Sirs? May I greets from your hello?
Hello.
- Where's the doctor in charge? - Doctor?
Dr. Aziz.
Doctor. Where is he?
Doctor! Yes! To be certain, I take you.
Doctor.
It's okay.
Why this happen?
You doctor! How you don't know?
What did she die of?
Pneumocystis Pneumonia.
That's only seen when the immune system fails.
What was the major disease?
That's all she had.
That's not possible.
When he got here, he only had pneumocystis, no major illness.
Now he's developed...
...fungus in the mouth... warts on his arms...
...and more on his legs.
...and his brain is rotting with Toxoplasmosis, a cat disease.
Two months before its nominating convention...
...the Democratic Party began preliminary work on its 1980 platform.
Fellow members of the platform committee...
...I am Bill Kraus, liaison between Congressman Phillip Burton...
...and the gay community of San Francisco.
The gay rights plank I'm asking to be included...
...does not ask for special privileges.
It does not ask anyone to like us.
It doesn't even ask that the Democratic Party give us...
...many of the legal protections which are considered the right of all other Americans.
What this amendment asks...
...is that the Democratic Party recognize that we, the gay people of this country...
...are also human.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
- How you feeling? - Tired.
I'll be back.
- Doctor? - No, not now.
Here we are.
What is his T... cell count?
I gotta tell you, Dr. Gottlieb, this is weird.
- What? - He doesn't have any.
- How can he not have any T cells? - His immune system's gone.
- Good morning. - Good morning, Dr. Guinan.
Jim? Can I talk to you for a minute?
I got this in the mail from Dr. Shendera in LA, who got it from a Dr. Gottlieb.
I think you oughta look at it right away.
It looks like there's a weird epidemic breaking out among gay men in LA.
There've been five cases of pneumocystis...
...with no contributing disease within the past few months...
...and already two fatalities.
Hot stuff.
Plus, I've called New York and San Francisco...
...and they've had similar cases.
I think this oughta go into the weekly newsletter as soon as possible.
- Why did you do that? - I don't decide what is published.
I can only recommend, but we've got a new administration.
You wanna see this published so people can read it...
...or do you wanna see it killed?
Thanks.
- Don? Is that you? - Hey, Mary!
- Hi. How are you? - Good. Nice to see you.
- How long has it been? - Smallpox in India.
Come on, join us.
How long do you plan on doing that?
Till I get my peanut butter cookies.
Guys, I'd like you to meet Don Francis.
We're just doing a little demonstration...
...of the benefits of a sound knowledge of applied science.
Hi. Harold Jaffe, Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
Hi. Bill Darrow, Sociology.
You didn't shake Harold's hand, did you?
Hi! Thanks for coming. Did you meet everybody?
- How's Phoenix? - Warm.
Don't we have a meeting at 3:00? What's everybody doing here?
Tryin' to have lunch in four minutes, like you.
If one of those is peanut butter cookies, that is mine.
Let's go.
Dale Lawrence, Division of Host Factors.
What we've got in LA, San Francisco and New York...
...is a number of gay men who've been hit with a variety of opportunistic infections...
...and that's all we know.
I asked Don to join us because for the last three years...
...he's been tracking hepatitis B virus in gay men.
And before that worked on the Ebola fever epidemic in Africa.
Thanks for joining us.
We've gotta hit the phones and spread out...
...contact the health departments in all major metropolitan areas as usual...
...so they can do a hospital... to... hospital search for cases.
Basic epidemiology.
We've got to talk to the patients, their doctors and friends, relatives.
- No question too stupid or too personal. - Sexual relationships, too?
- Lifestyle stuff. - Household chemical, cleaning...
Diet.
- Could be a bad batch of street drugs. - Pets.
Maybe they all get the same kind of Kitty Litter.
I'm going to New York today to take a look at this disease.
- Can you come with me? - Sure.
If I knew these blotches would turn purple...
...I'd have bought some bags to match.
Here, look at my book. When I was still human.
I was the best in the business. Ask anybody.
Leave it to me to get some disease nobody ever heard of.
Kaposi's sarcoma.
Even my doctor had to look it up.
"Nothing to worry about," he said.
"Usually happens to Italian men in their sixties...
"...who continue to live a normal life until they die of something else."
Do I look like an Italian man in my sixties?
Now I do:
160.
Why do they make things like this that nobody can ever solve?
Excuse me. I'm sorry.
- Hello? - Would you like me to come back?
Can I help you?
I'm from the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control.
Are you one of the interviews that Dr. Freedman... Kien set up for me?
I'm sorry, I'm just having a little spot looked at.
Gaetan Dugas, Dr. Mary Guinan.
If you have a few minutes, it'd be helpful if you talk to Dr. Guinan.
I'm sorry, but I'm barely going to make my plane as it is, if I'm lucky.
I'm a flight attendant.
Could you answer a few questions while you're getting dressed?
What kind of questions?
I assume from what your doctor told me that you're gay.
Also homosexual.
And how long have you been having sex with men?
About 10 years, I guess, openly.
Could you roughly approximate how many sexual encounters you have in one year?
In a year?
- You're serious? - Yes.
- I don't know. - Roughly.
About...
...250.
250.
Actually, now that I think a bit, that is a very conservative estimate.
- And of these partners, how many... - I'm sorry.
I would love to chat forever about my sex life. And we could.
If I don't leave this minute, I'm going to miss my plane.
- Maybe next time. - Okay.
- Doctor, I'll call you next month. - Fine.
All right.
- I look okay? - Great!
- Of course I do. Thank you. - Thank you.
- Doctor! Bye... bye! - Bye!
- Do you have many gay friends? - Not too many.
Two doctors I stay in touch with from school.
- Are they a couple? - Yeah, actually, 15 years at least.
Kico and I, Kico's my lover...
...we've got a wide circle of friends and most of them are in relationships.
Or want to be in a relationship.
- So what are you saying? - Lots of men go to these bathhouses.
But there are thousands of gay men in this city, maybe a couple hundred thousand.
They're just cops and waiters and teachers and lawyers and ditch diggers and athletes.
Talk a little louder, they can't hear you down the block.
I'm sorry, I don't mean to lecture.
I just don't want you to come away from the bathhouses...
...thinking that's how all gay men live.
Last night we lost another one.
In less than three weeks, this handsome young guy turns into the Elephant Man.
Which we found out was caused by some rare parasite that only sheep get!
So I called a vet, to ask what they do when sheep get it.
They shoot them.
- Good luck. - Thanks.
Bye.
Hi. Selma Dritz, Department of Public Health.
- We're here to inspect the premises. - I'll try to find the boss.
Thanks.
Those two guys there, strangers?
Maybe. Probably.
They just met, and now they're gonna go in the...
Right.
It's interesting.
Listen to me.
Imagine yourself in a place like this...
...only it's filled with women, really beautiful women.
Imagine one of those Penthouse women wants to go in that room with you.
There's nothing between you but a towel.
You're telling me you wouldn't go in that little room...
...and seriously consider dropping that little towel?
- Possibly, yeah. - Yeah.
I know men who would give up food for it.
- Hi, Eddie. - Darling, how are you?
Good.
Eddie Papasano, Dr. Harold Jaffe from the Centers for Disease Control.
Hi. What's the problem?
There may be an epidemic spreading in the gay community.
And I'd like to just come in and have a look around.
That's impossible. We must protect the confidentiality of our clients.
I know, but you know I speak on behalf of the Gay Liberation Committee...
...the City Council, the State Assembly.
