Letter of 16 February 1994 to W D Hamilton from the magazine Science rejecting his letter on the origin of AIDS and polio vaccines

SCIENCE

16 February 1994

Dr. W. D. Hamilton
Department of Zoology
University of Oxford
South Parks Road
Oxford OX1 3PS UNITED KINGDOM

Dear Dr. Hamilton:

Thank you for your letter of 27 January. I have discussed it with Dan Koshland, and he believes that it would not be appropriate for SCIENCE to publish it at this time, as we have devoted considerable space to the topic you address. We recognize that you are superbly qualified to comment and appreciate the merits of your concern about getting to the bottom of the AIDS origin hypothesis. However, we believe that it would be best for the letter to appear in a specialty journal, such as the Journal of Virology, where it could stimulate the appropriate researchers to pursue the question, using PCR and other available modern techniques.

The author of our news pieces, Jon Cohen, and his editors have received a copy of your letter and are aware of your concerns about our reporting.

We very much appreciate your thoughtful comments and will keep them in mind should there be any further developments.

Yours sincerely,
[signed]
Christine Gilbert
Letters Editor
CG:ssl

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