And The Band Played On Epidemic

640 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Ongoing epidemic of HIV and AIDS

The movie, And the Band Played On, directed by Roger Spotswood demonstrates how the AIDS epidemic spread rapidly across the world. An epidemiologist, Don Francis learns about a very rare epidemic outbreak among gay men known as AIDS. A disease that bought 4,123 cases and was given little importance caused 2,917 deaths. Dr. Francis joins the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to find the cause of the disease and afterward a cure. Working with less money and old equipment Dr. Francis also has to deal with politicians and the gay community. Furthermore, he has to reason with the CDC who thinks the disease is transmitted through blood. Throughout the movie, Dr. Francis faces many controversies and rivalries among CDC, FDA, blood bank, and the government who doesn’t seem to care about this epidemic. …show more content…

In San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York a few cases of immune system failure have occurred in homosexual men, which brought attention to the CDC. This disease got a name of “gay cancer” in the homosexual community. A disease that is truly deadly in all aspects was given zero importance from the news media (20:28). Not one TV station has mentioned about this epidemic. Instead of raising awareness, the media completely ignores the whole situation because the media feels there is no story and the only people interested in reading about gay men dying are gay men. The number of cases continues to expand and this disease is now being found in Haitian refugees and 11 newborn babies. It’s no longer a homosexual disease anymore. The response that the gay community gets from the media is that God is punishing them. The homosexual men broke all of the rules and God is judging them

Show More
Related

  • The Crucible Witch Hunt Essay

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    Even after the disease and its modes of transmission had been correctly identified, fear and ignorance remained widespread. In the mid 1980s, “AIDS hysteria” became a well known term in the media and public life. For example, a magazine published details about how extensive AIDS/HIV related discrimination became. “Anxiety over AIDS in some parts of the U.S. is verging on hysteria,” the authors wrote; they later published this disturbing example:

    Read More

  • Hays 'Awaiting The Redemption Of Our Bodies And Walter Winks'

    290 Words  | 1 Pages

    Throughout the essays of Richard B. Hays in “Awaiting the Redemption of Our Bodies” and Walter Winks “Biblical Perspectives and Homosexuality” both authors tackle the difficult subject of homosexuality and how it should be perceived in terms of the bible. Both Authors agree that Homosexuality is a sin according to the bible, but have different perspectives on how it should be handled and received. Christians. Richard B. Hays opens his essay talking about his friend Gary, who was dying of Aids and was struggling with homosexual behavior. In Hays’s “Living under the cross” section he says “there is no reason at all for the church to single out homosexual persons for malicious discriminatory treatment; Insofar as Christians have done so

    Read More

  • The Cell that Started a Pandemic

    1889 Words  | 4 Pages

    Carl Zimmer the guest speaker of this broadcast states that in 1981 doctors described for the first time a new disease, a new syndrome which affected mostly homosexual men. The young men in Los Angeles were dying and the number of cases was growing faster and faster. The number of deaths was increasing from eighty to six hundred and twenty five in just the first few months. After the first few cases in LA, AIDS was declared to be one of the deadliest pandemics the world had ever seen after the plague in the Middle Ages.

    Read More

  • Film: The Age of Aids

    1862 Words  | 4 Pages

    One important scene in the film ‘The Age of Aids’ is “Port Au Prince, Haiti”. In this scene it outlines the conditions in Haiti, which were very poor and it turn left the city defenseless against the new disease. In 70’s and 80’s the disease began to be seen by doctors and priests who were being sought after to cure a unseen disease which left the people with the “look of death, [making them] so skinny you could see their bones”. The scene then goes on to take a look at one of the first HIV clinics in Port Au Prince, which was opened in the roughest parts of town. One of the surprising things that this clinic found when they were looking at the patients coming in was that the mean they were analyzing had more contact with women then they had with men. This was extremely interesting because this was completely different from what the pattern of the disease had been in the US. The doctors believed this was because homosexual males had been coming into Haiti as tourists and where having sex with locals, who in comparison didn’t call themselves homosexuals because even though they had been having sex with men, the number of women they were having sex with greatly outnumbered the men. This was extremely important because it allowed people to open their eyes, and realize that this was not a homosexual disease, that anyone could get the disease. And that’s exactly what happened within the Haitian community. Within three years the disease had spread across the entire island effects all aspects of society. This scene was effective because it is able to change a viewer with little knowledge of the disease to understand how doctors were able to come to the conclusion that the disease was not in fact a homosexual ...