I can tell you without fear of contradiction...
...you are regarded second only to Abe Lincoln...
...as a citizen who would fight to the death to preserve civil liberties.
So let's cut the crap. It's 10:00 in the morning, for God's sake!
Let us in.
- Only for you. - Thank you.
You're a real mensch.
- How many men come here a night? - Hundreds, every night of the week.
Some bathhouses, more than a thousand.
- What's this? - Poppers: They're a quick, cheap high.
What are you doing here?
God, my wife is gonna kill me.
Did you get the results on the amyl nitrite study?
Yeah, you can forget about poppers. We ran every test there is.
The worst that happened was two mice danced with a rubber glove.
Go home.
So far, not one TV station has even mentioned it.
Not one word in the straight press, nothing!
The number of patients I'm treating for it is growing so fast...
...I don't even wanna think about it.
What's happening in Washington? Do they even know it exists?
If they do, they don't discuss it.
- When do you go back to D.C.? - Tomorrow.
That's the first thing we deal with. You have to make people aware of it.
How? The media all say the same thing, there's no story.
One journalist told me the only people interested in gay men dying...
...are gay men and the ones who wish they'd all die.
- I'm late for a meeting. - Good luck.
If we don't get money for research, and soon, a lot of it, God help everyone.
Okay.
- What is it? - Nothing.
Can't you tell me?
Look, you have things to do...
...and they're very important things and I can't tell you not to do them.
I guess I'd hate you if you didn't do them.
But I just want... I just wish that we could... I want us...
All I want is a place where we...
This isn't...
I don't know what I want.
What do we think, what do we know, what can we prove?
Zip.
- Only gays? - Think, but can't prove.
- Only males? - Think, but can't prove.
The semen depositors.
If it's in the semen, unless there's something unusual about this disease...
...it shouldn't make a difference whether it's deposited in the anus or vagina...
...which could mean that women will be getting it also.
You should focus on that point.
We know the immune system stops functioning completely.
- In all cases? - Know, but can't prove.
What we have here...
...Looks more like a sexually transmitted disease than syphilis does.
Think or prove?
I can't prove that the sun isn't gonna turn into a bran muffin next Tuesday...
...but after 20 years, I know what I know.
That's not what I'm...
It's pure supposition, but it's more than strong enough to justify a definitive study.
I agree with Bill.
It's a single infectious agent with a high probability of sexual transmission.
Well then, viral or bacterial?
If you skip "think" and "prove," I'd guess viral.
A guess, definitely.
Let's assume that it's a virus.
The question is, is it one that we already know that has become lethal...
...or is this a brand... new virus that we've never seen before?
Here's a little stat to chew on.
In seven months, the number of cases jumped from 5 to 152 in 15 states.
Seven months?
Yeah, but the spooky part is that so far the mortality rate has been 40 percent.
40 percent?
And doctors taking care of these patients say...
...the mortality rate could turn out to be 100 percent.
100 percent.
My God!
Let's set up a case control study based on the premise that it's sexually transmitted.
We want you to set up a lab here, run it and handle the causative end of this study.
If it's a bug, find it! I've been authorized to have a task force for three months.
If this disease is like any of the others, it should be enough time.
And, of course, no money, so we'll have to moonlight this epidemic.
Which means, I can't guarantee you a staff or equipment...
Trust him.
...until I juggle the budget around a little bit.
- You gonna show him the lab? - You wanna see it right now?
- I think you should. - Sure. Come on down.
- You have a flashlight? - It's not that bad.
One of those miner's things with a little light...
It's the only space we have left, so it's gonna look a little hopeless.
- Only because it is. - No comment.
Actually, it's bigger than it looks.
Tom Spira, Paul Florino. Don Francis.
- Nice to meet you. - Hi.
What is this?
- An incubator from the Smithsonian? - You know it too well.
Where is the CO2 attachment?
We had to put the CO2 tanks in the next room...
...because we couldn't get approval for a real CO2 incubator.
Hopeless I can live with, but this is ridiculous.
Look, stick around here. I might be coming right out.
- Dr. Mary Guinan, please. - Your name?
I'm a friend of Dr. Conant's.
Your name.
You can tell him.
He has no idea who you are and we'll pretend we never heard of you.
- You guys ahead of me? - You go ahead.
We've got nothin' to do except go to a Halloween party.
And you're in rehearsal, I know.
It's tres gauche to fawn, but I happen to think you're a genius.
I mean, a double genius, as a director and a choreographer.
Is that you?
Bobbi Campbell, self... appointed K.S. Poster boy.
You look surprised.
No, I'm not.
Curious, maybe.
If the gay community doesn't raise hell...
...do you think Reagan's gonna do a damn thing?
I wish I had your courage.
Courage? No.
I'm scared to death.
I just have this absurd determination to live.
Don't you?
It's open.
- Dr. Guinan? - Yes.
I'll tell you, I expected the neighborhood, the hotel, this room even...
...but I think it would take Fellini to cast such a beautiful woman in a sweat suit...
...as the doctor I'm supposed to reveal my most intimate sexual eccentricities to.
- Hello. - Hi.
I'm Mary Guinan.
The reason for the sweat suit is...
...somebody stole all the clothing I brought with me from the laundromat this morning.
Would you mind signing these two consent forms?
One is for the questionnaire and one is for the specimens I need to collect.
Which specimens?
Blood, urine, a swab from your mouth and another from your rectum.
In this study, some have the disease, and some, like you, have no symptoms.
I really don't mind if you know all this about me...
...I'm just not too sure that I want to know.
Is there a name yet for this disease?
The gay press calls it gay pneumonia or gay cancer.
And the straight press doesn't mention it at all.
I was hung up in traffic coming over here.
The Gay Halloween Parade was on. Have you seen it?
I didn't know they had one.
They do. It's really pretty amazing.
The party's over.
You scared me, sorry.
- Jesus! - Sorry.
What is that?
It's today's figures.
No. "Butcher's..."
When Admiral Nelson was fighting Napoleon...
...and wanted to know how many people were dead, he'd yell:
"What's the butcher's bill for today?"
God.
We've injected Mary's samples into mice, rabbits, guinea pigs and we'll try monkeys.
So far, we haven't found any evidence of parasites, fungus or viruses. Nothing.
You mean, the case control study yielded zilch?
Yes, all we know is that the disease is caused...
...by some unknown organism or organisms, which we can't see or find.
We don't know if it's a single agent or a combination.
We don't know how it's transmitted. We don't know...
Don't touch that!
Don't you know there's about a million things in there that can kill you!
I'm sorry.
These two women for example...
Both dying from pneumocystis. Ridiculous. Nobody dies from that.
Nineteen people died in 3 years. Rich, poor, women, men.
French... African.
One can see this illness in homosexuals, here and in the U.S.
Be right back.
Dr. Rozenbaum. Please sit down.
This is very embarrassing.
We're both humane men, yes?
But... people refer to us as...
"That hospital where those people go."
I don't advertise. Doctors send them because I reported it first.
Some of our "normal" patients are afraid of coming here.
That puts us in a very difficult position, do you understand?
Can I assume that's the end of the matter?
No, it's the end of the discussion.
The end of the matter is that I'll find another hospital.
Politically, as far as the next election's concerned, we're not dead, but in a coma.
For 20 years I've built that coalition so solid, nobody could touch me.
The only group you can count on to vote as a block...
...because it's literally life and death for them now, is the gay vote.
San Francisco is the only city in the world...
...where that group can swing the election.
