[forlorn music]
? ?
[forlorn music intensifies]
? ?
[crowd chattering indistinctly]
? ?
[whistle blows]
- Welcome to ACT UP!
We are the AlDS Coalition to Unleash Power,
a diverse, nonpartisan group of individuals
united in anger
and committed to direct action to...
crowd: End the AlDS crisis!
- Less than 1 2 hours from now,
we are going to be taking over city hall!
[applause] all: Act up!
Fight back! Fight AlDS!
- Yes?
- Mr. Mayor, in campaigning
for the lesbian and gay vote in an election year,
a bit of historical context is necessary
in dealing with the AlDS crisis in New York City.
It wasn't until 1 983 that you met with people
to deal with the AlDS crisis.
How do you respond to these criticisms?
- That is a falsehood.
- Please, anybody who's thinking about being arrested,
fill out a support sheet.
Make sure that your support person
knows who you are and what group you're in.
Yeah?
- If we end up in the Tombs,
is there, like, a queer tank there,
and would you recommend that we ask to be there?
- There is a homo-tank, and I've been there.
And it's better than the straight tank,
Iet me tell you.
- Who else? Yes?
- In the past, you've described ACT UP as fascist.
Yet in the press release,
you called them "concerned citizens,"
and I was wondering what changed your mind.
- I don't think that you can't use both.
Fascists can be concerned citizens.
And I don't believe they are fascists.
I think they have used a fascist tactic.
- Let us celebrate together tonight
the end of the last day
on which Ed Koch can tell himself
that the communities
which are being decimated by this epidemic
are so weak and so divided among themselves,
that he can keep serving us this kind of bullshit.
Tomorrow morning, he will begin to learn the truth!
[cheers and applause]
all: Act up, stand tall,
tomorrow morning at city hall!
Act up, stand tall,
tomorrow morning at city hall!
Act up, stand tall,
tomorrow morning at city hall!
Act up, stand tall...
[foreboding music]
? ?
- We're talking to Jim Eigo
from the Treatment lssues Committee in ACT UP.
Jim, what specific treatment issues
are being brought into this demonstration this week?
- The municipal hospitals are totally falling apart.
More than half the people
who get diagnosed with AlDS today
get diagnosed in the emergency rooms of our city.
You're going to find yourself
waiting four days in an emergency room
before you get a bed.
- Pretty scared,
but being HlV-positive,
I don't have much choice in the matter.
- I just love all these people,
and I think that what we're doing is really right.
And, I mean, listen to this, and look at all the people.
It's just really wonderful,
and it's worth putting yourself on the line for.
- There is no accurate diagnosis.
There are incentives in the city hospitals
not to diagnose people with AlDS.
And therefore, people don't get treated.
We are angry at the way this city
has handled this crisis,
and we demand that Ed Koch exert leadership
and declare a state of emergency.
[cheering]
- Go in the street now or wait;
those are the options.
One, he says go.
- Two now.
- Says "now." Three.
Tom? "Go now," Tom says.
- We're standing here with Larry Kramer.
What is ACT UP trying to say today to Ed Koch?
- We're sending a message to public officials,
to closeted public officials,
that we won't be shat on anymore
and obviously all the AlDS issues.
- I would love to see, like, more cameras or something,
you know, for our own protection.
- Did everyone hear his concern?
- People die every day.
Friends get sick every day.
I don'tÜÜÜÜÜ It's like being in the trenches.
There's such anger in the community,
and it is coalescing in a way
that has never been done before.
- Okay, which way do we face, girlfriends,
this way or that way?
[cheers and applause]
[car horns blaring]
all: Health care is a right.
Health care is a right!
Health care is a right.
Health care is a right!
Health care is a right.
Health care is a right!
Pump up the budget!
Health care is a right.
Health care is a right!
- You are currently in violation of the law
by obstructing vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
You have the option of leaving at this time, otherwise...
[crowd shouting indistinctly]
- Act up!
- Never be silent again!
all: Fight AlDS! Act up!
Fight back! Fight AlDS!
Act up! Fight back!
[indistinct shouting]
[whistle blows]
- Fight back! Fight AlDS!
[crowd clamoring]
- Act up!
[siren wailing]
all: Fight back! Fight AlDS!
Stand up! Fight back!
- This man is a personal friend!
Be careful!
- They're arresting journalists now!
- Act up!
Act up! Act up!