    Read More

  • AIDS/HIV

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    Randy Shilts set out to make monumental changes in the world’s perspective of AIDS. He planned to enlighten, motivate, and educate the population on this tragic disease that has already claimed so many lives. He believed that virtually all the misconceptions about AIDS would be corrected and the public would insist that more be done to stop the epidemic. "I had hoped to effect some fundamental changes. I really believed I could alter the performance of the institutions that had allowed AIDS to sweep through America unchecked" (220). Shilts’s immense expectations positioned him for his inevitable sense of failure. He did not accomplished all that he had planned. AIDS was still spreading and people were still dying. "The bitter irony is, my role as an AIDS celebrity just gives me a more elevated promontory from which to watch the world make the same mistakes in the handling of the AIDS epidemic that I hoped my work would help to change"(220).

    Read More

  • What Is The Theme Of The Movie And The Band Played On

    1133 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Movie “And the Band Played On” is the framework of the earliest years of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Also known as the Gay disease. The movie examines HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States in the earlier 1980’s and emphasizes on three crucial components. An immunologist with knowledge in eradicating smallpox and containing the Ebola virus, joins the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to attempt and recognize just what this disease is. The film also deals the administration and government side that does not seem to care. The homosexual community in San Francisco is separated on the nature of the disease but also want to know what should be done

    Read More

  • Dallas Buyers Club Essay

    574 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dallas Buyers Club directed by Jean-Marc Vallee begins with Ron Woodroof, an electrician and a rodeo cowboy in Texas in mid 1980s, being diagnosed with AIDS and given 30 days to live. After a few days of denial, Woodroof heard about AZT, a drug being under clinical trial for proving its effectiveness on AIDS treatment, and took it for several days only to find himself in a worse condition. While I was watching the film, I wondered why it took so much time for Woodroof to accept his diagnosis of AIDS despite his constant drug abuse via injection. I later found out that in 1980s, there was a lack of knowledge in cause and transmission of the disease. Therefore, during that time, there were many drug dependent people who administered drugs through intravenous injection in AIDS patient population. Furthermore, the film sheds light on the development of drug policies in US and moral dilemma in pharmaceutical industry.

    Read More

  • Critique of Film And the Band Played On

    340 Words  | 1 Pages

    “And the Band Played On” was an HBO movie that illustrated the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and early 1990s. The movie touched on subjects concerning the reaction of the gay community, the heterosexual community, and the medical community. It showed not only the research in AIDS, but also the way that the US government dealt with it. The movie expressed the consequences the gay community suffered, the plight of the medical community in researching the disease, and the issue of government response to it.

    Read More

  • Philadelphia, the movie.

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    This movie begins by depicting a bright articulate young lawyer named Andrew Beckett at work. Then the scene rapidly changes to Andrew at an AIDS clinic. You know at this point that Andrew Beckett has AIDS and a horrifying future as you see scenes of men with hollow expressions, open sores and skeleton-like features. It becomes obvious that Andrew was not telling his boss or coworkers that he has AIDS. Later we discover that he concealed this disease because he was afraid of being fired and people’s fear of him as a sick gay man.

    Read More

  • Conversion or Reparative Therapy

    1427 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Homosexuality is found in over 1,500 species. Homophobia is found in only one” (1,500 Animals”). Conversion therapy, or otherwise known as “reparative therapy,” is a homophobic process by which many therapists attempt to “cure” homosexuality. Conversion Therapy demonstrates the ignorance of this world by causing mental and physical harm to its participants in an attempt to “cure” something that is not a problem, and that is why the federal government needs to ban it once and for all. Homosexuality was once considered a mental illness, which led to attempts to “cure” it.

