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

by Randy Shilts

“Today we add another miracle to the long honor roll of American medicine and science,” she declared. “Today’s discovery represents the triumph of science over a dreaded disease. Those who have disparaged this scientific search—those who have said we weren’t doing enough—have not understood how sound, solid, significant medical research proceeds. From the first day that AIDS was identified in 1981, HHS scientists and their medical allies have never stopped searching for the answers to the AIDS mystery. Without a day of procrastination, the resources of the Public Health Service have been effectively mobilized.” The doctors who accompanied Heckler to the podium blanched visibly when she proclaimed that a blood test would be available within six months and a vaccine would be ready for testing within two years. None of the doctors with Heckler on the stage believed this claim, and nobody could determine where she had conceived such deadlines, which they knew would never be met.