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.
Why? Why this happen?
You doctor!
How you don't know?
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 does not 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.
Yeah.
Thanks very much.
Thank you.
I'll be back.
Doctor?
No, not now.
Here we are.
This is...
What is his T cell count?
I got to tell you, Dr. Gottlieb,
this is weird, man.
What?
He doesn't have any.
How can he not have any T cells?
Well, his immune system's gone.
- Morning. - Good morning, Dr. Guinan.
- Jim? - Yeah?
Can I talk to you for a minute?
I just got this in the mail from our man in LA,
Dr. Shandera,
who got it from a Dr. Gottlieb.
I think you ought to look at it right away.
Thanks.
Jim,
It looks like there's a very weird epidemic
breaking out among gay men in Los Angeles.
There've been five cases of pneumocystis
with no contributing disease within the past few months,
and already two fatalities.
- Hot stuff. - Mm-hm.
Plus I made some phone calls to New York and San Francisco,
and it seems that they've had similar cases.
I think this ought to go into the weekly newsletter
as soon as possible.
What did you do that for?
I don't decide what goes in the newsletter.
I can only recommend. But, Mary,
we've got a new administration.
Do you want to see this published
so that 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.
Dale, how long do you plan on doing that?
Till I get my peanut butter cookies.
Hi-yah!
Guys, I'd like you to meet Don Francis.
Hi. Just doing a little demonstration
of the benefits of a sound knowledge
of applied science.
Hi. Harold Jaffe,
- Sexually Transmitted Diseases. - Oh.
Hi, Don. Bill Darrow, Sociology.
You didn't shake Harold's hand, did you?
Don, hi. Thanks for coming.
- Did you meet everybody? - Yeah.
- How's Phoenix? - Warm.
Don't we have a meeting in my office at three o'clock?
What's everybody doing here?
Trying to have lunch in four minutes,
like you.
If... if one of those is peanut butter cookies,
that is mine.
Let's go.
Dale Lawrence, Division of Host Factors. Hi.
Okay, what we've got in Los Angeles,
San Francisco, and New York
is a number of gay men who've been hit
with a variety of opportunistic infections,
and really, that's all we know.
I've 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.
What we've got to do is 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 shoe-leather epidemiology.
That's it. We've got to talk to the patients,
talk to the doctors who may have treated those patients,
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. - Yeah, maybe they all get
the same kind of kitty litter.
Don, I'm gonna go to New York this afternoon,
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 sarcoma.
Even my doctor had to look it up.
"Nothing to worry about," he said.
"Usually happens to Italian men in their 60s
"who continue to live a normal life
till 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?
Oh, 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.
Oh, Gaetan Dugas, Dr. Mary Guinan.
If you have a few minutes, it'd be very helpful
if you'd 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.
Well, would you mind answering a few questions
while you're getting dressed?
What kind of questions?
I assume from what Dr. Freedman-Kien told me
that you are gay.
Also homosexual.
And how long have you been having sex with men?
- About ten years, I guess... - Ten...
Openly.
And could you roughly approximate
how many sexual encounters you have in one year?
- In a year? - Mm-hm.
Are you ki... you're serious?
- Yes. - I don't know.
Roughly?
About, um...
250.
Actually, now that I think of it,
that would be a very conservative estimate.
And of these partners, how many...
Look, I'm sorry. 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.
- Oh. - Maybe next time, huh?
- Okay. - All right.
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, Harold?
Not too many, no.
Two doctors I knew in medical school.
I still stay in touch with them.
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 tens of thousands of gay men in this city,
maybe a couple of hundred thousand.
They're just cops and waiters and teachers
and lawyers and ditch diggers and athletes.
Bill... Bill, 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 your tour of 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.
- Selma. - Bye, Bill.
Hi. Selma Dritz, Department of Public Health.
We're here to inspect the premises.
I'll see if I can find the boss.
Thanks.
