Editing David Rasnick (section)

== Education and body of work ==
David Rasnick received a [[PhD]] in [[chemistry]] from [[Georgia Institute of Technology|Georgia Tech]] in 1978; his thesis was entitled "Affinity Labeling of Metalloendoproteases."<ref>{{cite book | url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/638449874 | title=Affinity labeling of metalloendoproteases | date=1978 | accessdate=28 October 2013 | author=Rasnick, David William | oclc=638449874 |format=electronic thesis or dissertation}}</ref> Rasnick studied [[protease]]s in rats and has also written a book about the [[aneuploidy]] theory of cancer.<ref name="ns"/><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VTClFDDkyV0C | title=The Chromosomal Imbalance Theory of Cancer: The Autocatalyzed Progression of Aneuploidy is Carcinogenesis | publisher=[[CRC Press]] | author=Rasnick, David William | year=2011| isbn=9781578087372 }}</ref>

Rasnick was a prominent member of the [[AIDS denialism|AIDS-denialist]] movement, which claimed that [[HIV]] either did not exist, or did not cause AIDS. He claimed that HIV was a harmless "passenger virus" incapable of causing any disease.<ref name="vv"/> In association with [[Matthias Rath]], Rasnick traveled to [[South Africa]], a country with one of the highest incidences of HIV/AIDS in the world, where they discouraged HIV-infected individuals from using [[antiretroviral]] drugs and instead promoted the use of proprietary vitamin mixes which were claimed to fight AIDS. Rasnick also advocated a complete ban on HIV testing in South Africa, and denied that there was "any evidence" of an HIV epidemic in South Africa.<ref name="vv">{{cite news | work = Village Voice | first = Mark | last = Schoofs | date= July 4, 2000 | url = https://www.villagevoice.com/2000/07/04/debating-the-obvious/ | title = Debating The Obvious}}</ref> In 2008, a South African court ruled that the trials conducted by Rath and Rasnick were illegal, and barred them from conducting clinical trials or advertising vitamin supplements in the country.<ref name="nature">{{cite news | work = Nature | url = http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080618/full/453969c.html | title = Anti-AIDS vitamin advertising banned | date = June 18, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | work = The Guardian | title = South African court bans trials of vitamin treatments for Aids | first = Xan | last = Rice | url = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/14/southafrica.aids | date = June 13, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | publisher = Reuters | title = South African court bans AIDS vitamin trials | url = http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-safrica-aids-court/south-african-court-bans-aids-vitamin-trials-idUKL1383491420080613 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180124081730/https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-safrica-aids-court/south-african-court-bans-aids-vitamin-trials-idUKL1383491420080613 | url-status = dead | archive-date = January 24, 2018 | date = June 13, 2008}}</ref>