| Continuum | |
| Category: | Health |
| Founder: | Jody Wells |
| Finaldate: | 2001 |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Based: | London |
| Language: | English |
| Issn: | 1461-1597 |
| Oclc: | 36211346 |
Continuum was a magazine published by an activist group of the same name who denied the existence of HIV/AIDS.
Favoring pseudoscientific content, the magazine addressed issues related to HIV/AIDS, AIDS denialism, alternative medicine, and themes of interest to the LGBT community. It ran from December 1992 until February 2001 and ceased publication because the editors had died of AIDS-defining clinical conditions.
Continuum was created in December 1992 by Jody Wells (12 March 1947 – 26 August 1995) in London, United Kingdom. It ceased publication in 2001, after all the editors died from AIDS-defining clinical conditions,[1] leaving debts of over £14,000.[2] The magazine last appeared in print in 1998 and then surfaced again in February 2001 on the Internet.[2] It was initially published bimonthly, then began to be published seasonally.
According to the magazine:
Continuum promoted the idea that AIDS was a conspiracy and was not related to HIV. Wells believed that the fear of AIDS was based on homophobia, not science.[3]
Continuum claimed to be a scientific journal for those who had alternative theories about HIV/AIDS, even though it had no peer review and promoted and advertised alternative therapies such as urinotherapy. AIDS denialists often cite the articles published in this journal as a source of scientific information.
In the January/February 1996 edition, the magazine began offering £1,000 to the first person who could find a scientific study that showed the isolation of HIV,[4] even though it had been isolated in 1983 by Luc Montagnier and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi[5] (for which they received a Nobel Prize),[6] and then was confirmed by Robert Gallo in 1984, demonstrating that a retrovirus they had isolated, called HTLV-III in the belief that the virus was related to the leukemia viruses of Gallo's earlier work, was the cause of AIDS.[7] Peter Duesberg tried to claim the prize and wrote an article for the magazine in its July/August 1996 issue,[8] but the award was rejected because it had to meet certain conditions.
Immunity Resource Foundation hosts the complete library of Continuum magazine among an internet database of 120,000 similar documents .[9]
Jody Wells, founder and editor-in-chief, died at the age of 48 on 26 August 1995, by Pneumocystis pneumonia, an AIDS-defining clinical condition.
Huw Christie Williams was the editor-in-chief after the death of Jody Wells until shortly before his death at the age of 41 on 17 August 2001,[10] by Kaposi's sarcoma, an AIDS-defining clinical condition.[11]
Michael Baumgartner was the acting editor on the last edition of the magazine.[12] At the request of Huw Christie Williams before his death, Baumgartner served as editor for what would ultimately be the final publication before the final closing of the magazine.