Without them, you're the ex... godfather of San Francisco.
What do they want?
Disability insurance for GRID, if they get it, for one thing.
Gay Related Immune Deficiency.
And money for research, that is crucial.
Nobody knows what's causing this thing.
I'll introduce a bill.
But if angels came dancing down to Earth like the Rockettes...
...even they couldn't get a dime from this administration with the name "gay" on it.
In New York today, President Reagan asked voters in Little Italy...
...to support his economic recovery program.
I've never seen so many calories lined up...
We have to turn the direction around that we've been going...
...in order to end inflation, end unemployment...
...and get this country back where it should be in the eyes of the world.
But at year's end, there'll be less money...
...to spend for public health next year.
I'm sure there is one department you've been waiting for me to mention:
The Department of Defense.
It's the only department in our entire program...
...that will actually be increased over the present budgeted figure.
I don't suppose you heard back...
...on the requisition I put in for an electron microscope.
- How can I put this to you diplomatically... - Not approved.
Not approved.
How am I supposed to run this lab without the basic, fundamental...
Every month, I write a memo asking where's the $196,000 I need to run this lab.
- I can't even get a yes or no. - I'm tired. I'm gonna go home.
I'm gonna go to bed and I suggest you do the same thing.
- Not approved. - Dr. Curran?
- What is it? - Jeff called.
There's an outbreak among the Haitian population in Miami.
- How many? - Four known dead.
But since most of them are hiding from Immigration, there could be dozens more.
None of them were gay, just Haitians.
What do you mean "just Haitians"?
That's what he said to ask you.
Okay, thanks.
Just Haitians.
This disease doesn't make any sense to me.
I don't get it. It's completely off the wall.
A doctor in the Bronx has just announced that 11 newborn babies have got it.
And now Haitians.
It's not just a gay disease anymore.
The National Center for Disease Control...
...is reporting more cases of two rare and deadly diseases...
...found in homosexual men.
There is no apparent explanation for the outbreak.
Health officials are urgently looking for an answer.
It appeared a year ago in New York's gay community.
Then in the gay communities of San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Now, its been detected in Haitian refugees. No one knows why.
Specialists argue that millions of dollars should be spent for research now.
Bobbi Campbell is fighting for his life.
One of a rapidly growing group whose battle has fascinated...
...and frightened modern medicine.
He has Kaposi's sarcoma. ;
A skin cancer that first appeared on the bottom of his feet...
...as spots the size of a quarter.
When I first came down with the disease, I found this button...
...which absolutely reflected my position at the time.
I may be down, but I'm not out.
...gay plague that's sweeping across our country. Say, God is not mocked.
You can't fool God.
You break all His laws and God Almighty will judge you.
Hey.
Can I get a really big chunk of meatloaf with gravy and a couple of pickles?
- Absolutely. - Thanks.
Hello.
What's the matter?
What do we think, what do we know, what can we prove?
I'm so sick of that.
The only thing we know for sure is that we don't know anything.
Which also happens to be the only thing we can prove.
We think. Or do we know, or do we think we know?
I don't know what the hell it is.
It's a jelly doughnut.
- Thanks, it's a jelly doughnut. - Your welcome. I owe you about a quarter.
Something's gobblin' up the T... cells.
I'm tellin' you, Max, feline leukemia might be a clue.
Really looks infectious to me.
Just like your favorite bug, the feline leukemia virus.
- They both cause cancer, right? - Okay.
They both cause immune suppression.
- Something's gobblin' up those T... cells. - Okay.
They both have long incubation periods.
Suspect or know?
These guys had swollen lymph nodes, fevers...
...all sorts of things for years before they get Kaposi's sarcoma.
Good.
- It's hardly scientific proof, but it's good. - All right, let's add hepatitis B.
- It causes cancer, right? - Right.
Immune suppression? No. Has a long incubation period.
Can take up to 30 years to give cancer to the liver.
Right.
Transmitted by sex.
No. Yes.
It all fits!
The disease we're looking for looks like a combination...
...between feline leukemia and hepatitis B.
So isn't it likely what we're looking for is some kind of new virus?
Like the retrovirus that causes feline leukemia.
Possible.
It's also possible that since your two fields of expertise...
...are feline leukemia and hepatitis B...
...what looks like a scientific eureka might only be a case of wishful thinking.
It's possible. Maybe likely.
Actually it could be a retrovirus, in which case we need Bob Gallo.
- Will we have to kiss his ring? - Probably.
But here's a man who became world famous for finding...
...the first human retrovirus, HTLV.
But he still hasn't found a major illness to link it to.
And if this turns out to be the one...
Then Bob Gallo gets the Nobel Prize.
Shit!
Sorry, Dr. Gallo.
You're sorry about winning?
Never be sorry about winning.
If you don't get your promotion next month...
...that's when you should be sorry.
Dr. Gallo, telephone.
- Bob, Max Essex. - Max, how are you?
Are you working on that new gay disease yet?
No. I'll tell you the truth, that really doesn't interest me.
Don Francis used to be my student, he's with the CDC now.
He's found enough evidence to suggest that it may be caused by some retrovirus...
...possibly in the same family as yours.
I'm gonna explore this with him and I think it's something you oughta look into.
Send me what you have and I'll put someone on it.
Excellent!
Thanks for the call. Bye.
- What did he say? - We got it.
I got a call from LA.
- Wait a minute. I'm on the phone. - I got a call from LA.
This could be the first real lead to prove this thing is sexually transmitted.
- My plane leaves in 40 minutes. - The budget isn't approved!
Don't sweat it, I'll front the money. You'll pay me back.
If you have definitive proof it was brought in by a UFO, send it into us.
Thank you.
666.
Excuse me?
It's my room number.
That's when I called the Public Health Department...
...when I saw what room they put me in.
But nobody listened to me. Nobody listens in this place!
I'll listen to you.
That's why I'm here.
It all started with a barbecue.
It was in the summer of 1980.
We had it in our backyard.
And it was just me and my lover...
...and a gay couple from up the street.
One of them died...
...on October 6, 1981.
And one died on February 6, 1982.
And the other one died on March 6, 1982.
There are three sixes, you see?
Yes.
All of them died of this new disease?
There are three sixes.
There are three sixes, so I...
Do you see any of the names of those men on this list?
October 6 is '81.
February 6 is '82.
And March 6, '82.
Good.
- You had sex with all three of these men? - Listen.
- Can you hear that? - What?
Do you hear that?
The music...
...it's playing upside down.
Which means...
...I'm number four on the list.
Four and two makes...
Would you tell me the absolute truth?
Would you? No matter how terrifying that may be.
I'll try to.
Does it make a difference if I was cremated?
I don't understand.
I'm sorry.
Him, him...
...and him.
I miss him very much.
I am 32 years old and I'm dying.
Can you just leave me alone?
- I'm sorry. - Get him outta here!
- Here's my card, if you... - God dammit, get him outta here!
Sorry to bother you.
Mr. Darrow. I'm not his lover.
I'm a friend who takes care of him on Thursdays.
We take turns in a buddy program.
I'm not sure this is what you're looking for but...
...I think Greg got it from a man from New York.
You don't know a man from New York with a French... Canadian accent, do you?
Very handsome, I was told, very chic.
I don't think so. I mean, I very seldom...
Wait a minute. This might help somebody else, right?
Right.
Of course I know him. From the bathhouses.
I never had sex with him but almost everybody I know has, or wants to.
It was fun.
Then again, he gave me hepatitis, so it's quite possible he gave me this, too.