Those two guys there... they're 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.
I mean really beautiful women.
I mean, imagine one of those "Penthouse" women,
and she wants to go into that little room with you,
and there's nothing between you but a little towel.
Are you gonna tell me
that you wouldn't go into 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. - Hi.
So, what's the problem?
Well, there may be some kind of an epidemic spreading
in the gay community,
and I'd like to just come in and have a look around.
I'm sorry. That's impossible.
We have to protect the confidentiality of our clients.
I know, but Eddie, you know that 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 ten o'clock in the morning, for God's sake.
Let us in.
Selma, only for you.
- Thank you. - Thanks.
You're a real mensch, Eddie.
So, 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?
Oh, God, my wife's 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 thing that happened was two mice started dancing
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 that I'm treating for it is
growing so fast I don't even want to think about it.
I don't know why.
I mean, is anything happening in Washington?
Do these people even know it exists?
If they do, they don't discuss it.
- When do you go back to D.C.? - Tomorrow.
Well, then that's the first thing we have to deal with.
You just have to make people aware of it.
Well, how, Marc?
The media all say the same thing:
there's no story.
One journalist said to me, "The only people interested
"in reading about 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, Marc.
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.
All right, 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 specifically unusual
about this disease,
it shouldn't make a difference where the semen is deposited,
whether in the anus or in the vagina,
which could mean that women will be getting it also.
That's a good point. You should focus on that.
All we know so far is
that the immune system stops functioning completely.
In all cases?
Know, but can't prove.
You know, 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 of doing this, I know what I know.
That's not what I'm talking about.
Don't say it. I know it's pure supposition,
but it's more than strong enough
to justify a definitive study.
- I agree. - 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, but it's only a guess.
- A guess. - Definitely.
Okay, well, let's assume that it's a virus.
Now, the question is: is it one that we already know
that has become lethal,
or is this some kind of brand-new virus
that we've never even 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%.
- 40%? - And according to the doctors
taking care of these patients,
the mortality rate could ultimately turn out to be 100%.
100%.
My God.
All right, let's set up a case control study
based on the premise that it's sexually transmitted.
Don, I've been talking to the director.
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 just been given approval to have a task force
for three months, which,
if this disease is like any of the others,
ought to be, you know, plenty of time.
And, of course, no money,
so we're gonna have to moonlight this epidemic.
- What else is new? - That means I can't
guarantee you a staff or equipment...
- Trust him on this. - Until I juggle the budget
around a little bit.
So, you gonna show him where the lab's gonna be?
You wanna see it right now?
Oh, I think you should, Jim.
Sure. Come on down.
You got a flashlight, by the way?
- It's not that bad. - You know, one of those
miner's things with a little light in the middle.
It's the only space we have left,
so it's gonna look a little hopeless.
- Only because it is. - No comment.
It's... actually, it's bigger than it looks.
Tom Spira, Paul Fiorino. Don Francis.
- Oh, nice to meet you. - Hi, Don.
What is this? An incubator from the Smithsonian?
You know it too well.
Where's 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.
Hey, watch out.
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 can go ahead. We got nothing 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?
Yeah. Bobbi Campbell,
self-appointed KS poster boy.
You look surprised.
No, no. I'm... curious, maybe.
Well, you know, if the gay community doesn't
start raising 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.
Uh...
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 young 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,
and the reason for the sweat suit is
somebody stole every piece of clothing I brought with me
from the laundromat this morning.
Um, 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 the inside of your mouth,
and another from your rectum.
In this study, some have the disease,
and some, like you, have no symptoms.
Hm.
You know, 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... gay Halloween parade was on.
Have you seen it?
I didn't know they had one.
Yeah.
Yeah, they do.
It's really pretty amazing.
The party's over.
You scared me. I'm sorry.
- Jesus. - Sorry. Sorry.
What is that?
It's today's figures.
No, no, no.
"Butcher's..."
