And The Band Played On

One of the big factors early on is that no one wanted to be associated with AIDS due to the fact that it was considered a homosexual man’s disease. There was a lot of fear, denial and anger surrounding this disease. In 1981at the CDC Dr. Guinan asks that a report about an epidemic with gay men had broken out and he wanted it published in the medical journal. The fear of the word “homosexual” was marked off and not used for that article. It took a long time for the realization that this disease could affect everyone from homosexual males, IV drug users, blood transfusion patients, women and even babies. Even though it was initially considered the disease came from gay men and their sexual practices it crossed all borders as time went on. Still today there is some prejudice regarding AIDS. (Spelling, Vincent &

In the documentary “The Age of AIDS,” FRONTLINE examines the outbreak of AIDS since its first diagnosed case in 1981. The film investigates different medical, political and social environments under AIDS pandemic in the US and worldwide. The film not only focuses on the scientific research and progress in treating the disease, it also looks at the social stigma, government strategies and public campaigns around different countries.

Fears and misconceptions regarding AIDS began when only the homosexual community contracted it. Therefore, people started to believe that only the homosexuals would get the AIDS and blamed them for the cause of the disease. The public was not in fear until some people who were not homosexuals contracted the disease. It was at this time, that the public’s attitude shifted into the fear that anyone was able to have AIDS; it was a sexually transmitted disease. Many were also deceived by the government’s actions. For example, one woman in the movie began to become sick after a blood transfusion. She always thought that it was due to surgical problems, but actually she had contracted AIDS and the doctors knew but didn’t do anything about it. This also caused panic because, even though the government knew AIDS was spreading around they did not do anything about it.

In order to fully understand the AIDS epidemic in the U.S., we must consider the following determinants of health: biological, psychological, and sociological factors. These three factors had determined the spread of the disease in the late twentieth century, and they still affect the global distribution of AIDS today. In the documentary-film And the Band Played On (1993), director Roger Spottiswoode effectively showcased all three factors. The film is a chronological story of the AIDS epidemic from the 1980s. The story of the epidemic garners attention when gay men in both the west and east coast of the U.S. develop this mysterious disease in large numbers. Scientists at the Center for Disease Control and private labs fiercely work toward understanding the disease and trying to come up with a solution. The film is an epidemiological story, where the viewer sees prominent diagnoses, scientific discovery, political turnovers, psychological turmoil, and societal revolutions as developments in unraveling the AIDS mystery. The viewer is shown the journey involved in discovering the biological basis for the disease, the psychological effects due to the epidemic, political and societal conditions during the time period, and the overall implications of the epidemic.

The year was 1991 when Mary Fisher tested positive for HIV. Fisher is the daughter of Max Fisher, a powerful and wealthy republican. She isn 't the normal face of AIDS, and in 1992 she spoke out of her disease at the Republican National Convention. Fisher 's speech, A Whisper of AIDS, is considered one of the top speeches of the 20th century. When Fisher gave her speech, she spoke to a crowd that didn 't believe AIDS was going to affect their lives. When listening and reading the speech, one must take into context the time period, during the 90s testing positive for HIV/AIDS meant death. At the time there were no treatments to help prolong those

In the election year of 1992, the AIDS epidemic ran rampant through America, despite attempts to curb its effects. Not only was America as a country unwilling to step up to help an already stigmatized population, but finding ways to deal with the rapid spread became more of an accessory to political agendas than a necessity to save lives. The Republican party, which holds on to religiously-influenced ideals, was not eager to offer support to a group which Christianity condemns, so did very little to rectify the epidemic. On top of inaction, many did not want to help gay people; homosexuality was still widely unaccepted in society, and the addition of AIDS to the LGBT community did nothing to endear their situation to the general public.