From the moment I first spied him at the tubs, I was so crazy about him.
He was so gorgeous.
Can you just give me his phone number, or address...
...or anyway I can get a hold of him?
All I know is he's French... Canadian, he's an airline steward based in New York.
I don't even know which airline.
That's okay.
If you can just give me his name.
I called him Dougie.
- Nickname. - Dougie. And his full name?
Hi.
- You back in town? - No, just for the night.
I'm going to New York...
...to try and find a very sexually active French... Canadian airline steward.
Gaetan Dugas, Bill Darrow.
Hello.
- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
- Sit down. Take all the time you need. - Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks very much for coming in.
I'm very flattered to be asked.
Although I've no idea what I'm here to discuss.
- Would it disturb you if I smoke? - If you need to, go ahead.
Mr. Dugas, have you had sex with any of these people?
Is that what I'm here for, to talk about my beautiful lovers?
Now I am flattered.
Although I cannot possibly imagine why you'd be interested.
We've found substantial evidence...
...to suggest that one of the ways this disease may be transmitted is sexually.
Now, wait a minute.
All I have is skin cancer which is not contagious and you know it.
No one's accusing you of anything. We just need to know as much as we can.
You know, I adore doctors, but I must say, if it is an epidemic...
...this gay plague thing, it's your fault for not stopping it, not mine.
That's exactly what we're trying to do.
And we need everybody's help...
...so if you could give me the names and addresses of all your lovers...
...and start with the people on this list, please.
My friend, we're talking about thousands of men...
...all over the world, whose faces I can't even remember and you want names.
As many as you can remember would help.
My book's in my apartment. You call me.
What's the number?
I'll call you.
Help me, don't help me, that's up to you, but don't fuck with me!
I'm not playing games here.
Not before 6:00, and not after 6:30.
Thank you.
And remember something.
Whatever it is, if I got it, someone gave it to me.
- Mine. - I'm sorry.
This is important!
Not to me!
Yes. Hello. It's Bill Darrow from the CDC.
- Got plenty of paper? I've got 73 names. - Sure.
All right, this is how it breaks down.
This is Patient Zero, an airline steward from New York...
...and the starting point of this particular group.
These are the eight with whom he had direct sexual contact.
These four in New York, these four in LA.
This is LA Three.
He had sex with LA Two, this man from Florida...
...who in turn had sex with this Florida man...
...two from Georgia, one from Texas, and so on.
In all, 40 cases in 10 cities...
...are verifiably linked to Patient Zero.
Which strongly suggests this is a sexually transmitted disease.
Great! That's absolutely terrific work.
- That is the first sign of real proof. - Good job!
Is there any clue why Patient Zero is still alive...
...and others in this cluster died almost immediately?
We just have to assume a variable incubation period.
How many of these connections were made in bathhouses?
- Most of them. - Most of them!
We know what we have to do: Close the bathhouses.
The federal government doesn't have authority to do that.
- How soon can you write a full report? - Four or five days.
I'm from the Bay Area, I could just...
Could you stay out of this?
It's not my decision what to do with this information and it's certainly not yours.
Something this important has to go upstairs...
...and based on what they recommend, we can act.
Are you saying that the public might not even be told what we just found out?
Are you saying this is, or is not, a sexually transmittable disease?
The existence of a cluster study provides evidence for an hypothesis...
...that people in the study are not randomly associated with each other.
The study is a sexual cluster, yet we don't have enough scientific evidence...
...to say for certain that one person gives it to another person.
We have to focus more research into this area...
...so we don't prematurely release information that's not validated.
Yet, we're not holding back information that might provide important medical help.
Thank you.
In a situation that may slightly embarrass the White House, your idea is to play dead.
I'm the bureaucratic whore, you're Lawrence of Arabia?
- Do you think I like doing what I do? - Do you?
One of my jobs is to make sure I don't start a nationwide panic.
Is that worse than an epidemic?
I won't make enemies with people who can cut off what little funding we have left.
- I'm juggling political, bureaucratic, public... - What about science and medicine?
What I said in there was pure science, you know it.
There's strong evidence but there's nothing we can prove scientifically.
It can take up to five years to establish scientific proof.
How many people are gonna get sick?
Let's just say we get rid of the idea of scientific proof.
What are you going to replace it with, the Ouija Board School of Epidemiology?
When a house is on fire, you don't wait for scientific proof.
You grab the first hose and you start putting out the fire.
I never said that. Don't put words in my mouth.
Let me just say something. Listen to me.
You keep saying community!
Wait a second.
I am just talking about a modern... Hold on. Just wait a second.
Somebody has to...
Goddamn it! Just shut the hell up.
I can't believe every time we have a meeting in this town...
...we don't end in a brawl, we start with one.
I don't have the power to shut down the bathhouses.
As Director of Public Health, you can shut down any threat to public health.
According to the press conference, there was no evidence it's sexually transmitted.
You know damn well, if this epidemic was killing grandmothers and virgins...
...you'd have an army of investigators out there.
Exactly.
This is San Francisco, where the bathhouse is a symbol of sexual freedom.
If you want these bathhouses closed down, the gay community has to help close them.
Good night.
No way he's gonna budge and commit political suicide.
Why should he, with the gay community split down the middle?
We are not split down the middle.
The vast majority of gay men are in stable, monogamous relationships.
They don't go to the bathhouses, it's only the minority.
Okay, a vocal minority do.
If something isn't done about this epidemic, they're dead!
The vocal minority and a lot more besides.
Just wait a second. Let me talk for a second.
What's the matter?
There's been a...
- For a while now... - You don't have to tell me.
Yes, I do. I've met someone.
He's an architect.
It'd hurt something awful if you stopped being my friend.
How could I stop being your friend?
Five, six, seven, eight.
Straight back.
Five, six, seven, eight.
Hey, Doc.
Hi.
- I'm really happy you could come. - Thank you for asking.
You said you were going to be in New York...
I'm sorry I couldn't be more specific with you on the phone.
I think I got this thing.
I'm really scared.
Why am I so afraid to tell anybody about this?
I know how hard it is for you people to get...
...the kind of money you need to fight these things.
I want to...
Use that wherever you think it'll do the most good, all right?
Thank you.
Get out of here. I gotta get back to work.
We won't stop!
I'm Bill Kraus. This could get you in trouble with the CDC, couldn't it?
Probably.
As I tried to say on the phone, the CDC caused chaos here.
That press conference was so ambiguous about sexual transmission...
...the gay community is in complete turmoil.
How much longer do you think we're gonna wait here?
Let me tell you something.
No matter what happens here today, if you try to close my joint, I'll sue you.
Do you know the people who have sex in your bathhouse...
...are playing Russian roulette?
Please, let's cut out this bullshit!
We're all in this for one thing: Money. I make it when the guys come in.
You doctors, you make it when they go out.
How long will we wait for him? He's an hour late. Let's go.
All right. Can we settle down please?
Please, everybody settle down so we can start. Thank you.
While we're waiting for Dr. Silverman, your Director of Public Health...
...I've got some good news to report.
Not just here in San Francisco, but right across the country...
...gay organizations are raising money to fight this epidemic.
I'd like to introduce Dr. Don Francis...
...from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta...
...who's been fighting this epidemic from the start.
First, I'm not speaking on behalf of the Centers for Disease Control.
I'm speaking for myself.
There may have been confusion caused by the way the information was distributed...
...about whether or not this disease is sexually transmittable.
I'm here to give you the absolute truth about what we've found.
