Well, at least Cort admits this time that he is editorializing.
As for the XMRV will be worse than HIV AIDS in Africa "quote," the full quote is from
here (emphasis mine):
When the controversial part of this quote is not removed from context as Cort has done, it's clear that she was referring to the
epidemic threat of HGRVs. If indeed there is a possible background infection rate of ~2-4%, then this quote is, in my opinion, not particularly outlandish. Currently,
HIV infects ~5% of Sub-Saharan Africa. Left unacknowledged, unresearched and untreated, HGRVs certainly could become worse
from an epidemic standpoint.
All that said, this point probably didn't need to be made at the time.