It could be seriously argued but not by this jerk. When you are in front of a sign that questions whether Jihad is Terrorism with little Arabic script on the bottom of the screen and blathering all sorts of disconnected conspiracy theories, you might as well take that little Muslim hat and replace it with a foil-wrapped collander.
In my AIDS classes, we review all these possibilities, including my own addition of an "Andromeda Strain" from space.
Naturally, suspicion goes to some government agency making a new virus, and biological warfare tho "illegal" was being pursued by both superpowers. But, a slow acting retrovirus is not a good weapon. You want some clumsy, instantly debilitating virus or bacterium that will cause puking, diarrhea and fever - not a 5-year waiting period for any possible illness. There was a rumor that the CIA designed the virus to get rid of homos and IV drug users, but after the fall of the Soviet Union the KGB admitted to spreading that lie in a spy vs spy plot.
The scientific consensus is that this is a variant of SIV that was benign until it mutated to a more deadly virus and that it jumped from apes/monkeys in Africa probably as early as the '50s and manifested in the late '70s and detected by 1980.
So, while it is possible that someone playing with viral genes made this particular virus, there is no reason to have intentionally introduce it to the populace. There is also too much conflicting evidence showing that it mutated naturally to become pathogenic - like some strains of enfluenza that ravage the earth's populations.
But, paranoics don't want to see that and conspiracy theories are as abundant as all those devout Christians who thot they would float up to heaven yesterday.
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