Aaron Rodgers Suggests AIDS Was Created by U.S. Government
NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers is getting pushback on social media for comments he made about the genesis of the AIDS epidemic.
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers stirred up a hornet’s nest when he made comments accusing the U.S. government of engineering the AIDS outbreak of the 1980s.
During an appearance on the Look Into It with Eddie Bravo podcast in February, the NFL quarterback suggested that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former chief medical advisor to the president of the United States, and the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had played a key role in the creating AIDS epidemic, which served as the “blueprint” for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Video clips of the interview largely went unreported and didn’t create much controversy until they were re-shared and widely circulated on social media this week. In one clip, viewed over 9.6 million times, Rodgers says, “The blueprint, the game plan, was made in the ’80s.”
“Create a pandemic, you know, with a virus that’s going wild, right? Only — he was given, Fauci was given over $350 million to research this, to come up with drugs, new or repurposed to handle the AIDS pandemic. And all they came up with…was AZT,” Rodgers said during the interview, conducted over Zoom.
“And if you do even a smidge of research — and I know, I’m not an epidemiologist, I’m not a doctor, I’m not an immunologist, whatever the fuck — I can read, though. And I can learn and look things up just like any normal person, you know. I can do my own research, which is so vilified, to even question authority.”
Rodgers tried to connect how Fauci handled the AIDS crisis with how the government, following Fauci’s advice, responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, reports Newsweek.
“But that was the game plan back then: create an environment where only one thing works. Back then, AZT. Now? Remdesivir — Remdesivir until we get a vaccine,” Rodgers continued, referring to the antiviral medication that stops the virus that causes COVID from replicating. The drug is typically administered to people suffering from severe COVID.
Rodgers also claimed that Fauci had a “stake in the Moderna vaccine,” but offered no evidence to support it.
“And we know Pfizer is one of the most criminally corrupt organizations ever,” he added. “The fine they paid was the biggest in the history of the DOJ [Department of Justice] in 2009. Like, what are we talking about? We’re going to put our full trust in science that can’t be questioned?”
Rodgers has become famous for his skepticism of the COVID-19 vaccine. Recently, he belittled current Super Bowl champion and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce as “Mr. Pfizer” for appearing in the pharmaceutical giant’s ads encouraging viewers to get vaccinated.
Fauci was instrumental in developing treatments that enable people with HIV to live longer lives, but was criticized in the 1980s for the government’s response to the AIDS epidemic — though the Reagan administration’s nonchalant attitude towards the disease likely also played a role in the lack of a rapid response.
Additionally, the initial antiretroviral medications in the early years of the epidemic had several side-effects and weren’t as effective in suppressing HIV as later generations of antiretrovirals would be — which garnered additional criticism.
Because Fauci oversaw the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic under the administrations of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and because government skeptics have widely questioned the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, Fauci has become a lightning rod for controversy.
Some of Facui’s biggest detractors have even attempted to compare the government’s response to COVID to its response to the AIDS crisis, falsely asserting that a majority of AIDS patients died from AZT, which was developed by scientists under Fauci’s watch, rather than from the virus itself.
Although this claim has been debunked, it is treated in some circles as fact in an attempt to discredit Fauci.
In fact, AZT, while less common than other antiretrovirals, remains in use today and is effective at keeping HIV in check when used in combination with other medications.
Many people critical of the government’s response to COVID-19 praised Rodgers for speaking out.
“He ain’t wrong,” wrote one supporter on X.
“They put crack in the hood too,” wrote another X user, repeating another popular anti-government conspiracy theory.
“In 3-5yrs everything Rodgers is saying will be considered fact and all the non-thinkers, unwilling to deviate from what TV tells them, will deny calling Rodgers a conspiracy theorist. I’ve seen this one before…” wrote a third user.
Others blasted Rodgers for his statements, either arguing that his assertions were not true, questioning his intellect, or attributing his statements to CTE, a condition that results from suffering repeated concussions, such as during contact sports.
“Too many hits to the head Aaron,” wrote one X user. “It actually started in the 1800s. HIV may have jumped from chimpanzees to humans as far back as the late 1800s. The chimpanzee version of the virus is called simian immunodeficiency virus. Then humans got it from eating monkeys.”
“Aaron Rodgers is the worst type of idiot — the one who’s convinced he’s a genius,” someone else wrote.
“You can put a QB in California-Berkley but you can’t make him think,” wrote another.
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