[all shouting indistinctly]
- Act up! Fight AlDS!
Pray for the dead!
[all clamoring]
- Fight back! Fight AlDS!
[dramatic percussive music]
? ?
- I guess I'm feeling pretty hopeless at the moment.
I think, like, the biggest question that I'm facing now
is how to
remain hopeful in the face of increasing loss.
- I don't know.
Maybe it sounds really corny, but l...
As difficult as the time is for us,
IÜÜÜÜl like being alive.
And I love my friends,
and I love my family.
I love the people around me.
- I'm going to die from this.
This isn't going to be cured
for years and years and years.
- Doctor's office.
- Hi, it's Peter Staley.
It's like living in a war.
All around me, friends are dropping dead,
and you're scared for your own life
all at the same time.
[crowd murmuring indistinctly]
I was diagnosed with AlDS-related complex
while I was working as a bond trader on Wall Street.
I had night sweats.
I began to get dry, patchy, scaly, itchy skin on my face.
And I would get sick constantly.
Colds would lay me up for weeks.
I started to look around in desperation
for ways that I could find treatments
to help save my life.
Um...
And there was nothing coming out of our government's efforts,
I quickly realized.
Everything I read
said I had about two years to live,
at most.
- What do we want?
crowd: A cure!
- When do we want it?
crowd: Now!
- What do we want?
crowd: A cure!
- When do we want it?
crowd: Now!
- What do we want?
crowd: A cure!
- When do we want it?
crowd: Now!
- I was on my way to work,
and I got handed a flyer about ACT UP and AlDS.
My mentor says, "lf you ask me,
"l think they all deserve to die
because they took it up the butt."
I was deeply closeted,
and I had to just stew about it for the rest of the day.
I got myself to the very next ACT UP meeting.
They could just tap into that immediate anger
and get stuff done.
We will not leave until an administrator meets with us
and tells us that St. Vincent's
is willing to make a public statement
condemning gay and lesbian violence.
[cheers and applause]
All those in favor?
All those opposed?
- They're coming!
You see them right there.
You've heard about ACT UP.
You've seen our flyers.
The kiss-in happens tonight.
Act up! Fight back!
Make love! Act up!
Whoo, whoo!
- I'll deal with the camerasÜÜÜÜÜ
- Are you the security guard that was beating people up?
- Out with the cameras.
[crowd chattering indistinctly]
- Members of the mainstream media were thrown out,
as we were earlier on,
but Steve Zabel and l came back in,
and we're bringing you this exclusive footage.
- Don't destroy property! You're destroying property.
- Well, actually you damaged some human property last week.
- You damaged people.
- You will not beat up on faggots,
and you will not beat up on lesbians
in hospitals in our own communities.
- Two gay women were beaten up,
and when her lover came to respondÜÜÜÜ
you know the story.
And another story was when two gay guys came here,
and one was sick with AlDS.
The security guard told him to, "Get the fuck out of here"
and called him "faggot."
I think if you're gonna work,
especially in Greenwich Village,
you should have some sensitivity training,
'cause we're not gonna have it.
- I'm willing to meet with three people
if the rest of you leave.
[crowd chattering indistinctly]
- Okay, one at a time. One at a time.
- It's unclear how to play it.
My own instinct would be to say,
"We'll be glad to meet with you.
And when the meeting's over, we'll leave."
Not to leave before the meeting takes place.
- Gregg?
- We've shown the kind of power we can have
by immediate action, by sticking together,
by reaching a consensus together.
We should take this in steps, and we should be coolheaded.
- I'm gonna take a straw poll, okay?
And we agreed to leave the waiting room
while he met with three of our representativesÜÜÜÜ
Gregg, Jerry, and NeilÜÜÜÜ
in that public space right there.
And then we would stick around out here
and wait to see what the outcome was.
- So I said, "Enough of this.
This job is gonna kill me."
So I went on disability
and decided to become a full-time AlDS activist.
- In the beginning,
what drugs did we have?
We had nothing.
And the pneumonia could come on like that
and be gone,
and a person is dead.
The skin lesions,
the Kaposi's sarcoma was...
People would be coming in with a purple spot.
Everybody was coming in with,
"What is this spot?
What is that spot?"
You'd have some guys come in with KS on their face,
and they'd be putting makeup on their face.
And they'd beÜÜÜÜ it wasÜÜÜÜÜ
And they were lucky
if it just stayed in the skin,
if it didn't go into their lungs.
