Luc Montagnier
Luc Montagnier (US: /ˌmɒntənˈjeɪ, ˌmoʊntɑːnˈjeɪ/;[2] US: /mənˈ-/,[3] French: [mɔ̃taɲe]; born 18 August 1932) is a French virologist and joint recipient, with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Harald zur Hausen, of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).[4] He has worked as a researcher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and as a full-time professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.[5]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Montagnier was a promoter of the conspiracy theory that SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus, was deliberately created in, and thereafter escaped from a laboratory. Such a claim has been refuted by other virologists.[6][7][8][9] He has been criticised by other academics for using his Nobel prize status to "spread dangerous health messages outside his field of knowledge".[10]
The Sacred Congregation of the Index, from 1571 until 1917, was in charge of compiling the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the List of Forbidden Books (and publications) that Catholics were forbidden to read without permission. After 1917, the task of redacting the Index was transferred to the Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei, but the whole project was abolished in 1966.
My uncle Giuseppe Boschini had a good friend, who had petitioned for and had received dispensation, allowing him to to read communist newspapers. I remember being asked by the priest, in confession, how was it that I had access to communist papers--I read them at the Cafe Nazional'e, a coffee house that my elders frequented. I was ten or eleven, and I had confessed to looking intently at the photo of a non fully dressed lady on a leftist paper.
We see here how, in our modern times, the compilation of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum has come to be in the purview of Wikipedia editors. Some want to protect us children from dangerous pictures, others want to protect us from dangerous health messages.
Moreover, Prof. Montaigner is not Chinese. Should helot refrain from discussing Donald Trump's "Chinese Virus"?
COVID-19 pandemic
In 2020, Montagnier argued that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was man-made in a laboratory and that it might have been the result of an attempt to create a vaccine for HIV/AIDS. His allegation came after the United States had launched a probe into whether the virus came from a laboratory. According to Montagnier, the "presence of elements of HIV and germ of malaria in the genome of coronavirus is highly suspect and the characteristics of the virus could not have arisen naturally."[53] Montagnier's conclusions were rejected as hasty by the scientific community, considering the gene sequences are common among similar organisms.[10] There is currently no evidence indicating the novel coronavirus is a man-made virus.[8][54]
Wikipedia classifies Professor Montaigner as a conspiracy theory promoter, on the basis of one factor: he said that "the characteristics of the virus could not have arisen naturally."[53]
Other scientists say that the virus is zoonotic, and arose naturally. They also provide no evidence, yet are not accused of being conspiracy theory promoters.
In May 2021, however, what had been "conspiracy theory" and was banned from discussion, suddenly become acceptable, as if someone had passed the order down the line.
Yet, the Wikieditor in charge here cannot rehabilitate Professor Montaigner, since he continues to speak unpredictably--he says what he observes.