    Read More

  • And the Band Played On

    508 Words  | 2 Pages

    Meanwhile, the scientist become aware of the deadly virus killing thousands of people and society did not respond well. Many people did not like the idea of spending money on research for this disease. They didn’t think it was a big concern to worry about, although many people were dying each day. The gay people did response and wanted a cure immediately. Some believed that it was “God’s way” of punishing the gay people. An example would be when a group of people go on TV and are striking against gay people.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Movie And The Band Played On

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    The movie, And the Band Played On, portrays a current issue the U.S. health care system face: the effects of societal perceptions of people who should receive health care support. Those perceived as undeserving are disregarded. Homosexual men were the first to be affected by AIDS in the US, and because of this, the stigma of homosexuality prevented developing health care policy to control the epidemic. Homosexuality was, and to a lesser extent now, not widely accepted. Marginalizing gay individuals was seen in the movie at the beginning, when media coverage on AIDs would not include “homosexual” within the news title (Pillsbury, Sanford, & Spottiswoode, 1993). This represents how media has to be marketed; the broader public will not be interested if a new disease only affects an undesirable population. Another example of this negligence is seen when Phillip Burton is asked to introduce a bill on AIDS. He agrees, but does not hesitate to retort, “They couldn’t get a dime out of this administration with the name gay on it” (Pillsbury, Sanford, & Spottiswoode, 1993). Finally, in order to change the perception, at the CDC conference with blood agencies, they renamed gay related immune deficiency (GRID) to AIDS, and the film cuts to news segments finally covering

    Read More

  • Analysis of Paul Farmer´s AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame

    918 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lastly, I would like to mention something that should be mentioned for the sake of mentioning. As said in the book as well in class, there have been multiple cases of sexual deviance between two males. This cause of AIDS, I found, was not mentioned enough in the book. Although there may be contributing factors as to why it wasn’t, I personally feel that this would be a major factor to the cause of the infection. “Scientists proposed that Haitians may have contracted the virus from monkeys as part of sexual practices in Haitian brothels . . . AIDS might be transmitted between Haitians by voodoo rites, the ingestion of sacrificial animal blood, the eating of cats, ritualized homosexuality.” (Farmer 224) All in all, AIDS & ACCUSATION, however criticized the book may be, inevitably captures the essence of anthropology.

    Read More

  • Religion and LGBT Rights

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this essay, I will explain how religion is sometimes used to mobilize against LGBT people, how some people’s religious and personal doctrines conflict regarding LGBT issues, and how religious belief and community can be a positive force for the LGBT community. In history, mainstream Abrahamic religions have had a negative relationship with LGBT persons. Beginning during the Hebrew exodus of Egypt, the purity codes documented in the Hebrew Bible’s Book of Leviticus explicitly stated a slew of rigid rules that attempted to keep a new Israelite nation “clean”. As William Countryman argues in the article “Dirt, Greed, & Sex”, the Bible sets a precedent for what is “clean” and pure as well as what is “dirty”. In this sense, dirty means where something doesn’t belong, or is out of place.

    Read More

  • LGBT Subculture

    1415 Words  | 3 Pages

    Religion is a major aspect on why society believes that homosexuality is wrong and should not be accepted. Individuals who are against the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community because of their religion believe that “homosexuality is a horrid transgression of God’s plan” (Bawer 74). They consider them sinners because they are going against God’s original intention; relationships should be between a man and a woman. Nia Augustin is a member of the Christian community and believes that supporting or being homosexual goes against her religion beliefs. In her interview, Augustin stated, “I have been told that the purpose of a man and woman being together is to reproduce, but a homosexual couple cannot do that, so that's not of God.” Homosexuality is sinful and wrong in the eyes of religious individuals because it involves sex that does not produce life. However, it is ironic that individuals that use contraceptives to prevent them from creating another life are not judged as cruelly by society. Even though homosexuals are not able to have children, they are still people and they deserve to be treated likewise.

    Read More

More about And The Band Played On Epidemic

Open Document