I found this to be an amazing book, unfolding step-by-step as though it were a suspense story. Which, at the time, it certainly was. Journalist Randy Shilts wrote a well-researched, even-handed, and incredibly readable account of the science, politics, and personalities of the incipient (and then burgeoning) AIDS epidemic. The book begins in Africa in 1976 and concludes shortly after Rock Hudson's death from the disease in 1985 (which finally brought public attention to the issue). First referred to only as "the gay cancer," the disease had a few short mentions by the media as it appeared in the straight population (in hemophiliacs, blood transfusion patients, and newborns).
Throughout the book there's a palpable tension between the medical and political arenas as they grapple with (or attempt to ignore) the disease. Anyone who agitates to cut government spending by getting rid of or sharply reducing the powers of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) should be required to read this book. Although there are a number of heroes among the characters, the CDC--with its intelligence, tenacity, and compassion--heads the list. At the beginning, it seemed that a handful of CDC scientists were the only people who cared, and they were among the very few that sensed the illness was likely to become an epidemic. To essentially foresee the future--but to not be able to convince others of the reality--must have been nightmarish.
The story successfully blends a number of elements: competitive jealousies within the scientific community (it's likely that the French actually discovered the AIDS virus, despite a neck-in-neck US researcher who claimed the glory), the politics of the slow-moving National Institutes of Health (NIH), Reagan's stubborn refusal to address the AIDS issue (he finally did so six years after the epidemic began--and after 20,850 citizens had died), and a number of incredibly touching stories of people with the disease. One thing I hadn't known was the schism within the gay community: some people recognizing the reality of the threat while others (understandably) discounted it as internalized homophobia or as a homophobic attempt at sexual repression.
Ultimately--when all the medical and political wrangling is stripped away--the book is about people facing AIDS during a time when it was a horrible death sentence. In reading this account, one can't help but have compassion for all patients everywhere whose end of life includes ostracism, derision, and shaming. Yet, despite the dire circumstances, there was also love and compassion. Selfless nurses volunteered to work the AIDS unit, even when the disease was still somewhat of a mystery. The Shanti Project was a grassroots effort that cared for the sick and the dying by providing housing, medical care, friendship, and emotional support. This book captures a period in time where, in the midst of sometimes slow-moving science, second-class-citizen politics, and a seemingly indifferent larger society, some dedicated people struggled to raise awareness, to change habits, and others, to face death with equanimity.
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Ein hervorragendes Buch über die Anfänge der AIDS-Pandemie
Reviewed in Germany on March 7, 2022