Mbeki. Dr. Wainberg also opposed the pseudoscientific ideas of AIDS denialism that are responsible for an estimated 330,000 AIDS deaths in South Africa alone. In 2006, Dr. Wainberg was the Co-Chair of the XVI International AIDS Conference. In 2004, he was videotaped by AIDS denialist Robin Scovill, whose HIV-positive wife died in 2008 and whose daughter died of untested and untreated AIDS in 2005. In this interview, Dr. Wainberg proposed that those who harm others by publicly questioning HIV as the cause of AIDS should be charged with endangerment of public health and jailed if convicted of crime. Death Mark Wainberg drowned while on a vacation in Florida. Some believe he had an asthma attack in the water, while others believe the undertow dragged him out. His funeral was held on Friday, April 14, 2017, in Congregation Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem, the Montreal synagogue where he had previously served as president. References External links New York Times obituary Obituary Paperman funeral home, Montreal Researcher was 'a giant of HIV science' André Picard, Globe and Mail, 22 April 2017 1945 births 2017 deaths Anglophone Quebec people Canadian biologists Canadian medical researchers Columbia University alumni Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada HIV/AIDS in Canada HIV/AIDS researchers Officers of the Order of Canada Officers of the National Order of Quebec McGill University faculty McGill University alumni Jewish Canadian scientists Deaths by drowning in the United States Scientists from Montreal Accidental deaths in Florida