Consider: Why and how did activists respond to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s?
1981
AIDS is detected in California and New York. The first cases are among gay men, then users of injected drugs.
UCLA’s Michael Gottlieb, MD, authored the first report to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention on June 5 identifying the virus that would be known as AIDS.
1982
First Hearings Held on New Disease: At hearings in Los Angeles, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) launches the first investigation into what is being called Gay Related Immunodeficiency Syndrome (GRID). The CDC estimates tens of thousands of people could be affected by the new disease.
AIDS is named: The CDC convenes a meeting of scientists, blood industry executives, gay activists, hemophiliacs and others to develop guidelines for screening the blood supply. With activists anxious about stigma, industry executives concerned with business and scientists unclear on what exactly is going on, the group decides to adopt a "wait and see" attitude. One accomplishment: The new disease is given a name -- acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
1983
Three thousand AIDS cases are reported in the US; 1,000 people have died so far.
In March, former Rep. Margaret Heckler (R-Mass.) becomes President Reagan's secretary of health and human services. She tells Frontline that AIDS was her "number one priority," but that she believed increasing the budgets of the public health organizations responding to the crisis was unnecessary.
"1,112 and Counting": Gay activist and co-founder of Gay Men's Health Crisis Larry Kramer writes a pivotal article on the new disease killing gay men. It appears in the New York Native, a gay newspaper. "If this article doesn't rouse you to anger, fury, rage, and action, gay men may have no future on this earth. Our continued existence depends on just how angry you can get."
1984
Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler tells Congress, "I have to say that, in the AIDS situation, I really don't think there is another dollar that would make a difference, because the [work] is [happening] to find the answer." On the other hand, the CDC's Dr. Don Francis sends a very different message: "This disease is not going to go away," he writes. "The inadequate funding to date has seriously restricted our work and has presumably deepened the invasion of this disease into the American population. In addition, the time wasted pursuing money from Washington has cast an air of despair over AIDS workers throughout the country."
1985
Reagan responds to a question about AIDS publicly for the first time: At a press conference, the president is asked whether he would send his child to school with a child who had AIDS. He responds, "I'm glad I'm not faced with that problem today, and I can well understand the plight of the parents and how they feel about it… On the other hand, I can understand the problem… medicine has not come forth [clearly] and said, 'We know for a fact, that it is safe.' And until they do, I think we just have to do the best we can with this problem. I can understand both sides of it."
Report critical of funding published: In response to a request from Congress, a report, "Review of the Public Health Service's Response to AIDS," is prepared by the Office of Technological Assessment, a nonpartisan office designed to analyze complicated scientific issues. The report is highly critical of the lack of federal support for research, in particular from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Movie star Rock Hudson announces that he has AIDS and dies, becoming the first major celebrity to succumb to the disease, raises public awareness.
Ryan White, a hemophiliac teenager who had contracted AIDS through contaminated blood products in 1984, is barred from attending school in Kokomo, Indiana, in the summer of 1985. After a long court battle, he is finally allowed to attend classes, but his family is later forced to move to another town after a bullet is fired into their home.
American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) is founded with the help of movie star Elizabeth Taylor.
US Surgeon General Everett Koop, MD, issues report on AIDS calling for education and condom use.
1986
More than 38,000 cases of AIDS are reported from 85 countries.
In its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the CDC analyzes reported AIDS cases and finds that the incidence rate for Blacks and Hispanics is three times as high as that of whites. Among the cases diagnosed between June 1981 and August 1986, 25 percent are in Blacks, who make up 12 percent of the population at the time, and 14 percent are in Hispanics, who make up 6 percent of the population. Among children, the disparity is even higher: 58 percent of cases are in Blacks, and 22 percent are in Hispanics.
The first clinical trials of antiviral drug azidothymidine or AZT begin.
President Reagan gives his first speech on AIDS at the College of Physicians in Philadelphia. He defends his administration's spending and endorses educating students to prevent the spread of the disease.
1987
Congress passes the Helms amendment: Angered by an explicit safe-sex brochure developed by Gay Men's Health Crisis, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) calls for an amendment banning federal funds for any educational materials that "promote or encourage homosexual sexual activities."
FDA approves AZT for treating AIDS.
CDC launches first public service announcements about AIDS.
US adds HIV as a "dangerous contagious disease" to its immigration exclusion list.
The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is formed by activist Larry Kramer, and others to protest the high cost of AZT and the government's slow approval of other drugs. ACT UP's first protest is outside Wall Street. More than 200 demonstrators shut down traffic.
