And The Band Played On

In Washington, DC, the Third International Conference on Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome commences. By 1987, there are more “celebrity AIDS patients” but “the disease remained fundamentally embarrassing” (585).

Between Congress and the Reagan Administration, the issues are the same with the struggles in AIDS funding. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop is appointed; he is a medical professional with a history of “conservative religious fundamentalism” (587),and the administration decides to assign him the task of writing a report on the AIDS epidemic.

In his report, “the problem of AIDS was addressed in purely public health terms, stripped of politics” (587). Without allowing the administration to see his material, he sends copies of his research, which validates what AIDS experts, researchers, and medical professional had been saying. Not only does he encourage AIDS education from primary school, but he also promotes the use of condoms. Dr. Koop recommends that a “push for more testing should be accompanied by guarantees of confidentiality and nondiscrimination” (587). 

The report becomes an “immediate media sensation” (588), as it provides for the topic to be discussed bluntly, without being corrupted by “the language of AIDSpeak” (588). The report also becomes a source of tension for the administration, and now Reagan, who “still had not given an address on the six-year-old epidemic” (589) is pushed to declare his stance on the topic.