Over 40 years after AIDS has killed millions of people across the world, a top doctor pointedly fingered for creating HIV in the early 1970s, Robert Gallo has come out now saying he has discovered the vaccine.Dr. Robert Gallo, this week described his breakthrough vaccine as “just another protein” but different than anything that has been tried before.
He also exuberantly labelled it “the beginning of the beginnings”.
Gallo was exposed in a previous ZimEye article after having been confronted on live video for his alleged role in embarking on biological warfare intended to wipe out black people as well as gay men in the 1970s.
This time Gallo has announced he is beginning the first human trials of his suddenly discovered HIV vaccine.
He described the vaccine as “just a protein” but different than anything that has been tried before.
It’s designed to induce a new kind of antibody to target infection right at the start, since the AIDS virus integrates within one day into human genes, and it becomes part of DNA in 24-36 hours.
Gallo said it has taken nine years to get to this stage. The goal of the first phase is to prove his belief that the vaccine is safe.
“I think it’s very interesting and important to see how we do in man in the first phases and the second phases, but we know it’s the beginning of the beginning,” Gallo said. “I’d feel a eureka moment, an exciting moment, if I knew it works. You know, we have a way to go to know these things.”
Phase one has started enrolling volunteers, 60 of which are needed. Twenty people will get this vaccine candidate, and Gallo said the first person will be injected by the end of this month.
Phase two involves linking up with other people’s vaccines, Gallo said, in the hope of finding a “one-two punch” that really does the trick.