First, if you get this disease...
...the chances are about 100 percent that you're going to die.
Second, one of the ways that you can get this disease...
...is by having sex with somebody who already has it.
We have established...
...that most of the people who have this disease got it in a bathhouse.
Quiet down, please.
One at a time, please.
Everyone will have a chance to speak.
Please, shut the hell up.
How can you say we get it from sex when the CDC just said that we didn't?
This is another Reagan trick to shove us back in the closet.
What about the bathhouses?
Here's the man we've all been waiting for, your Director of Health...
...Dr. Mervyn Silverman.
Let's go.
Since the reason for this meeting is to discuss how we feel, who would like to...
Bobbi Campbell go ahead.
For years, people in my hometown...
...were telling me I was a freak because of my sexual orientation.
Until I came to San Francisco...
...and I found a community of freaks just like me!
We stood together!
And it took a long time...
...but we finally forced this one tiny spot of the universe, the Castro...
...to realize that how we choose to have sex and where is our own damn business!
Which I know to people who haven't gone through what we have...
...sounds funny and they may laugh.
But I know, speaking for most of us...
...I would rather die as a human being than continue living as a freak.
There's a lot of strong feeling on this subject.
Before I make my decision, I'd like to put this to a vote.
All those in favor of the city closing the bathhouses, raise your hand.
Close the tubs!
All those in favor of keeping the bathhouses open, raise your hands.
I don't understand.
They're human.
And they're scared.
Why this happen?
You doctor...
...how you don't know?
Sorry, we're late. We were held up by traffic.
Let's hope this lymph material holds the key to the illness.
Put this in reserve.
It's amazing to me...
...that Americans can think a disease has a sexual preference.
But that's all Americans think of...
Sex. Sex. Sex.
I think this read within weeks, and quickly.
Just have Gallo report the detection of this virus, HTLV, in what?
It was the two East Coast homosexuals.
Two East Coast homosexuals.
In this hour, right away, now, the Science...
This is big. We've finally got the big one.
Tell all our best people to drop what they're doing and get to work on this.
- On this day, March what? - Third.
Dr. Robert Gallo makes the first gigantic strides in winning...
What? The war, the battle?
- The war. - Battle...
...against whatever they call it now.
Francoise... You do the honors.
Unless the numbers reach 20,000, we don't have a retrovirus.
300, 320.
Background radiation.
Where did we go wrong?
Start from scratch.
Modify the culture...
...and check any procedural errors.
Look what they're calling it. "He died after another 'Iong illness."'
It's so sad.
This could be the first deadly epidemic in history of which nobody officially died.
Look at this!
- Did you see this? Look at this article. - Where?
"In order to move quickly and take the lead...
"...in what may be a fierce scientific battle against GRID...
"...Dr. Gallo has formed a special unit of the National Cancer Institute...
"...to fight and win the battle against this disease by the year's end."
- What? - Hot damn! We're in business!
An IV drug user in New York, I just got back, died from it.
- Gay? - A woman.
It's in the blood supply.
- How long has he been ill? - He was born with it.
No. I don't mean hemophilia.
He was doing fine until recently, wasn't he?
He's crippled in one knee because they couldn't stop the bleeding...
...until a few years ago, when they came out with that new stuff.
- Factor VIII. - Now look at him.
He was doing fine just a few weeks ago.
Did you happen to get a new supply of Factor VIII about that same time?
What is that, exactly? Fake blood or something?
No, it's real blood.
But they get it from thousands of different people...
...put it through a lot of different filters and take out things and add things to it...
...till all they've got is the clotting stuff...
...that makes you stop bleeding.
He was doing fine until a few weeks ago.
I'm really sorry about this, but I've got some questions which are...
...embarrassing.
I've gotta ask them.
Has he ever had sexual contact with another man?
I don't understand the question.
He's a man.
How can a man have sex with another man?
I personally don't care...
...if these people were painted by Norman Rockwell!
We have to prove the blood is contaminated.
We've gotta prove it!
What do we know, what do we think, what can we prove?
It is in Factor VIII.
- You think? - I know.
- Proof. - We can't prove anything till we do a test.
- We can't test till we find the virus. - Assuming that it is a virus.
Finding a virus with our equipment?
You got a better chance of winning the Indy 500 with roller... skates.
What about Max Essex? Is he finding anything out?
He can't keep the cells alive long enough to see a virus.
- The French have the same problem. - Gallo, too.
Does anybody have anything positive?
We may be able to do something about the blood supply...
...even though we can't find the virus.
The people getting this disease are almost identical...
...to the group getting hepatitis B, so we did an experiment.
We took the hepatitis B test and took blood samples...
...from 60 gay men who've got it and 60 men who don't.
The test was 88 percent effective in detecting the disease.
- Really? - That is fantastic!
If the blood banks can weed out that many people...
...who have the disease before they donate blood...
Exactly!
Wait.
Do all of you really believe that the blood industry...
...is gonna spend millions of dollars on an idea that is scientifically radical?
It's not so radical if you're a hemophiliac.
Can we be realistic just for one second?
We must prove that it's even in the blood supply...
...before we get any action from those people.
It's bound to turn up in the regular blood supply.
I think we should look at transfusions.
In fact, if we can find one patient...
...who got the disease after getting a transfusion...
...then we need to look at the donors.
See if one of them has the disease that gave him the blood.
If we can find that, we've made the connection.
We just gotta prove the patient couldn't have gotten it any other way.
That's interesting.
Interesting? It's so obvious.
It's brilliant!
- Terry Mack. - Dale Lawrence.
He's had 12 donors, all from the New York Blood Center.
Are you saying the New York Blood Center won't give me a list of the donors?
The CDC is convinced he couldn't have gotten the disease from any other source...
...except the transfusions.
The legal protection of donor confidentiality prevents me...
A donors has a disease that will kill the man...
...who got the blood from you to save his life.
If we don't find that donor...
...before he donates more blood and kills more people...
Unless there is irrefutable scientific evidence...
...that the alleged disease does exist, that it can be blood... borne...
...and if so, has been proven to be transfusion transmissible...
...there is nothing I can do.
Harold Jaffe, CDC.
- Hi. - How do you do?
- Harold Jaffe. - Betsy Reisz.
So it's true?
He was born here 20 months ago. An Rh baby.
Within a week, his entire blood volume had been replaced six times.
Now he has zoster...
...practically zero T... cell count...
...and more opportunistic disease than we know what do with.
- He had 13 donors? - All from Irwin Memorial.
That's all I could find out. They keep a lid on it so tight, it's like the Pentagon.
Forget about getting a list of donors from them.
The first irrefutable case caused by transfusions...
...and these people are stonewalling us.
Know what we need? Somebody to scare the hell out of them.
Only Attila the Hun could.
Selma Dritz!
- Well? - I got it.
There's one problem, two problems. I'm freezing, that's one problem.
Let's get some coffee.
One of the donors died from the disease two months ago.
But we can't prove it.
What do you mean? Why not?
He was from one of the richest, most socially prominent families in town.
He swore to his dying breath he wasn't gay.
What's the difference?
When somebody dies from this, you can't mistake it for whooping cough.
His doctor says he died from encephalitis.
- It's on his death certificate. - Let's talk to the doctor.
And get him to say what? He lied?
Somewhere in town, there must be somebody.
A gay man he had sex with or... Does his family know?
My brother wasn't gay.
No matter how hard you search...
...you won't find any evidence to suggest the contrary.
He was on the board of several corporations.
