In response to Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson’s July 5 piece in which he highlighted several scientific “breakthroughs” in the search for an AIDS vaccine, Robert Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, writes in a Post letter to the editor, “Although Mr. Gerson correctly noted that these discoveries are unrelated, he misperceived their relative significance.”

Gallo outlines the significance of two recent vaccine findings and concludes, “A key point in all of these findings is that there may be many ways to block HIV infection with a vaccine, and they may be revealed to an open mind” (7/15).