About the Program
Craig Timberg promotes the theory that Western colonial powers unwittingly sparked the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa simply by sending people into remote regions, where chimpanzees had carried the virus for millennia without it spreading to humans. Mr. Timberg also argues that Western attempts to stem the epidemic, through condom distribution and abstinence campaigns, are ineffective because they ignore homegrown African initiatives that focus on stemming the behaviors that spread the virus. Mr. Timberg discusses his assertions with Scott Evertz, a former director of the Office of National AIDS Policy.