Written, compiled: XZ
On February 8, 2022, Luc Montagnier, a French virologist who won the Nobel Prize for co-discovering the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), died in Paris, France, at the age of 89.
For decades, Montagny has been widely praised for his study of HIV. However, in recent years, according to The Washington Post, he has alienated many of his colleagues by promoting fringe science theories and so-called "pseudoscience." According to the Associated Press, since the advent of the new crown vaccine, Montagny has become a fierce opponent of the new coronavirus vaccine, and there is no basis for saying that the new crown virus is manufactured in the laboratory, which has caused great controversy.
The journey of HIV exploration
In the 1980s, when AIDS was raging in France, Montagne was the director of the department of virology and oncology at the Institut Pasteur in France, and the specific cause of aids and effective treatments were not known at that time, so AIDS became a public health crisis at that time. In this crisis, young gay men make up the majority, their immune system will be damaged over time, when the body's immune system is "paralyzed", unable to resist the external environment, so they will contract various diseases and eventually die.
According to The New York Times, many doctors suspect that retroviruses may be the cause. In 1983, retroviral expert Montani and his colleague Françoise Barré-Sinoussi took samples from the lymph nodes of an early patient. Montagny and his colleagues tested the viral activity in the sample and isolated a retrovirus, named lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV). Science reported on the work on May 20, 1983, but the article didn't receive much attention at the time.
A year later, American researcher Robert Gallo published a study confirming the link between HIV and AIDS. At this point, the two researchers quarreled over who discovered HIV and when.
A few more years later, the work of Montagny and his colleagues facilitated blood testing and AIDS treatment for HIV. Montagny sued Gallo in 1985, asking the United States to patent the test, according to the Times. In 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac stepped in to sign an agreement to share royalties for the trial and claim that both scientists had helped discover the virus.
In 2008, Montagny and Barré-Sinoussi received the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the virus, and shared the results with Harald zur Hausen, a German virologist who discovered that human papillomavirus causes cancer.
According to The New York Times, the Nobel Committee said: "Never before has science and medicine been so rapid in discovering, identifying, and providing treatment for the origin of a new disease." "At present, the emergence of antiretroviral therapy has brought the life expectancy of people living with HIV to a level similar to that of the uninfected, which is an important milestone.
By the time the Nobel Prize was awarded to Montagny and Barré-Sinoussi, more than 25 million people worldwide had died of AIDS and 33 million people were infected, according to the New York Times.
However, it is such a scientist with outstanding contributions who has made some "pseudoscience" remarks in recent years, and he has begun to conduct some unconventional experiments, such as the electromagnetic radiation emitted by dna (DNA) and suggesting that the DNA of some bacteria will continue to signal after the infection is cleared. Just last year, he claimed that the COVID-19 vaccine led to the evolution of the new coronavirus variant, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Original link:
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/luc-montagnier-virologist-who-codiscovered-hiv-dies-at-age-89-69699