He was the chairman of the Fundraising Committee for St. Patrick's.
He was meticulous...
He was meticulous in concealing his other life...
...even from me.
Please don't ask me to betray him now.
I'm very sorry. But we're trying to stop an epidemic.
We know that this disease can be transmitted by gay sex.
We hope to prove it's also transmitted by blood products.
Your brother was a blood donor.
And we know that at least one person...
...who got his blood, got the disease.
If you can help us...
...it would be completely confidential.
I'm afraid I can't help you. I really don't know anything myself.
Here's his stuff.
His mail.
Here's his address book.
You can look through it if you want. I have.
There's no one in there I don't know. Nothing unusual.
I wish he would've told me, but he didn't.
Look at this. What about this entry?
"Marc, Repairman"?
Dr. Conant's office.
- Is someone named Marc there? - This is Dr. Marcus Conant's office.
May I help you?
Sorry, wrong number.
Only for you.
I was the secret doctor he came to for those messy little problems...
...he couldn't let his family physician know about.
In 1980, he had a case of K. S...
...pneumocystis...
...the whole bag of horrors.
Thank you very much. I love you.
Thanks a lot, Doctor.
All right, let the blood banks stonewall this one!
I'd like to remind everyone that these are not regulations from the CDC.
This is a workshop where every agency...
...connected to the blood industry can evaluate information the CDC has found.
We're hoping to be able to arrive at some course of action.
One option is to establish guidelines...
...to keep people at high risk from donating blood.
Banning homosexuals from giving blood won't protect the blood supply.
What it will do is stigmatize them.
Reminds me of blood banks rejecting donations from blacks...
...for fear of syphilis.
The civil rights implications of establishing guidelines...
Civil rights, my ass!
My son's a hemophiliac and if homosexuals are infecting the blood supply...
...why not keep them from donating?
The entire gay community? Then what? Separate drinking fountains?
One for gays! One for humans!
Don't start that gay rights crap!
There are 20,000 hemophiliacs in this country...
...and GRID has become the second leading cause of death.
We have rights, too. One of them is the right to stay alive.
I know that we're dealing with a very complex...
...and a highly emotional issue, but...
How can you expect us to be unemotional...
...when at least one person is dying every day...
...from a disease that doesn't even have a name?
If the CDC can't bother to come up with a name...
...at least it should stop the media from calling it GRID!
Enough people hate gays without having the stigma of this disease placed on us!
Especially since it's been shown that this disease is no longer merely gay... related.
I make a motion to officially call this disease...
...Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome...
...or AIDS.
Questions or discussions on this issue?
I second it.
All in favor of Dr. Voeller's motion.
And opposed? The motion's carried.
Dr. Bove?
The FDA Advisory Panel to the blood banks feels that...
...the evidence for nearly all of this is inferential.
The CDC's evidence of blood transmission cannot be warranted...
...until the CDC shows definitively that an infectious agent causes this disease.
Nothing about it exists in the peer... reviewed medical literature!
Not one case!
Evidence of such blood transmission is lacking.
May I point out that the blood industry is under the jurisdiction of the FDA...
...and according to Dr. Bove, they don't acknowledge there is an epidemic.
Because there is no evidence that it's a blood... borne disease.
Suppose, for example, a small amount of blood...
...by some unlikely chance, is contaminated.
With no test to find out which blood is safe and which isn't, what should we do?
Destroy the entire blood supply in America...
...because some of it may or may not be contaminated?
No.
In fact, testing is the second option that we should discuss.
We at the CDC have found that the hepatitis B test...
...is 88 percent effective in identifying patients with this disease.
Is the CDC suggesting that the blood industry...
...spend $100 million a year to use a test for the wrong disease...
...because of a handful of transfusion fatalities and eight dead hemophiliacs?
How many dead hemophiliacs do you need?
How many people have to die to make it cost efficient...
...for you to do something about it?
A hundred? A thousand?
Give us a number so we won't annoy you again...
...until the money you begin spending on lawsuits...
...makes it more profitable for you to save people than to kill them!
The disease called AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome...
...sounds less than deadly, more like a diet pill.
Medical researchers are warning...
The risk of contracting AIDS...
Henry Pinya, who has AIDS, got into a minor traffic accident.
Police called the Hazardous Materials Team.
The impact on blood banks could be disastrous.
Doctors learned today that at least one hemophiliac patient...
...was given blood plasma from a donor who died of AIDS.
Possible association of AIDS and blood transfusion...
...is of the order of one in a million.
I've been looking all over for you. I just talked to Paul O'Mally.
He's wrapping up the hepatitis B study and listen:
12 of the first 24 cases of AIDS in this country...
...are men that we've been tracking for hepatitis B every year since 1978.
We've been talking about using the test, but forgot about the hepatitis B study.
- Congratulations. - You don't think this is important?
30,000 blood samples and detailed questionnaires from 7,000 gay men...
...from five cities, taken every year since three years before the epidemic broke out.
We've got the natural history of the epidemic in a freezer in Phoenix.
I know the study.
You're saying we should pull the samples and organize them.
- Where will we get the money to do that? - Juggle or steal it.
There's nothing to juggle or steal. There's no money, none.
The $866,000 budget that we requested a year ago...
...for the task force still hasn't been approved.
Where do you think we'll get the money to do a job as massive as this?
That's your job.
How am I supposed to do my job with you shooting your mouth off?
What?
Your outburst at the blood bank meeting damaged the credibility of the CDC.
The only way we'll get the blood banks to start testing...
...is if we find somebody with enough clout they've got God's unlisted phone number.
Which these people do.
Jesus, this is proof.
Why haven't they sued somebody, raised hell?
Publicity, litigation, pictures in the tabloids.
My dear young man, it simply is not done.
If you can convince them how many lives they'll save if they go public...
...that comes under the heading of public service which they are big on.
If!
...might be of some assistance to us.
I'm sorry, but I don't understand.
Complications of all kinds are quite common after heart surgery.
What could my case possibly have to do with AIDS?
They didn't tell you?
Tell me what?
We thought we'd heard everything.
My God.
I'm sorry.
I have here your medical records.
You're aware that...
...during your surgery you were given 20 units of blood from Irwin Memorial?
We know that.
When you started getting all these bizarre diseases, one after another...
Didn't your doctors tell you why?
We've had so many doctors.
None of them had any specific explanation, just...
...severe complications due to surgery.
I have here a letter from one doctor to another...
...at the University of California Medical Center, where you had your surgery.
"We have discovered that one of her blood donors...
"...is an AIDS patient."
May I?
No.
Every blood bank in the country has known for some time...
...that some of the blood it has been using for transfusions is contaminated.
We've been unable to get them to start testing...
...or to take any precautions whatsoever.
I'm terribly sorry.
Are you telling me...
...they knew they were giving AIDS to people and continued to do it?
We've had extensive discussion on the subject and as of May 1...
...Irwin Memorial will begin testing for antibodies...
...to the core of the hepatitis B virus.
Good.
This is the test we've been urging you for a year to use...
...until a better test comes along.
Not good. That test is not totally effective.
You're forcing the Red Cross to start using it, too...
...or we can't compete.
Absolutely. We are not convinced that it's transmitted by transfusion at all.
What does it take to convince you?
The CDC confirmed...
...that the number of transfusion cases has quadrupled in the past eight months.
You know you can't prove that.
Technically, you're right.
But 89 percent of severe hemophiliacs...
...who had the most transfusions have become infected.
89 percent!
