So here it is, the famous Royal Society meeting of September 11th to 12th, 2000. Supposedly a free and fair evaluation of different theories of AIDS origin, but in fact a determined and well-organised attempt to wipe the OPV theory off the map. Crucial elements of the conference included the late addition of two extra speakers (Koprowski and Sharp) to the anti-OPV side; the inclusion of one epidemiologist who denied any links between CHAT and AIDS, and the refusal to allow a full speaker to argue the opposite; the concentration on the entirely spurious phylogenetic dating "evidence"; the focussing (both in the main hall and in the press conference) on the negative testing of the Wistar vaccine samples - samples which had never been anywhere near Africa; the refusal (apparently at Plotkin's and Koprowski's insistence) to allow any video or audio recording in the main hall; and the irrevocably biased nature of Robin Weiss's final summing-up. In addition, Stanley Plotkin's defence team was allowed to add an extra "postscript" article to the published proceedings, an article which (just like Plotkin's main article) featured many examples of untruth, spin and deliberate misrepresentation.

The various press reports after the conference largely reflected the inherent bias of the meeting, but the sharp-eyed reader will notice that not all the journalists present were so easily duped.