And then if it went into their lungs,
chemo didn't work, and then they were gone.
You were grasping at straws for everything,
because these are young, vibrant people.
And all of a sudden, they're being snatched.
I think everything has to be put in perspective.
- Larry? - Hello.
- [chuckles]
- lris Long is lifesaving.
If you can't hear in the back and you want to,
just shout it out, please.
- This is a report
from the American Society of Microbiology,
a conference I went to at the end of May.
- Quiet!
- There were many infections talked aboutÜÜÜÜÜ
including AlDSÜÜÜÜ at this conference,
and it was overwhelming to know how many pathogens,
bacteria, fungus,
protozoas, and viruses that are out there
that can really, uh...
make you very sick.
- One day, this woman just showed up,
this housewife, who had been a scientist and still was,
and said, "You guys don't know diddly about what this is.
"And anybody who wants to learn about the system,
"how it works,
"how grants are made, how the science works,
"how everything works,
"how the NlH works,
"how the FDA works,
"how you can deal with
"all this enormous amount of material,
I'll teach you."
- There should be much more funding than there is
for infectious diseases.
- lris was not gay,
but she could not see,
with what was going on around her and what she knew,
not reaching out to the affected communities of AlDS.
- I waited and went up to lris afterwards
and said, "I'm interested in what you were saying.
"I'd like to know more. I'd like to help."
- And a few people joined her,
and that became a bigger and bigger group,
and that became the Treatment and Data Committee: T&D.
- They're still getting a hell of a lot more money
than actually getting those treatments to anybody.
It was kind of a dorky activity
for a bunch of East Village hipsters and artists
to sit around reading medical journal articles.
We called it science club,
Iike it was chess club or something.
- There aren't drugs.
- lndividual after individual
had to come to grips with the fact that,
"l will survive the longest,
the most I know about what I'm putting into my body."
So they all had to be become scientists,
to some degree.
- And what I would like everyone to do
would be to keep on thinking of ways to refine these things
to make them more clear to people
that don't necessarily know the issues, like Ol.
No one knows what Ol is.
Okay, so I wrote it here, just 'cause it's shorthand.
Only 1 7% of people in their trials
have been taking drugs
for opportunistic infections or cancers.
- Mark wasn't, like, the big, beefcakey guy.
He was super smart, smoked nonstop.
- Right away, Mark digested,
as by osmosis, everything.
And within a few weeks,
he had come up with a glossary of AlDS treatment terms,
and we started giving it out in our meetings.
- Next we have an announcement by Tom Dwayne
regarding housing.
- This is Bernard Braverman,
who's in danger of being evicted
from his apartment that he shared with his life partner
for many, many years.
His life partner died,
and the landlord wants Bernard out of his home
because his name was not on the lease.
- What's his landlord's address?
[laughter] - We'll find him.
- There are cards here to fill out,
to write to the governor.
Let's make sure that our voices are heard in New York City
to save the homes of PWAs
and other nontraditional families.
Thank you very much.
[cheers and applause]
- I just want to say something about what's just happened.
I realized we haven't done anything yet for him
and we haven't been effective
and we haven't been powerful,
but we will be.
It's very inspiring to know the power in this room
is potentially available to each and every one of us.
[cheers and applause]
- One, two, three.
[girl laughs]
Good?
How was it?
Is that as good as Daddy's or better?
- You're better.
- Yay!
- Would you like Daddy to try it?
Are you ready?
- [laughs and shrieks]
That's not very good.
[laughter]
- One, two, three.
- I know this sounds ironic,
considering that it ended in divorce,
but I think it is fair to say
it's the only really successful love affair of my life.
I came out at age 40.
It was very bad timing to come out
in the middle of an epidemic.
The question is, what does a decent society do
with people who hurt themselves because they're human,
who smoke too much, who eat too much,
who drive carelessly,
who don't have safe sex?
I think the answer is that a decent society
does not put people out to pasture
and let them die because they've done a human thing.
- For the first time today,
the government approved prescription sales
of a drug to treat AlDS.
The drug, AZT, is not a cure for the disease,
but it has prolonged the lives of some AlDS victims.
It's the only government-approved AlDS drug
in America.
But even this most promising of drugs
is a source of frustration and anger.
At $1 0,000 a year cost per patient,
it's prohibitively expensive for most
and not widely available.
all: Out of the bars and into the streets!
