed away. Just hope this does not set back research any period of time. Read a stat the other day, 35 million people living with HIV/AID.
I have no doubt that Putin would be happy to witness the extinction of those most affected by HIV. I think people underestimate the power that someone like Putin holds. The guy’s a lunatic megalomaniac and I think people should wake up to his ilk.
Sabre-rattling is something Putin is known for, but he’s not going to further destabilise the entire region and make it more difficult for Russian-backed forces to operate in eastern Ukraine by doing something like this. Yes, he’s a homophobe, it’s possible he wouldn’t be too upset by the loss of these people, but control of irredentist areas of Ukraine is of infinitely higher priority to the Russians.
Seriously, not just homophobic but actively encourages the lynching and oppression of homosexuals. The guy’s an unstable wing nut. As Angela Merkel put it – he is not in touch with reality, he is in another world.
Wow, that really sucks…
Russia is home to the world’s most explosive HIV epidemic, with an estimated 1.2 million infections accounting for 55 percent of the total number in Europe.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/russias-hiv-epidemic-starts-in-its-prisons/503403.html
Yep and 2% of the entire Ukraine are HIV+.
OMG George, you’re on to something, that’s not a ridiculous theory at all. Let’s warn all the monkey sanctities around the world as they’re obviously the next target for Putin. You should contact Jim Corr immediately.
*sanctuaries
Just goes to show – if Vincent Hanley hadn’t died in 1987, he would have been on that plane flying over Ukraine. No escape from heaven.