I find it very hard to equate these figures...
...with the possible loss in revenue!
I make a motion that FDA regulations require...
...the hepatitis B test be used to screen all blood and blood products...
...before they're used on patients.
Second.
In favor?
Opposed?
Motion not carried.
Let me ask you this:
When doctors start acting like businessmen...
...who can the people turn to for doctors?
Jesus!
Every day I plan to buy some groceries.
I drive by each night on my way home...
...and no matter how late it is, you're always up working.
You want pasta salad, melon?
Melon.
Anything new?
Any hope? Anywhere?
Of anything?
Reagan still hasn't said the word "AIDS" in public.
I'm not asking about miracles.
I think the only hope we have...
...is the election's coming up...
...and with the whole country in a panic...
...even the Moral Majority is on Reagan's ass to do something quick.
Sure he will, the same old political smoke and mirrors.
A friend of mine sneaked me a memo from the White House...
...claiming they've already spent $26 million on:
"Studies relevant to patients with AIDS."
If they spend $10 million on research for the common cold...
...they call it relevant because in both cases the immune system breaks down.
The truth is, out of that $26 million...
...only $750,000 has actually been spent on AIDS research.
What happened to the rest, I have no idea.
- Hello. - It's Don Francis.
I know this is kind of a strange question, but...
...who do you know that can get me an electron microscope?
Try Nancy.
They're dying! The cells are still dying!
They've been dying all week.
Is there anything we haven't tried to keep the cells alive?
We tried every culture in the incubators and the freezers...
We tried anti... interferon, human cells, what's left? Nothing.
Yes, try again by feeding the cells, not just once but continuously.
22,000
We've found something. A retrovirus.
But is it Gallo's HTLV or a new one?
Here it is.
Here's a photo of what you just saw. Your virus.
Here's Gallo's virus.
See... It's round.
Yours has a bar.
It's easy to see the difference.
What you found is a new human retrovirus.
Bob. Montagnier.
How are you?
We tested our virus with your antibodies.
We find the two not immunologically... related.
- Really? - I'm writing a paper with all the details.
What we've found is a new retrovirus, which we think is the AIDS virus.
That's fascinating!
I just did a paper, too, for Science.
It shows that my virus, HTLV, is the most likely candidate for AIDS.
Why don't you send me your paper and I'll make sure...
...it gets published along with mine.
I'll write the summary to make sure it gets published.
Send me samples of your virus as soon as you can, by courier.
I'll verify what you got.
Sure.
He wants to see our paper and samples of our virus.
Frankly, since I've worked with him...
Francoise please, Dr. Gallo is an eminent scientist.
Send him anything he wants.
Shouldn't an independent agency test our results?
Absolutely.
I'll get Don at the CDC to send blind samples...
...to prove it's the AIDS virus. - Good idea.
Just got a call from Paris, they found the virus.
- That's terrific! - I just got a call.
I just got a call from Paris. They think they've found the AIDS virus.
I need 30 coded samples on a plane to Paris tonight.
Can you do that?
I'm sitting here in a complete stupor, totally unable to comprehend...
...what kind of a cosmic joke this is for me, the man they call a sexual nazi...
...for preaching safe sex with such fire... and... brimstone...
...I was beginning to sound like Sadie Thompson.
Not Sadie Thompson, the Preacher.
Sadie Thompson was her name. Rain, wasn't it? The name of the...
God, I'm babbling. I can't stop.
How long does it take, do you think, for it to really sink in that I've got it?
Maybe not...
I'm sorry.
God damn you!
Why can't this happen to somebody that you hate?
I'm going to leave you and Kico my house.
- What? - I'll put it in my will.
I don't want to live with Kico. He's completely irresponsible.
He won't pay his half of the phone bill.
He would never take the garbage out on Friday nights.
Come on! If that's the most that you have to leave me, then to hell with you.
Live.
Anything?
How can I isolate this virus if I can't keep the cells alive?
How is it possible that in the first few months...
...we found our virus in two men who had AIDS.
Since then, we haven't found it in another case?
- Not one other case. - I told you, both of those men had T cells.
I don't wanna hear that!
- But you... - I'm sorry. I don't wanna hear it.
Listen to me.
Statistically, what are the odds on finding two men with AIDS...
...both of whom also have the same leukemia...
...which is so rare that it's hardly found in anybody.
- That's ridiculous. All right? - Fine.
Somebody in this lab made a mistake.
I want you to call the French Institute...
...and get some more samples of their virus.
While you're at it, find out how they keep the cells alive.
Popovic here, yes?
Who's calling?
It's Dr. Essex for you.
How are you?
How's it going?
Everybody's wondering when you're gonna publish.
I had the cause of AIDS, but I...
The thing is, it comes from my family of viruses. That's definite.
I may have something else, too. I've got three variants.
I can't analyze it yet...
...in a way that I'd want to put my name on it.
What do the French have?
How do you know they have anything?
Don Francis sent them blind samples to verify that theirs is the AIDS virus...
...and they passed, almost 100 percent.
Don Francis from the CDC sent the French samples?
The French?
Are you upset?
Upset?
No, the French amuse me.
What I don't understand is how somebody from my own side...
...somebody from the U. S...
Listen, I gotta run. Let me call you back as soon as I can.
Okay. Bye.
...all the interviews in LA.
Then, I bled 215 gay men at the San Francisco Venereal Disease Clinic...
...and using the T... cell test, found that 65 percent of them were abnormal...
...and had no idea they had it.
- No symptoms whatsoever. - No symptoms?
It's like all the plagues in the world's history squeezed into this one. Worse.
If you take Bill's cluster study...
...where sexual contact with one person led to 40 people gettin' it...
If each of those 40 give it to 40 others...
You've got people who don't know they have the disease...
...givin' it to others who don't know they have it for up to six years.
Can I talk to you alone.
What is it?
Gallo called. From now on, you can expect practically no cooperation from him.
He's cut off your supply of reagents, antibodies to the HTLV virus...
...almost everything you need to function.
Why?
Did you send blind samples to the French to test their virus?
Yes, it's common courtesy.
Tell that to Gallo.
Hello.
Dr. Francis?
Who's calling?
Dr. Gallo.
This is Dr. Francis.
Congratulations.
On what?
For helping the French with the virus.
What makes you think they didn't discover the virus?
What makes you think I care?
I don't understand the purpose of this call.
That's the purpose of this call.
My God.
It's open.
It is now the country's number one health priority.
Tonight's science correspondent has the first of two pieces on AIDS.
In San Francisco, police and firemen were issued masks to wear...
...in case they have to resuscitate AIDS victims.
In Coronado, California, the city suspended first aid classes...
...because city employees feared catching AIDS from the class mannequin.
In San Jose, two nurses quit rather than treat AIDS patients.
In New York's prisons, there have been several AIDS cases.
The prison guards are demanding special protective suits.
The city's funeral directors are refusing to embalm AIDS victims.
I lost my job, my housing, I lost friends.
It's not carried on the air.
It's not like pneumonia. That's the message we must get across.
If the numbers stay in the general area that they are now...
...I do not think this represents a great problem.
You need a lift?
How ya doin'?
Gallo says that he's found the virus and he's got a blood test, too.
He has a blood test or says he has a blood test?
He's got it! He's passed both tests.
- That's good news. - It's not good news.
Because Gallo wants to take all the credit.
And he wants the patent for the NIH.
- If he does that the French'll sue. - That's right. They'll sue.
So it'll probably take years before anything gets done.
Drive carefully.