Out of the bars and into the streets!
- AZT was the most expensive drug in history.
They charge $1 0,000 a year.
We need to get a substantial price reduction
out of this company.
- The incident began at 10:0 this morning
when four AlDS activists
took over an office at Burroughs Wellcome,
saying they had enough food and water
to stay holed up for a long time.
The activists are demanding that Burroughs Wellcome
Iower its price of AZT.
- Burroughs Wellcome is profiting off of our lives.
That's why we did today what we did.
And if they don't see to start listening to my community,
to our community, the AlDS community,
then we're gonna be back.
[solemn music]
? ?
- One of the worst, worst things was,
when people died in the hospital,
they used to put them in black trash bags.
It wasÜÜÜÜÜ [scoffs]
It was really awful.
And not every funeral parlor
would take patients who had died of AlDS.
- ButÜÜÜÜÜso the least we could offer
is sympathy and moral support,
you know, and kindness and so forth.
And that, they deserved, in any case.
And when even that became denied,
you know, by the totalitarian rules of organizations,
of institutions,
it was really horrifying.
- It is the most frightening medical mystery of our times.
AlDS victims must deal with the trauma
of being both a patient and a pariah.
- I hate to use the word "gay"
in connection with sodomy.
There's nothing gay about these people
engaging in incredibly offensive and revolting conduct
that has led to the proliferation of AlDS.
- There is a feeling among members
of any of a number of professions
or just the general population
that patients with AlDS,
many of whom are homosexual,
are a little bit different.
I think that that has led to a little bit of a complacency
about the approach towards this disease.
- In the absence of adequate health care,
we have learned to become our own clinicians,
researchers, lobbyists,
drug smugglers, pharmacists.
We have our own libraries,
newspapers, drugstores, and laboratories.
- Some of the medications that were made available
were not effective.
They were in this category
that we called "what the hell" drugs,
which is, "There's some evidence it could be useful.
It's unlikely to be harmful. What the hell?"
- Should I type?
[laughs] - Yes, type.
Take your time.
Where are we?
- We're at the People With AlDS Health Group,
the largest underground buyers' club
in the United States.
- And what do you do here?
- We help people import drugs from other countries,
um, that are unapproved here:
Peptide T, Albendazole,
Oral Amphotericin B.
We have a whole variety of things
for your treatment pleasure.
[chuckles]
None of which work, by the way.
[laughter]
Put that in.
- People with AlDS,
what they were mostly thinking about was,
"Oh, drugs, how do I get it off-market?
"How do lÜÜÜÜÜ
"Will we ever get a black market for this drug?
I hear this is good and"ÜÜÜÜ
It was lris who helped us see;
we don't want a black market.
We want to make the real market work.
[static buzzing]
- Try it.
[match strikes]
Hi, I'm Mark Harrington from ACT UP New York.
Recently, a lot of activists have been asking
why ACT UP is going...
Uh. You've got to start over.
I got to do thatÜÜÜÜ I've got to do that over.
- You can just start yourself over.
- But lÜÜÜÜbut I won't get
that wonderful cigarette-lighting thing.
- I think the cigarette maybe is not going to work.
- I shouldn't use the cigarette at all, really?
- I don't think so. It's too, umÜÜÜÜtoo much.
- Too much?
[inhaling]
Hi, I'm Mark Harrington from ACT UP New York.
A lot of people have been asking,
"Why are AlDS activists going to the FDA?"
First of all, you have to understand
that the FDA is one of the many federal AlDS bureaucracies
which we're angry with for not doing enough
in the fight against AlDS.
Half the people who take AZT
can't take it 'cause of side effects.
And therefore, the FDA has to take a more activist stance
in the experimental process.
And only the FDA has the power
under existing laws and regulations
to release the drugs that we want released now.
[static buzzing] How's that?
crowd: AZT is not enough!
Give us all the other stuff!
AZT is not enough!
Give us all the other stuff!
AZT is not enough!
Give us all the other stuff!
- It takes nine months to test a drug in Europe,
in Belgium, in France,
in Germany, in England.
We are not asking the FDA to release dangerous drugs
without safety or efficacy.
We are simply asking the FDA to do it quicker.
crowd: Drugs for sale!
Drugs for sale!
- Dextran sulfate for sale.
Get your dextran here.
You can't get it inside.