In the war against Napoleon,
when Admiral Nelson wanted to know how many people were dead,
he'd yell to his orderly,
"What's the butcher's bill for today?"
God.
We've injected Mary's samples into mice and rabbits
and guinea pigs, and we're gonna try monkeys.
So far, we haven't found any evidence of parasites,
fungus, or viruses... nothing.
You mean the case control study yielded zilch?
Yeah. All we know so far 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 of causes.
We don't know how it's transmitted.
We don't know...
Don't touch that!
Christ. Don't you know there's
about a million things in there that could kill you?
I'm sorry.
Politically, as far as the next election's concerned,
we're not dead, but we're 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 solid block,
because it's literally life and death for them now,
is the gay vote.
And San Francisco is probably the only city in the world
where that group is big enough to 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, money, money for research.
That is crucial.
Nobody knows what's causing this thing.
I'll introduce a bill.
But if all the angels came
dancing down to Earth like the Rockettes,
even they couldn't get a dime out of this administration
for anything 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 in one...
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, it appears that there will 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.
Well, how can I put this to you diplomatically?
- Not approved. - Not approved.
I don't know how I'm 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 simple yes or no.
I'm tired. I'm gonna go home.
I'm gonna go to bed. And, really,
I suggest you do the same thing, all right?
Not approved.
Dr. Curran?
- Yeah? What is it? - Jeff called.
There's been an outbreak among the Haitian population in Miami.
How many?
Four known dead, but they said
that since most of them are hiding from Immigration,
there could be dozens more.
None of them were gay, he said. Just Haitians.
What do you mean, "just Haitians"?
That's what he said to ask you.
Okay. Thanks.
Oh, boy. "Just Haitians."
I don't know.
This disease does not make any sense to me.
I don't get it. It's completely off the wall.
You know, 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,
but 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 sarcoma,
a deadly 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, Don. - Hey, Dave.
Hey, Dr. Jaffe.
Listen... can I get, like, 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.
I mean, 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...
It's a jelly donut.
Oh, well, thanks, Harold. It's a jelly donut.
You're very welcome.
I owe you a buck and a quarter.
Something's gobbling up the T cells.
I'm telling you, Max,
feline leukemia might be a clue.
Really looks infectious to me,
just like your favorite bug, the feline leukemia virus.
Look, they both cause cancer, right?
Okay.
They both cause immune suppression.
Something's gobbling up those T cells.
Okay.
They both have long incubation periods.
Suspect or know?
These guys have had swollen lymph nodes, fevers,
all sorts of things for years before they get Kaposi 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.
It fits.
The disease that we're looking for
looks like a combination between feline leukemia
and hepatitis B.
So isn't it likely, Max, 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. It's 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 having found
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.
What are you sorry about? Winning?
Never be sorry about winning.
When you don't get your promotion next month,
that's when you should be sorry.
Dr. Gallo? Telephone.
Gallo here.
- Bob, Max Essex. - Max, how are you?
Are you working on that new gay disease yet?
- No, Max. - Well, Don Francis
used to be my student... he's with the CDC now...
and he's found enough evidence to suggest
that it might 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 ought to look into.
Well, why don't you...
why don't you send me what you have,
and I'll put somebody on it.
Excellent.
Thanks for the call, Max. Bye.
- What did he say? - We got it.
Jim, 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.
- We don't have the budget yet... - No, don't sweat it.
I'll front the money. You'll pay me back.
Okay, well, if you think you have definitive proof
it was brought in by a UFO, please send it in to us.
Thank you.
666.
Excuse me?
That is my room number.
That's when I called the Public Health Department...
When I saw what room they put me in.
But nobody will listen to me.
Nobody listens in this place!
I'll listen to you.
That's why I'm here.
It all... 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.
Now, 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.
Yes, now, 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.
Wait...
Good. Now...
you had sex with all three of these men?
Listen.
- Can you hear that? - What?
