“People in power like to remain in power”, argued Scheff.

He said individuals will maintain a lie to maintain power, as opposed to accepting the consequences today and risk a failure of public trust in the medical system.

The international conference is focused on a viral or pathogenic cause to AIDS, said Robert Scott Bell, a radio host and homeopath. He argued that those at the conference discount the possibility of a drug or toxicological cause, such as the use of western pharmaceuticals.

“So much of the western pharmaceutical paradigm looks to the body as if it were deficient of synthetic nutrients patented by big pharmaceutical companies and approved by federal regulatory agencies with millions of dollars, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars of conflicts of interest,” said Bell.

Bell argued that individuals diagnosed with HIV, just as those not diagnosed with HIV, need to address the issues as a toxicologically caused immune dysfunction, which can be caused by excess used of pharmaceutical drugs, antibiotics, antifungal, food additives, preservatives and pesticides which destroy enzymes in the body.

“I simply want to replenish the nutrients that have been depleted, that have basically been depleted by these exposures from an environmental perspective and then give the body what it needs, take out that which it doesn’t and I see people revering,” said Bell.

It is documented that early treatments for AIDS itself caused a number of deaths. Bell said his argument is not against the existence of an immune disorder or dysfunction. His argument is merely that the condition is not viral, but environmental and toxicological.

John Lauritsen, the author of “The AIDS Cult” argued that AIDS is a construct, not a disease.

“Whatever it is, it is definitely not infections,” he said. “A series of blunders, mistakes and eventually lies which have cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the United States; it was not necessary."

Lauritsen argued that the conferences are propaganda and a trade show for the AIDS industry and that they have nothing to do with science.

“There are enormous profits involved, but they have been at the cost of human lives,” said Lauritsen.

Drugs are the likely cause of AIDS, argued Lauritsen. He added, the people who claim they did not use drugs are lying; “they make it up.”

“People are dying of the drugs, not because of AIDS,” said Lauritsen.