I'm going to post a series of separate posts here in this thread, quoting at length from a very informative and insightful source about the history of AIDS epidemic of late 1970s - late 1980s. The quoted parts are from this source:
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts (published 1987, 1988 by St. Martin's Press)
Feel free to contribute to this thread with your own thoughts.
In the following excerpt, those who engaged in vigorous efforts to fight the epidemic with inadequate financing have helped organize the first U.S. congressional probe on the epidemic, and one of the individuals bluntly exposed what he believed were some of the reasons for the inadequate response of federal government and medical community. The date below is the day the congressional probe was held.
(pages 143 - 144)
"April 13, 1982
'I want to be especially blunt about the political aspects of Kaposi's sarcoma,' Waxman said. 'This horrible disease afflicts members of one of the nation's most stigmatized and discriminated against minorities. The victims are not typical, Main Street Americans. They are gays, mainly from New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
'There is no doubt in my mind that, if the same disease had appeared among Americans of Norwegian descent, or among tennis players, rather than gay males, the responses of both the government and the medical community would have been different.
'Legionnaire's disease hit a group of predominantly white, heterosexual, middle-aged members of the American Legion. The respectability of the victims brought them a degree of attention and funding for research and treatment far greater than that made available so far to the victims of Kaposi's sarcoma.
'I want to emphasize the contrast, because the more popular Legionnaire's disease affected fewer people and proved less likely to be fatal. What society judged was not the severity of the disease but the social respectability of the individuals affected with it.'
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts (published 1987, 1988 by St. Martin's Press)
Feel free to contribute to this thread with your own thoughts.
In the following excerpt, those who engaged in vigorous efforts to fight the epidemic with inadequate financing have helped organize the first U.S. congressional probe on the epidemic, and one of the individuals bluntly exposed what he believed were some of the reasons for the inadequate response of federal government and medical community. The date below is the day the congressional probe was held.
(pages 143 - 144)
"April 13, 1982
'I want to be especially blunt about the political aspects of Kaposi's sarcoma,' Waxman said. 'This horrible disease afflicts members of one of the nation's most stigmatized and discriminated against minorities. The victims are not typical, Main Street Americans. They are gays, mainly from New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
'There is no doubt in my mind that, if the same disease had appeared among Americans of Norwegian descent, or among tennis players, rather than gay males, the responses of both the government and the medical community would have been different.
'Legionnaire's disease hit a group of predominantly white, heterosexual, middle-aged members of the American Legion. The respectability of the victims brought them a degree of attention and funding for research and treatment far greater than that made available so far to the victims of Kaposi's sarcoma.
'I want to emphasize the contrast, because the more popular Legionnaire's disease affected fewer people and proved less likely to be fatal. What society judged was not the severity of the disease but the social respectability of the individuals affected with it.'
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