[indistinct chanting]
- FDAÜÜÜÜÜ but we're selling it anyway.
- $30 for dextran sulfate!
crowd: Release the drugs now!
Release the drugs now!
Get to work! Get to work!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
Seize control! Seize control!
Seize control! Seize control! Seize control!
- Keep it moving!
Keep it moving!
- Seize control! Seize control!
Seize control!
- Fight AlDS! Act up!
Fight back!
- Fight AlDS!
Stand up! Fight back! Fight AlDS!
- What's going on? What's going on?
- Seize control!
Seize control! Seize control!
crowd: Seize control! Seize control!
Seize control!
- Seize control!
[cheers and applause]
[cameras clicking]
[indistinct shouting and chanting]
[whistle blows]
- Start fighting!
- Come on, tell us why you got arrested.
Where are they taking you? What's going on today?
- We don't know what'sÜÜÜÜÜ where they're taking us.
We're here because this government
has the resources to deal with the AlDS epidemic,
and they won't do it unless we force them.
- l.J. Hutchins reports live from Rockville,
where the massive protest is wrapping up.
I.J.?
- Well, Jim, it's being billed
as one of Montgomery County's biggest demonstrations
in recent history, and it went off smoothly.
1 85 arrests,
as a coalition of gay groups came to Rockville
to shut down the FDA.
- Tonight, from Washington, Crossfire: Against All Odds.
On the left, Tom Braden.
On the right, Pat Buchanan.
In the cross fire, Peter Staley
of the New York AlDS Coalition to Unleash Power.
- Peter Staley, you have the AlDS virus,
and I am sorry.
But don't you think that the Federal Drug Administration
has a responsibility not to let people,
such as you, have quacks
that could cause even more harm than you already have?
- The problem is,
is that the FDA is using the same process
to test a nasal spray
as it is to test AlDS drugs,
and it's a seven- to ten-year process.
- You have the FDA giving you a drug.
So far, you've got AZT. WhyÜÜÜÜ
- Which I can't take
because it's tooÜÜÜÜÜ far too toxic.
And over half the people that have HlV can't take it.
- Okay, but the FDA says
there is nothing else that is worth anything.
- Mr. Staley, this is gonna astonish you,
but I agree with you 1 00%.
I think if someone's got AlDS
and someone wants to take a drug,
it's their life, and if it gives them hope,
they ought to be able to take it.
What I want to ask you
is whether you know of anything
that you think might be some kind of miraculous cure
that you think they're sitting on at FDA.
- There are over 1 40 drugs out there
that the FDA has identified as possibilities
and are in some stage of being looked at right now.
- Why are they holding back?
- Among that 1 40,
there's got to be one or a combination thereof
that canÜÜÜÜÜ that can slow down this virus
or halt it in its tracks.
- You're just simply carrying the virus.
Is that correct?
- I have a few very minor symptoms,
and my immune system is virtually shot.
- What would you like to take?
- I would like to be able to take dextran sulfate legally.
- How would that hurt you?
- I'm taking it on the underground right now.
- Well, why not, Mr. Braden?
- BecauseÜÜÜÜÜ well, I don't know anything
about dextran sulfate.
- Well, I'll tell you this.
It's an over-the-counter drug in Japan
and has been for 20 years.
- ButÜÜÜÜÜ - Over-the-counter, yes.
- But if the FDA saysÜÜÜÜ
- I'm only asking that they be released
after there's a minimal amount of efficacy,
not a 1 00% test.
- You've got the pink triangle on your shirt,
"Silence equals death."
I gather that means you're a homosexual.
- Yes.
- Looking in the camera,
what would you tell some kidÜÜÜÜ
say you had a younger brother, 21 years old,
who also might have homosexual tendencies;
what would you tell him
if you wanted him to live a long life?
- Use a condom
and also to use a lubricant, by the way,
that has the medicineÜÜÜÜÜ
- This is Russian roulette.
- It is not Russian roulette.
It is Russian roulette to not give people this information
when human nature dictates that they're gonna go out there,
and they're gonna have sex.
- You mean celibacy is impossible?
- It's just not gonna work.
People aren't gonna do it, and lotsÜÜÜÜÜ
Iots of people are gonna die.
Now, would you rather have
a lot of people cheating on their celibacy
with thousands of people dying,
or would you rather save those lives
and let them have sex?
- I think that, uhÜÜÜÜ
Well, thank you very much, Peter Staley.