It's why we do what we do.
It's the gift of time...
...and the smile of healthy children.
That's what this means to me.
All I can say is, thank you.
Congratulations.
- You need to talk to me. - I'm the needy one? Nice try.
The French had the virus a year and half ago.
- So? - They can prove it.
- Me, too. Times ten. - In court!
What do they pay you, the French?
The gift of time and the smile of healthy children.
I've used that line 50 times and I still believe it.
Who wrote it for you?
The French are claiming they wrote it for me.
A year and a half ago, no less.
- Did you like my phone call? - No, but I'm beginning to understand it.
If you understood, you wouldn't be here.
We can play this with charm, intimidation, or without the bullshit!
Explain one thing to me.
Ten times ten times ten...
...my name is in every book ever written on the human retrovirus.
Why would you get in bed with the French instead of me?
It's you against the French? I thought we were all against the virus.
If you go to court now, everybody loses.
You, the people who die while you quibble over credit...
What do you want?
To stop you from turnin' a holocaust into an international pissing contest!
- By letting them take the credit? - I talked to them.
They're willing to settle in private.
We must get together. There can't be confusion among scientists in the public.
If you go to court now when nobody's done a goddamn thing to stop this epidemic...
Do what you want.
- I've said what I came to say. - I'm going to Switzerland.
April 1, for a three... day conference.
I may, or I may not, stop in Paris on my way back.
If I do, it'll be on one condition...
...I meet only with my peers.
Who besides God qualifies?
Twenty... five minutes is quite long enough to wait.
Gentlemen. Francoise!
Good to see you. You look wonderful!
How are you?
You lost some weight. You look good, very good.
Good to see you again.
I've got the comparative serology results, the EMs...
...the gels for the different proteins, GP... 120, 41, 24...
Why don't you wait out in the hall? I'll call if I need you.
What?
You don't think I'd discuss anything with you in the room?
Fine.
So you made some good progress? We did, too.
Come in.
We've agreed to write three papers...
...which will be published in the same issue of Science magazine.
The CDC will do the serology paper.
Dr. Gallo will write the paper analyzing nucleic acids.
We'll do the paper discussing the proteins.
We've all agreed to make a joint announcement together...
...and share the credit.
We'll keep each other informed.
From the first day that AIDS was identified...
...in 1981.
HHS scientists and their medical allies...
...have never stopped searching for the answer to the mystery of AIDS.
And not only have we found the cause to AIDS...
Didn't she have her teeth done?
...a blood test will be available.
The man who discovered the virus...
...which causes AIDS, excuse me...
...is our eminent Dr. Robert Gallo.
Thank you, Secretary Heckler.
I should start and be brief by saying that...
...there are obviously other major contributors.
In our own group, I have to mention someone...
...who came to us from Czechoslovakia, Dr. Mika Popovic.
A lot of this couldn't have been done without the previous support...
...from the Cancer Institute on the earlier HTLV isolates.
I've seen discussions about the work in Paris.
There was, there is not, there never has been...
...fights or controversies between us and the group in France.
I came back from a meeting astonished to see this kind of discussion.
The laboratory at the Pasteur Institute and my laboratory...
...have been friends for about 15 years.
We are in fact collaborating.
I can't watch.
Phase One is finished. We've found the virus, we're working on a blood test.
This is my proposal for Phase Two:
Prevention, education and cure.
If that goes through...
...I wanna be transferred to San Francisco and work on it from there.
$37 million a year?
- That's totally unrealistic. - It's not.
It's cheap.
It's about 15 cents per person to make the entire population safer.
- It's what's needed. - I'm sure it is, but you won't get it.
If you ask for this much, you'll get nothing.
- Try to re... figure for $4 million... - I won't re... figure it.
It's an honest report. I want you to send it in.
I'm tryin' to tell you you're going about this the wrong way.
It's cheap. Wait a few years, and we'll be talking about billions in health care.
I'll send it in.
Four more years.
Thank you.
Thank you all very much.
It seems we did this four years ago.
Nancy and I would like to express...
Nancy!
This is not a political issue, this is a health issue.
This is not a gay issue, this is a human issue.
Had this disease afflicted children or members of the Chamber of Commerce...
...the Reagan administration would've broken down all doors...
...in order to push the government on all fronts to deal with it.
I came here today in the hope that my epitaph would not read:
"I died of red tape."
Four more years!
Can I get a coffee and a jelly donut?
Are you coming from work or going to work?
Going to.
You?
I couldn't sleep.
I heard your Phase Two proposal was turned down.
Officially, "too expensive."
Unofficially, and they say this diplomatically:
"You should look busy and do nothing."
Was that meant to be diplomatic, how you just told me?
It was meant to sound angry.
At me or at you?
At me?
Why me?
I don't know. I guess, both. All right?
Sometimes I look at you in awe and wonder.
I mean it.
How you wind your way through bureaucratic bullshit every day...
...and never get a drop on you.
- How do you do it? - By not asking questions like that.
Insult me if you like, directly...
...but don't insult both of us by disguising this as some kind of compliment.
Insult you? How?
The awe and the wonder? I mean it.
I asked the Second Floor for a transfer.
Can you help push it through?
I already have. It's done.
Really? Where to?
- How do you want this, diplomatically? - I've gotten used to angry.
San Francisco.
Reward or exile?
If you hate it, why spend your entire career working for the government?
Remember what Willie Sutton said when they asked him why he robbed banks?
"Because that's where the money is." This is where the diseases are.
Bugs.
Sometimes I look at you with awe and wonder.
There it is.
A little cake for the maverick among us.
Something the boys in the retroviral lab whipped up.
Excuse me, can I speak to you alone for a second, please?
You might need this.
That's great, they're rose... colored.
- Definitely you. - Well done.
Looks good.
- To Don Francis. - Long may he live.
- Speech! - Say something.
I got a call from our Washington lawyer.
Gallo got the patent for the blood test.
Even though we applied five months before him.
Here's Gallo's virus which is almost identical to ours.
Look at the photo.
It's a picture of our virus LAV, which he calls his virus...
...and names it HTLVIII.
The only way to compare one virus to another is by DNA.
Put together a team to break the genetic code of both viruses.
This time he's gone too far.
The genes of any two different isolates of the same virus...
...are expected to deviate from each other, usually by 6 to 20 percent.
The genetic sequence of Dr. Gallo's HTLVIII prototype isolate...
...varies from our virus, called LAV...
...by less than 1 percent.
They are identical to a degree that would not be anticipated...
...from any two isolates from the same family.
Thank you.
Are you suggesting that Gallo stole it from the French?
I think that question would best be answered by someone else.
Excuse me, I'm not quite sure what he was saying.
The virus Gallo has is the same kind the French have?
Not the same kind. It's the same virus exactly, from the same patient.
You okay?
Sit down.
Should I call an ambulance?
Stay there.
I just heard.
Let's go up.
Hello.
This is Don.
Nice to meet you.
Look who's here.
Is that Don?
There's two of you.
We're both Don, don't ask me which is which.
One moment he's talking perfectly coherently, the next he's talking gibberish.
I'm gonna take Kico for a cup of coffee. You wanna join us?
- No, I think... - I'll be back in a minute.
Would you hand me my...
Glasses?
Am I talking gibberish?
No, not to me.
This didn't have to happen.
We could've stopped it.
Can you still?
Can we still stop it?
I don't know.
I used to be afraid of dying.
I'm not anymore.
I'm more afraid of what happens...
...to the people who live.
{{{the end}}}