The Administration was seen as anti-gay and when President Reagan’s press secretary, Larry Speakes, in a press briefing on October 15th of 1982, jokes about AIDS. The President himself then continues to ignore the ongoing panic behind the virus until he finally publically mentions the word “AIDS” when asked a question by a reporter in 1985. (factlv.org, A Brief Timeline of AIDS) He goes on on April 2nd of 1987, “President Reagan appeared before the College of Physicians in Philadelphia, to deliver his first ‘major speech’ on AIDS, calling it ‘public enemy number one.’” (factlv.org, A Brief Timeline of AIDS)

As decades pass, it becomes evident that medical research plays a vital role in saving lives and containing deadly epidemics. Without the advancement of modern medicine, these lethal diseases could undeniably erase mankind in its entirety. AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, was the fire that medical researchers were trying to contain since the first reported case of AIDS swept across American headlines on June 5, 1981 (“Timeline”). As mentioned in the Billy Joel’s song “We Didn’t Start The Fire,” AIDS played an influential role in shaping modern medicine and treatment. Acquired immune deficiency puzzled researchers from the start, however, physicians discovered the origin, method of transfer, treatment, and containment methods for

Before 1978 there was no stored blood anywhere in the U.S. that tested positive for HIV or the KS virus. There were no cases of AIDS and no cases of "gay cancer" in young men. The Hepatitis B vaccine experimentation began in new

Buckley, Jr., William F. "Crucial Steps in Combating the Aids Epidemic; Identify All the Carriers." New York Times: 18 March 1986.

According to a report published in the February 1998 edition of “Nature”, scientists identified what they believe is the earliest case of AIDs in a man from the Congo in 1959. (Lerner and Hombs 39) By the end of the year 1980, 80 men would have been diagnosed with at least of the opportunistic infections that are a characteristic of AIDs. (Lerner and Hombs 40) AIDs cases in the 1980s increased dramatically not only around the world but in the United States, primarily in larger cities like Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco. The numbers of AIDs diagnoses and deaths spiraled out of control throughout the 1980s and towards the end of 1989 there were 117,500 cases of AIDS reported and 89,000 related deaths.(Lerner and Hombs 54) In the

Jerry Falwell, an American Southern Baptist pastor, was considered the leader of the fundamentalist anti-gay movement. In almost every speech Falwell made, there were references to the “growing clout of homosexuals.” Once Reagan was elected President, Falwell took credit for Reagan’s win and vowed to continue his pro-life and anti-gay agenda. Following Reagan’s inauguration, Reagan’s budget spending posed significant cuts to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), which would pose a threat to the growing epidemic. In April of 1985, the Director of the Department of Health and Human Services, Margaret Heckler, spoke for the extent of the Reagan administration’s involvement with the disease saying, “We must conquer AIDS before it affects the heterosexual population…the general population. We have a very strong public interest in stopping AIDS before it spreads outside the risk groups, before it becomes an overwhelming problem.” With Heckler’s statement, the Department of Health and Human Services changed their name to The Department of Health and Heterosexual Services. The reasoning towards the federal government’s homophobic response to AIDS is examined in the book Inside Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories edited by

Ambition is a wonderful characteristic one could possess, ambition helps you set goals and strive forward to complete them. This positive trait can turn very negative, very quickly. In Macbeth written by William Shakespeare we see this trait quickly take over a character and turn them from good to evil. Macbeth the main character in the play begins as a very loyal subject to the king, a loving husband and a well respected officer, by the end of the play Macbeth becomes a cruel, inhumane killing machine that goes to extreme measures to obtain any amount of power possible.

. There are a couple of ways on how to teach your child to help others. I believe by the parents helping others the children learn to also be helpful. Being an example of a helpful person has to be effective in a positive way for the children. Also parents can talk to their child about the rewards it has on helping others. They can explain to their child about internal rewards and external rewards. In chapter twelve internal reward is define as self-satisfaction. External reward is gaining something back from you helping out. The parents should give life examples to their kids on how both rewards can be good. For example, internal reward can make you feel good about yourself also feeling like you are useful for someone. An example of external

The movie, And the Band Played On, illustrates the beginning of the AIDS virus and how it unexpectedly spread across the world. It used the Ebola disease to indicate that there will be another severe disease surfacing. The world was not prepared to handle such a transmissible disease. Doctors globally presumed that the first cases of the HIV virus to be just a deformity of a specific disease. Their negligence of this issue was the beginning of the spread of this AIDS. Throughout the movie, it shows various points, such as the start of HIV, the misunderstandings it gave, and the fear it stimulated amongst doctors and everyone else.