Thanks for being in our studio.
Mr. Braden and l will be back in a minute.
- One of the things we wanted
was a drug that you gave to people
who had cytomegalovirus and advanced AlDS,
because people who had both tended to go blind.
It was called DHPG.
[somber music]
? ?
In a way similar to AZT,
it was highly toxic,
but it was known to be effective
because 6,000 people had already used the drug
but never in a clinical trial.
crowd: Hey, hey, FDA!
How many people did you kill today?
- We are with Jim Eigo from ACT UP,
and there's a major protest going on here in Bethesda
over the drug DHPG.
Tell us what's happening.
- Well, this is the second meeting
of the Bush commission for reviewing procedures
for approving AlDS and cancer drugs.
And we thought, since the non-approval of DHPG
is such a perfect example
of how regulation has gone wrong,
we'd bring it home to the commission itself
by showing up here in force,
and that's what we've done.
- Okay, also inside at the hearing itself.
And I understand there's going to be
an action in just a little while
when Ellen Cooper speaks.
- I guess so.
- What about DHPG?
[overlapping voices]
- Without the objective data,
we feel that we would indeed be onÜÜÜÜÜ
on treacherous grounds
in defending that decision
and, in fact, would be wide open
to the charge of arbitrary decision-making.
Although, uh, we certainly
wouldn't be accused of being inflexible.
- You did it with AZT.
I don't see why you can't do it with...
- I mean, I have to say
that the difference in the data
between AZT And DHPG
is the difference between night and day, as far asÜÜÜÜ
- Sight and blindness.
- You're just as blindÜÜÜÜ
- Lose your life and lose your sight.
- People have died since this meeting started,
and four more are gonna die before it's over.
- Who represents the patient on this panel?
- Where is a person of color on this panel?
- FDA relooks at the DHPG data and suddenly, "Oh!"
Agrees with ACT UP.
- Ready for a vote?
All in favor, raise your hand.
One, two...
Well, that's everyone.
[cheers and applause]
- It was really an amazing encounter,
but it sort of felt like reaching the Wizard of Oz.
Like, you got to the center of the wholeÜÜÜÜÜ
of the whole system,
and there's just this schmuck behind a curtain.
There was no guiding agenda.
There was no leadership.
There was no global strategy
for how to deal with AlDS in the U.S.
And so on the bus back from Bethesda,
we decided to write a treatment agenda,
because nobody was dealing with the entire map of AlDS,
the entire constellation of opportunistic infections,
the gaps in research,
the underrepresented populations,
the fact that the diseases and the drugs
might be different in those populations.
How would we ever find out?
They weren't even being studied.
[carefree music]
- Jump on the bus!
- ? In the dark of night ?
? I laid myself ?
? To rest ?
? Step out of the strange... ?
- Bye, Ron!
Bye, Bobby!
- Come on, Catherine, let's go.
- It's time to go. - Yeah.
? ?
- ? Again ?
? Come to life ?
crowd: Crisis knows no borders!
The AlDS crisis knows no borders!
The AlDS crisis
knows no borders!
The AlDS crisis
knows no borders!
The AlDS crisis
knows no borders!
The AlDS crisis knows no borders!
- I'd just like to say
that the reasons I can't get any of these drugs
is 'cause, for nine years now,
the leadership in this country
has failed to come up with a plan of action.
They've failed to come up with a plan of research,
a national research agenda.
People with AlDS and their advocates
have finally done this for them.
This is it.
This is the plan we're presenting.
We need our government to read this plan.
We need them to work with us.
If they want to change it a little,
we'll talk to them.
But I want them to adopt it.
I want them to get started on it.
I want them to save our lives. Thank you.
[applause]
- I snuck around and grabbedÜÜÜÜ
uh, grabbed one of those copies.
And it was very interesting.
- We believe that the United States
has a global responsibility
to quickly develop effective treatments
not only for HlV infection itself
but for all of the opportunistic infections,
which actually cause suffering and death
in people living with AlDS.
- This is not a new agenda,
and it is not an agenda of only ACT UP.
Scientists agree with this.
Why can't we have it?
- The researchers and regulators
are going to have to come up with
a parallel release program
that will get drugs to the people who need it
before the five years down the pipe
where they may be approved by the FDA.
- I was scribbling madly in this copy of theirÜÜÜÜ
their AlDS Treatment Research Agenda.
