> > AIDS 'Patient Zero' was a publicity strategy, scholar writes**** > > [image: Randy Shilts , here at the San Francisco Chronicle in 1987, > initially resisted exaggerating Patient Zero´s role, but was persuaded that > it was necessary to focus public attention on the deadly epidemic. Shilts > died of the disease in 1994.]**** > > *Randy Shilts , here at the San Francisco Chronicle in 1987, initially > resisted exaggerating Patient Zero's role, but was persuaded that it was > necessary to focus public attention on the deadly epidemic. Shilts died of > the disease in 1994.* > Don Sapatkin, *Inquirer Staff Writer***** > > *POSTED: Monday, April 22, 2013, 3:01 AM* > > The 1987 New York Post headline - *THE MAN WHO GAVE US AIDS* - was > arguably one of the most influential of all time.**** > > "Patient Zero" - a promiscuous gay Canadian flight attendant - had spread > AIDS from coast to coast. The story sparked sensational media coverage, > drove a book onto the best-seller lists, pushed the "gay disease" onto > mainstream America's radar screen, and helped jump-start an activist > movement, all of which eventually focused more money and scientific > brainpower on an epidemic that had already killed tens of thousands.**** > > It was also wrong - intentionally creating a scapegoat to publicize* And > the Band Played On,* Randy Shilts' authoritative chronicle of the early > years of AIDS. The book mentioned the case on just a dozen or so of its 630 > pages.**** > > "We lowered ourselves to yellow journalism. My publicist told me, 'Sex, > death, glamour, and, best of all, he is a foreigner, that would be the > icing on the cake,' " Michael Denneny, Shilts' editor, said in an > interview. "That was the only way we could get them to pay attention."**** > > How the first serious examination of AIDS policy had to be sold as sordid > tabloid fare is described in a new book by Philadelphia University > historian Phil Tiemeyer, *Plane Queer: Labor, Sexuality, and AIDS in the > History of Male Flight Attendants*.**** > > When he recently asked students about the media deception, "three-quarters > of the class were a bit repulsed," Tiemeyer said. But they don't remember a > time when AIDS meant certain death, he said, and preventing it was not a > priority for the news media, the Reagan administration, or most of the > public.**** > > The 1970s and early 1980s - after New York's Stonewall riots and before > AIDS - were the heyday of gay male sexual liberation, with dance bars and > steam baths overflowing as meeting places and hundreds of sexual partners a > year not that unusual. A new disease surfaced in 1981, but its mode of > transmission was then a mystery.**** > > "People were dropping dead left and right of the most horrible, > opportunistic infections, no one knew what was happening, and everyone knew > that if this was sexually transmitted," they'd be dead, said Denneny, > Shilts' editor.**** > > Patient Zero was an actual early case. He just wasn't the first case. And > in the book, Denneny said, he "was representing all the people who refused > to stop having unprotected sex even after they became ill."**** > > Shilts describes the astonishment of scientists, who were trying to learn > how the infection was spread, upon hearing again and again from patients > that dying men in different cities had had sex with a gorgeous young flight > attendant.**** > > Shilts discusses the 1984 study that demonstrated sexual transmission by > diagramming links among cases labeled by location, such as LA9 and NY4. > Eight are directly connected to a patient labeled simply 0 - the Patient > Zero who, according to a study author, originated as a letter O (for "Out > of California") in an earlier study of men around Los Angeles.**** > > And Shilts relays the attitude of that patient - calling him "the > Quebecois version of Typhoid Mary" - as he continues to have sex with men > in different cities, in chilling scenes like this:**** > > "Back in the bathhouse, when the moaning stopped, the young man rolled > over on his back for a cigarette. Gaëtan Dugas reached up for the lights, > turning up the rheostat slowly so his partner's eyes would have time to > adjust. He then made a point of eyeing the purple lesions on his chest. > 'Gay cancer,' he said, almost as if he were talking to himself. 'Maybe > you'll get it, too.' "**** > > Shilts, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle who died of AIDS in > 1994, never actually wrote that Dugas brought the disease to the United > States, saying it was "a question of debate." And he resisted using that > salacious angle to promote his weighty history, his editor said.**** > > "Randy hated the idea. It took me almost a week to argue him into it," > Denneny tells Tiemeyer in the new book.**** > > But there was "terrific animus in the media about covering AIDS at all," > Denneny said. The New York Times, Newsweek, and other publications "all > told us they were not going to review a book that was an indictment of the > Reagan administration and the medical establishment."**** > > So St. Martin's Press produced new publicity materials focusing on the hot > flight attendant and fed them to the New York Post. The tabloid's Oct. 6, > 1987, headline sparked a media frenzy. Shilts appeared on *60 Minutes*. > The Times reviewed the book on a weekday and again on Sunday; it was a best > seller the following week.**** > > "And then we put Randy on a huge publicity tour, and he spent time > switching the attention to the Reagan administration," Denneny said.**** > > Still, the focus on a promiscuous homosexual who knowingly infected others > infuriated many in the gay community. They feared - rightly - that they > would be blamed for spreading the disease even as they sought to rein in > the laissez-faire sexual culture.**** > > Kenneth Mayer, an AIDS doctor and public policy expert now at Harvard > University, was at a conference in New York when the Post hit newsstands.* > *** > > "I remember thinking, this is really unfortunate," he said of the > single-villain approach. "It is much more complicated. It is much more > about people's willingness to talk to people they have sex with and to > change their own sexual practices."**** > > But if that was the only way to get the book to a mass audience, he said, > "I guess in the long run they did a service to increase the conversation." > **** > > David R. Fair feels the same way. He had just been named head of > Philadelphia's new AIDS office and was trying to get the city to take the > crisis seriously. "The first thing I did was buy 40 copies of the book and > give it to the mayor and department heads," said Fair, now a consultant to > nonprofit organizations.**** > > "It's really hard to remember how little attention was being paid to AIDS > outside New York and San Francisco," he said. "The book is what led to the > creation of a national AIDS activism movement."**** > > Tiemeyer had not planned to write a new book about Patient Zero. Indeed, > that story takes up just two chapters (but is, ironically, his publicity > pitch). A historian of gay and lesbian communities, he had decided to dig > into the impact of gay male flight attendants.**** > > In this seemingly narrow demographic, Tiemeyer finds notable achievements > in equal rights, from the first workplace health benefits for domestic > partners, in 2001, to a 1984 legal decision forcing an airline to reinstate > a flight attendant with AIDS, which he argues was a key step in the run-up > to the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act.**** > > For a time, Gaëtan Dugas was the best-known flight attendant in the world. > **** > > "On the one hand, the minute that Randy released this story about Patient > Zero, people knew it wasn't true," Tiemeyer said. "On the other hand, the > fear was so intense," and so-called "family issues" had become so divisive, > that "they wanted a scapegoat, they wanted to believe that this thing that > was out of control was caused by gay male sexual excess," he said, "that > there was someone who was to blame."**** > > Bill Darrow, a coauthor of the original studies that cited Patient Zero as > a link to show sexual transmission, is among Shilts' biggest supporters, > and he has few qualms about the selling of *And the Band Played On*. > Darrow, now a professor at Florida International University, teaches a > course called Ethical Issues in Public Health.**** > > "Most public health people think that the ends justify the means," he > said. He recalled the fights for money and recognition of growing danger > during the Reagan administration.**** > > "We had to wait almost five years for anybody to pay attention to this > terrible problem. By then it was too late," Darrow said. If they had done > so earlier, "we could have saved an awful lot of lives."**** > > > >
-- Aditya Bondyopadhyay Sent from my Apple mobile device (iPhone or iPad mini)
