And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic

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Summary: Haunting history of AIDS and prejudice in science community.
Review: This book is probably one of the most poignant histories that I have ever or will ever read. It has been almost fifteen yearrs since Randy Shilts published this book, yet it still pertains and is vitally relevant to us today. That Shilts is dead from the very virus he talks about in this book makes its words all the more distressing. Because of the prevailing attitudes of society and the medical community, HIV was virtually ignored when it came on the scene in 1981, and because of this fatal decision by politicians and scientists to pay little heed to a plague which seemed to be only affecting one small and unimportant population, many have died. The story of the mistakes made and the stupid things that people said and did is a parable which needs to be retaught over and over again. Perhaps because Shilts was so intimately involved in this crisis it gave him the impetus to describe so eloquently this period of time and the people involved. I think this book should be required reading for medical personnel, for would be science researchers, and for politicians. It is extremely important that we never let perceptions of others color our compassion or our science, or ultimately we as a society will pay the price. The legacy which Randy Shilts left behind is in this powerful book. Karen Sadler, Science education, University of Pittsburgh

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Summary: Bravo
Review: This extremely interesting account tells the story of AIDS from its first appearances through the development of rudimentary treatments, reading like a combined detective story / statistical analysis / biology book / tabloid. Shilts was extremely perceptive, being the first to discern that AIDS was being treated like a political problem rather than a public health issue. Read this -- you owe yourself the education.

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Summary: A clear telling of how AIDS came to the US
Review: This is another book I keep loosing when I lend it to friends. Shilts traces the spread of the HIV virus in the US, praising or damning those who helped or hindered the fight against it's spread. Written in a style I haven't yet been able to name, a synthesis of journalistic and non-fiction writing, _And the Band Played On_ is clear, pointed and enraging. It may be a little dated now, but still well worth reading.

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Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: This is one of the four or five books I always recommend to friends. It is a fascinating look at the AIDS epidemic, making the disease real both from the viewpoints of those who had the disease and from the viewpoints of the epidemiologists at the CDC. The book reads almost like a detective novel. I had read the book before the HBO movie was made, and was pleased that the movie was as faithful to the book as a movie could be. But if you have seen the movie, you must read the book. As good as the movie was, the book is 10X better.

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Summary: A wonderfully written history lesson
Review: To me, this is one of the best books of non-fiction ever written. Most people who would read this will be haunted by the dates of the emerging HIV/AIDS epidemic, remembering where we were as a new disease started emerging in front of our very eyes. Written in a style similar to Tom Clancy, you jump from city to city and person to person as this story unfolds of how the virus spread. The inaction of many and the tireless work of others as the disease spreads creates villians and heroes in the medical and political world. The population seemed ready to ignore this "Gay related" disease until Rock Hudson finally succumbs to AIDS and America wakes up to the reality of this new plague.