Do you hear that?
♪ Da-dun da-dun-dun ♪
The music.
♪ Da-dum ♪
It's playing... it's playing upside down.
It's instead of backwards means...
oh, oh,
I'm number four on the list.
I'm number four... and two makes...
Wait. Would you...
would you... would you...
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... I don't understand.
I'm sorry.
Him, him,
and him.
And...
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 out of here!
Here's my card, if you...
God damn it, Blaine, get him out of here!
Sorry to bother you.
Mr. Darrow?
I'm not his lover.
I'm just a friend who takes care of him on Thursdays.
We take turns in a buddy program.
I'm not sure if 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.
I was so fond of him.
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,
and 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.
Nick... nickname.
Dougie.
And his full name?
Hi, Mary.
Hi.
You back in town?
No. Just for the night.
I'm probably nuts, but I'm on my way 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.
Oh, well, I'm very flattered to be asked,
although I have 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, if you don't mind my saying,
I cannot possibly imagine why you'd be interested.
We've been finding substantial evidence to suggest
that one of the ways this disease may be transmitted
is sexually.
Now, wait a minute.
Look, 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?
What?
My friend, we're talking about thousands of men
all over the world
whose faces I cannot even remember,
and you want names?
Well, as many as you can remember would help.
My book's in my apartment.
You call me, eh?
What's the number?
I'll call you.
Listen. 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've got it,
someone gave it to me.
Train number 17
with chair and sleeping car service
to Albany, Syracuse...
Do you mind?
Sorry.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! This is important.
Not to me!
I've got to go.
Uh-uh!
- Hello? - Yes. Oh, hello.
It's Bill Darrow from the CDC.
Got plenty of paper? I've got 73 names.
73... sure. Yeah.
Uh-huh.
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.
Now, 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.
That's great. That's absolutely terrific work, Bill.
Bill, that is the first sign of real proof.
- Mm-hm. - Good job.
Is there any indication why Patient Zero is still alive,
and others in this cluster died almost immediately?
Well, we just have to assume a variable incubation period.
- Yeah. - How many of these connections
were made in bathhouses?
- Most of them. - Most of them?
We know what we have to do. We have to close the bathhouses.
The federal government doesn't have authority to do that.
How soon before you can write up a full report?
- Four or five days. - Listen, Jim,
I'm from the Bay Area... I could just go up and start...
Don... Don, could you stay out of this, please?
It's not my decision what to do with this information,
and it's certainly not yours.
Something this important has to go upstairs first,
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,
and the study is a sexual cluster.
On the other hand, we don't have enough scientific evidence
to say for certain that one person gives it
to another person.
We have to focus much more research into this area
so that we don't prematurely release information
that's not validated.
On the other hand, we're not holding back any information
that might provide important health benefits.
Thank you.
In a situation that might
cause the White House a little embarrassment,
your idea is just to roll over and play dead.
All right, what is this? I am the bureaucratic whore...
you're Lawrence of Arabia?
You think I like doing everything that I have to do?
- I don't know. Do you? - Look. One of my jobs is
to make sure that I don't start a nationwide panic.
Is that worse than an epidemic?
I am not gonna make enemies of the people who can cut off
what little funding that we have left.
Don, I am juggling a dozen balls here:
political, bureaucratic, public.
What about science and medicine?
What I said in there was pure science, and you know it.
Now, there is strong evidence, but there is nothing
that we can prove scientifically,
and without that, we're...
You know it can take up to five years
to establish scientific proof.
How many people are gonna get sick in that time?
Okay, fine. Let's just say that we get rid of the idea
of scientific proof.
What are you gonna 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! You're putting words in my mouth.
Let me just say something. Pat, Listen to me.
You keep saying community! Why would you...
- Wait a second. - Great medical...
- Community... - If you can't organize
your own people, how do you expect...
Just wait a second.
I am just talking about a modern... hold on.
Just wait a second.