I would go back and forth between saying, "No, no!
They don't understand!"
To saying, "Whoa, you mean
"this isn't the way we're doing trials?
You mean people aren't allowed to do this or that?"
But I have to tell you that I was still not ready
to sort of go up to them
and tryÜÜÜÜ try and engage.
I brought this copy back,
and I distributed it to a small group of statisticians
that was meeting regularly
to talk about trial design issues.
The people sitting around that table
got as excited as I did.
This had clearly been written by people
who were very knowledgeable,
very, very intelligent,
and really wanted
to do the trials the best possible way.
They were not against trials.
They wanted to get the right answers,
but they wanted what they called humane trials.
- It all came together in Montreal,
but what was new for ACT UP...
We went to a drug company.
- There is renewed hope for people infected with AlDS.
A new experimental drug, ddl,
will be distributed on a limited basis
for free this fall by its developer,
the giant Bristol-Myers company.
This marks the first time
an anti-AlDS drug will be available
even before safety testing is finished.
Full AZT treatment is too much for patient Peter Staley.
For nine months, he's been limited
to a quarter-dose of the drug
and wants ddl as soon as possible.
- Do you need ddl to live, do you think?
- Yes, I needÜÜÜÜ I need ddl.
I probably need some other antivirals beyond that.
- It is historic.
It is because the AlDS activist community
has obtained this drug.
It is not the government.
No one has given it to us.
We have fought for it,
and for the first time, we have won.
[indistinct chanting]
- So by '89, less than a year after our FDA demo,
they had approved a drug
to prevent blindness in people with AlDS.
And we had gotten expanded access to ddl,
and that was a very powerful feeling.
We felt like we were taking direct action,
and we were helping make people's lives better.
I wasn't sure that AZT or ddl were all that great,
but we were beginning to get letters from people
that said, "Thank you for saving my eyesight."
"Thank you, ACT UP, for getting me access to ddl
and helping to save my life."
- At Merck, HlV was an important scientific target.
HlV, of course, is a virus.
In order for the virus to infect an uninfected cell,
it needs to construct itself in a particular way.
First, the viral RNA needs to transform itself
into a DNA copy
in order to knit itself
into the nuclear DNA of the newly infected cell.
This occurs by a process called reverse transcription.
AZT and ddl were both originally developed
to try to inhibit that process of establishing infection.
A number of other researchers
began to focus on another portion
of the viral life cycle:
after the cell is already infected.
One of the steps that it takes is thatÜÜÜÜÜ
is, it makes a viral protein.
It has to snip that viral protein
in very specific places.
The resulting pieces self-assemble
to make the viral particle.
And what does the snipping
and what in fact controls the snipping
is a viral protein called the protease.
If you genetically modify the viral protease
so that it can no longer snip,
the virus no longer has the ability
to make those component pieces that it needs to make
in order to self-assemble
and make an infectious viral particle.
- We solved the structure of HlV protease in 1 989
and published it pretty quickly.
I thinkÜÜÜÜÜ I think we saw the structure,
and within a few weeks, it was in the literature.
- And then the question became,
"All right, can we prove it?"
Can we prove it that that is, in fact, the case?
And most importantly,
can we prove that if you inhibit that protease,
if you knock out its activity,
that the virus can no longer replicate
and therefore make new progeny viral particles
that would then go on
and establish a new cycle of infection?
[heartbeat thumping]
- AlDS is now the leading cause of death
for men under 44
in New York and a half dozen other cities,
surpassing homicide and all other diseases.
Yet Roman Catholic bishops are meeting this week
to publicly oppose the use of condoms
as morally unacceptable.
This puts them in direct opposition
to U.S. public health policy.
- The new church position
condemns not only the immorality of condoms
but their effectiveness as well.
The draft under consideration in Baltimore this week
says it is, "A virtual certainty
"that reliance on condoms
will result in transmission of AlDS. "
Of the bishop's proposed new policy,
New York City health commissioner Stephen Joseph
says...
- This would be a public health disaster.
It would undoubtedly lead to more transmission,
particularly in high-risk areas of the city,
more disease and more death.
- Catholic conservatives say
not just physical death
but spiritual death is at issue here.
As New York City's archbishop,
John Cardinal O'Connor put it...
- The use of prophylactics is immoral
in a pluralistic society or any other society.
- I think that's it, except,
of course, we have Ann Northrop
giving her sound bite technique.
