Levy could have spent those six months looking for the AIDS virus. Indeed, when his lab became one of three institutions in the world to isolate the cause of the syndrome, it was obvious that the $1,500 was well spent. It was also obvious, Levy subsequently noted, that it could have happened much faster. The story of the $1,500 filter was just one of many that popped up in every corner of the nation in 1982.
