Hepatitis

It is important to realize that hepatitis B spreads in the same ways as HIV: through blood and semen. Thus, it is no surprise that the same groups (e.g. homosexual men) are hard-hit by both. The vaccine trials used homosexual men in San Francisco and New York because they had very high rates of hepatitis B. Because the same behaviors spread HIV, these groups later had high rates of HIV. This explains why the groups that took part in the trials later had HIV.

The claim that HIV was introduced via hepatitis B vaccinations is extremely doubtful for two reasons.

McDonald et al, Lancet, 1983 Oct 15, 2(8355):882-4 state the incidence of AIDS in unvaccinated sexually active homosexual men was _higher_ than in vaccinated men, although the rates were too low for statistical significance. If the virus were introduced through the vaccinations, the infection rate would be much higher in vaccinated people, of course.

Stevens et al, JAMA, 1986 April 25, 255(16):2167-2172 tested blood samples from the beginning of the vaccination program and found that 6.6% were already HIV-positive. Therefore, HIV couldn't have been introduced via the vaccinations, because it was already there. In addition, the number of infected steadily increased year by year to 43.7% in 1984. If they got the virus through vaccinations, there would be a sudden jump from 0%, not a steady increase. Also note that contrary to many claims, the infection rate was not 100% among those vaccinated.