[cheers and applause]
- Uh, we want everybody to join us,
to support us,
to destroy the power of the Catholic Church,
to make our side the strong one.
And to do that,
we must put out the message that we are the ones
who are fighting for people's lives,
and they are the murderers.
Don't be afraid of the media.
You're talking through them to the public.
We are trying to arouse, to anger an action.
And hone it down to, yes, a three-second bite,
a five-second bite,
just a phrase that will have an impact,
that will say something specific
and that will be understandable.
So...
[laughter and applause]
- Thanks for the advice.
- I don't have a phrase worked out,
and so you're all gonna have to create your own,
so this is empowerment.
[laughter]
- Act up!
Act up!
[chanting indistinctly]
- ? Answer me ?
? Sweet Jesus ?
? Won't you help me? ?
- Please, you're interfering with us.
Step back. - This is Jesus Christ.
I'm in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral on Sunday.
We're here reporting on a major AlDS activist
and abortion-rights activist demonstration,
which will be taking place here all morning.
Inside, Cardinal O'Connor
is busy spreading his lies and rumors
about the position of lesbians and gays.
We're here to say we want to go to heaven too.
- J.C. here with the Fire and Brimstone Network,
and we'd like to ask you a little bit
about this large vision that you've visited upon us.
- Well, we've decided to rename the cardinal.
He's now Cardinal O'Condom.
This is our message to him that condoms are safe.
It's no sin.
[crowd shouting]
[whistle blows, people murmuring]
- Stop killing us!
Stop killing us! Stop killing us!
We're not gonna take it anymore!
You're killing us!
Stop it! Stop it!
crowd: Stop it!
Stop it! Stop it!
[organ music playing]
- How many more have to die?
How many more have to die?
Saving lives is morally right!
- Those protesting
believe that the protests will result
in some change of environment,
some change of attitudes, perhaps.
The church will be teaching
that homosexual activity is sinful,
until the end of time.
That won't change.
[carefree music]
[camera clicks]
? ?
- This is July 22, 1 989.
Now, Sara,
what do you think about your dad being 44?
- Good.
[laughter]
- Thank you. Thank you for your support.
One, two, three.
Yay! [applauding]
We did it.
A lot of smoke.
- Oh, boy.
- I wish those candles would stop smoking.
It's bad for their health.
- That's right.
Okay, Robert Rafsky, do you have any remarks
before you jump off the edge of the porch?
- I have no interest in jumping off the edge of the porch.
I will jump up and down.
I think 44 is a very fine age.
It has a nice symmetry to it.
It has a nice feeling to it.
It's, uh, better than 22 and possibly better than 88.
We'll see.
- [laughs]
- Here's how we planned this.
What we want to do
is run this like a Treatment and Data meeting.
A number of times, we've had people
come to a Treatment and Data meeting
and speak on certain issues.
We try to get in depth.
We try to nail issues down.
This isn't a free-for-all.
Let's call it a working confrontation.
So why don't we start?
This is Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Bob Rafsky.
- I may be wrong, Dr. Fauci,
but it's my understanding
that thousands of people died from pneumonia
because there was no priority within the government
or within the medical system as a whole
to push the known preventative treatments
for a long time.
Now, those thousands of people are dead.
It would seem to me that someone
who was within the government while that took place,
as you were,
must have on their conscience these deaths.
- That is a tough one, um...
[audience exclaims] No, it really is.
It's inexcusable that an academic priority
should ever, ever come before
the health of the people that you're working with.
There's no question about that.
But the reality of the situation is,
there was a great reluctance
among the community of everything
from the scientists to the Congress
saying that what we should be doing
is not telling investigators what to do,
but we should allow them to do
what they feel is the most important.
Now, that sounds awful
when you're putting it in the context
of what we're talking about here,
but the whole world isn't in this room.
crowd: Every 1 2 minutes, someone dies!
Protests won me a Nobel Prize!
Every 1 2 minutes, someone dies!
[chanting continues indistinctly]
- AlDS activists stormed the government's
premiere disease research center.
The National lnstitutes of Health
is where an AlDS cure might be found.
It is where therapies are being tested
in clinical trials.
crowd: No more secret meetings!
No more secret...
- Demonstrators blocked access to buildings.
Scientists and administrators reporting to work
stood around looking confused.
Activists charged the Bush administration
with foot-dragging on AlDS research.