As principal investigator at the Harvard School of Public Health, Max Essex, was recently awarded $20 million to study HIV prevention in Botswana – a meager reward for the man who played a pivotal role in creating the current conceptual model of the HIV / AIDS epidemic, compared to the billions distributed annually [1].

Essex’s erroneous research spawned the theory that HIV originated in African monkeys. This misconception is critical because the concept is a pillar for the fallacy that HIV / AIDS is endemic in Africa. Continue reading →