HIV is the cure to all diseases. I’m not sure that I can tell you why, but David S. Wetherell, the Chairman of the Lentigen Corporation in the USA, certainly can. My dear friend (and WITNESS Board member) Van Jones and I were leaving the Belvedere Hotel and a conversation with Gavin Newsome (the Mayor of San Francisco), when we bumped into David (who we didn’t know from a whole in the wall) at the coat check. In typical Davos fashion, a random conversation began and we wound up having dinner together. The conversation took a turn for the better when David, who was apparently a former internet mogul and TIME magazine cover story, started explaining that the HIV virus can in fact be the cure for all disease. If I got it right, the good thing about the HIV virus is that it can get to a cell’s nucleus — and Lentigen is supporting biotechnology which uses that so-called "vector", without any of the very ugly other activity of the HUV virus, to transport therapies directly where they need to go. 

He says Lentigen is also developing a "vaccine" for 198 out of the 200 known cancers. This preventative was developed by a Nobel Prize winning scientist who studied why people with Downs Syndrome only get 2 of all 200 known cancers – prostate cancer and leukemia. It has to do with the way their cells are constructed and Lentigen have figured a way to replicate this component of the Downs’ syndrome cell which eliminates your risk to almost all cancers without causing you any of the symptoms associated with Downs. Am I crazy for blogging this, or is he? I suspect not. In fact, he is has been named one of the top 25 investors in Money Magazine. So let’s wait and see. It sounds like these biopharmaceuticals are around the corner…along with something which will double our life span. We begged him to keep the lid on that till we figure out how to manage all our current problems of overpopulation, poverty, etc….

Most excitingly, David and his wife (whose name I cant remember but I have it at the hotel!) were excited about WITNESS so I look forward to getting to know them better.