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Summary: The truth about the AIDS epidemic.
Review: What do we usually think of when the word AIDS is mentioned? What is the first impression we get of someone who talks about it? Even though AIDS ranks as one of the most devastating epidemics of the century, probably even our history (since we still haven't seen the extent of its spread), it is still a topic we tend to shy away from. Why? "And The Band Played On" recounts the development of this ruthless disease since it first began and it is when we see HOW it was dealt with that we start understanding WHY today we still hesitate to talk about it openly. Mr. Shilts correctly begins by explaining to us the situation under which the virus made its appearance and we can't help but notice how appropriate the time was. He begins in the late 1970's, in the United States' bicentenial celebration of its Independence and almost profetically places some five gay doctors in the scene wondering how hard a sexually-transmitted disease would strike the gay community if it were to appear in those days. Thus begins the book. We start learning how the majority of the gay community in the United States, and all over the world, behaved and we see that sex was a very important part of their lives. We are introduced to some people and the story begins to take life when some of them start falling sick to a strange number of diseases that ravaged them, diseases that the body can normally fend off. Then Dr. Gottlieb together with some other doctors, among them Donald Francis, Mary Guinan, Dan Williams, Arie Rubinstein and others, begin to receive an incredible number of patients who seem to be stricken by the same illness, but none of them know what they're dealing with. They notice abnormalities in their inmune systems but can't seem to find a cause for it. They try different treatments and none of them work... Meanwhile, most of the patients die and the doctors find themselves unable to do anything about it. Anyway, after a long time and lengthy discussions, they discover that the illness is caused by a virus, one they are still unable to see. When they hit upon that, they start doing more research and come up with some surprises. For example, it was thought that since the virus usually hit young gay men, it had a predisposition to attack that group. Of course, not all of them agreed on it. The French working with the virus in the Pasteur Institute in Paris thought that to be preposterous and continued their search for the virus. One of the reasons for their disbelief is that most of the cases that they had came from Africa and women were also infected with it, while in the United States it wasn't so. However, an epidemic among the Haitians in New York breaks out and, together with the incresing number of sick hemophiliacs, the Gay Plague or Cancer started to appear less and less Gay! Transfussion cases are then considered and they start to investigate, but are met with serious resistance on behalf of the government and the public institutions. The truth is that throughout the epidemic, there were doctors who wanted to beat the disease and thought they had a chance to do it, but they were either discouraged by other scientists or lacked funding to experiment. The whole AIDS story is about how the people who cared fought against those who did nothing and decided to just let things go on. When doctors and scientists around the world were supposed to be united into the struggle to beat the disease, a race began among them to discover the virus first and win Nobel Prizes. When men and women all across America and the world were dying a horrible death, government officials were reluctant to even say the word AIDS in public, as was the case with Reagan. It is known that when he made his first speech regarding the AIDS epidemic, hundreds of thousands of people had been infected with it. The story of the AIDS epidemic is the story, as Mr. Shilts states in his book, of how institutions work, or fail to work in the threat of an epidemic. The story of the AIDS virus is a sad one, filled with the sorrow and despair of people who wanted to do something and couldn't. People who lived in a country that had the means to beat this epidemic before it reached the proportions it did and yet lacked the necessary resources and support. As I was reading the book, I couldn't help but feel angry and desperate. How could this happen? How could this happen in this world, in this century? Why wasn't it given the attention it deserved right from the start? Well, I believe that the answer to that is very hard to find, and if it isn't, I find it hard to say because I'd have to say that humanity had lost its feelings and put budget problems ahead of the people's well-being. That it valued a Nobel Prize more than saving lives and that it cared less for the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people, who did nothing wrong, than for their their reputations and credibility. The true story of the AIDS epidemic reflects how deep our prejudices run in our society and how cold and absolutely inhuman people can become. It is a story of ignorance and shame and also of great "heroism", if one can call it that. We shouldn't forget those who, faced with imminent death, decided to make a stand and fight for their cause.It should be noted that even though all of the people infected with the virus did something to help others, there are always a few who stand out and the book tells the story of this terrible epidemic through the lives of some of these characters. That's what makes it so good! It talks about humanity in a way that, even though it's talking about something as terrible as this, the human issue of the epidemic is present at all times. I believe "And The Band Played On" to be an exceptional book. I hope that people get a chance to read it and ultimately reflect on their lives. I hope that when they see this side of the AIDS epidemic, they'll feel compelled to do something and become better people, so that what happened with AIDS shall NEVER happen again. EVER! Reviewed by : David Sarshalom (age 16

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Summary: How come this didn't get a Pullitzer?
Review: When I picked this book from the shelf and looked at the back cover, I was naturally met by comments from reviewers telling me that it was the greatest thing since the flush toilet. Having firmly resolved to disbelieve them, I bought the book on the grounds that I was curious about AIDS. To my utter shock I found that the reviewers for once hadn't been bribed --- I had picked up something special. This books shakes you so much that you don't even notice that you're a different person when you've read it. I used to believe in institutions, both scientific and government. They somehow 'ran', and 'worked'. They might be slow and lumbering, but things somehow got done. Shilts ripped this idea apart. Some of the incidents detailed in this book: 1. The White House says government institutions don't need more money to fight AIDS, even when Congress wants to give it to them and the scientists are screaming for it. The House invents figures. It lies. Not just around 1981, when AIDS was just starting and the policy had some element of reason lurking somewhere, but even five years later, when everyone knew there was a problem and governments in other countries were doing things. 2. Gay community leaders, far from being united when faced with such a threat, instead bicker about how to tell their members to stop screwing around. 3. The media pays little attention to AIDS as long as most of its victims are gay, because 'the public wouldn't be interested in it'. But who defines what the public is interested in? Is it not the media? And if not, why was the US press so insistent on getting the American public hooked on the pubic intricacies of Clinton on 1998? 4. Some scientists discover the AIDS virus. A rival scientist, an excellent one in his own right, belittles their work and persuades journals not to publish it until he gets the same results himself. 5. Federal officials know the facts and don't say them, in loyalty to orders from above. Sometimes they say the opposite. Never again will I assume organisations are trustworthy or always know what they're doing. But I will also remember the many stories in this book of normal people who took action themselves to do what they could at a local level, and shouted and shouted till those with more resources took action. The chief question is how much hindsight affected the book's writing AND affects its reading. Most of the people criticised for inaction were no less human than those who railed at them. Very few saw, no, understood, what the disease would become as a global phenomenon. It's just that some saw friends dying painful deaths, and others did not. What does that teach us? It means when we see a problem and need other people's help, we need to bring them into direct contact with what's happening, in this case dragging them into hospital wards to see once-fit young men gasping on respirators. A well-researched, well-written, personal case study on AIDS, the working of institutions, local politics and making a difference. Read it sometime. And keep it in a prominent place on your bookshelf.