If somebody has... somebody has to...
God damn it! Just shut the hell up.
My God. I can't believe that every time we have a meeting
in this town, we don't end in a brawl,
we start with one.
In the first place, I don't have the power
to shut down the bathhouses.
Oh, Merv, as Director of Public Health,
you have the power to shut down anything
that threatens public health.
According to the CDC press conference,
there's no compelling evidence that 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.
- Thank you. - Exactly!
This is San Francisco,
where "bathhouse" is not just a word...
it is a symbol for sexual freedom.
- Thank you. - Right.
I'm sorry.
If you want these bathhouses closed down,
the gay community is gonna have to help close them.
- Good night. - That's it?
No way he's gonna budge and commit political suicide.
And why should he, with the gay community
split right down the middle?
No, Selma, we are not split down the middle.
The vast majority of gay men are
in stable, monogamous relationships,
or they are looking to be.
They don't go to the bathhouses.
It's only the minority...
okay, a vocal minority who 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.
Kico,
what's the matter?
Um... um, 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.
Four, five, six, seven, eight.
Not bad.
- Uh-huh, uh-huh. - Good.
Four, five, six, seven, eight.
Hey, Doc.
- Hey. - Hi.
I'm really happy you could come.
Well, thank you for asking.
Well, you said you were gonna be in New York, so...
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... why am I so...
why am I so afraid to tell anybody about this?
You know, I know how hard it is for you people
to get the kind of money you need to fight this thing.
So, I want to...
You just use that wherever you think
it'll do the most good, all right?
Thank you.
Get out of here. I got to get back to work.
We won't stop! We won't stop!
We won't stop!
I'm Bill Kraus.
This could get you into 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.
Excuse me.
Now!
How much longer do you think we're gonna wait here?
Let me tell you people something.
No matter what happens here today,
if you try to close my joint, I'll sue the ass off you.
Doesn't it bother you knowing
that the people who have sex in your bathhouse are
playing Russian roulette?
Please, let's cut out this bullshit.
We are 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 are we gonna wait for him?
He's almost an hour late. Let's go.
All right. Can we settle down please?
Please, everybody settle down so we can start.
Thank you. Please.
So, 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 now Dr. Don Francis
from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta,
who's been fighting this epidemic from the start.
Don.
First of all, let me tell you that I'm not speaking on behalf
of the Centers for Disease Control.
I'm speaking for myself.
There may have been some 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%
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.
In every city that we've...
Quiet down, please.
Come on. That's a damn lie.
We want the truth!
One at a time, please.
Everyone will have a chance to speak.
Please, shut up. Shut up.
Shut the hell up.
How can you say we get it from sex
when the CDC just said we don't get it from sex?
Yeah!
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. Let's go.
Since the reason for this meeting is
to discuss how we feel, who would like to...
Close the tubs!
Bobbi Campbell. Bobbi Campbell, go ahead.
Would you like to say something?
Yeah, Bobbi!
For years and years and 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! 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've gone through, 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.
Clearly, there's a lot of strong feeling on this subject.
What good is all the gay rights in the world
if we're all dead?
Before I make my decision,
I'd just like to put this to a vote.
All those who are in favor
of the city closing the bathhouses,
raise your hand.
- Close them down! - Close the tubs!
All those who are in favor of keeping the bathhouses open,
raise your hands.
I don't understand.
They're human, Bill.
And they're scared.
Why? Why this happen?
You doctor! How you don't know?
Get this read within weeks, and quickly.
Just have Gallo report the detection of his virus,
HTLV, in... what?
It was the two East Coast homosexuals, Robert.
Two East Coast homosexuals.
In this hour, right away, now, to "Science."
This is big. This is big. We finally got the big one.
All right, Mika.
Tell all our number one people to drop whatever they're doing
and get to work on this.
On this day, March... what?
3rd.
Dr. Robert Gallo makes the first gigantic strides
in winning the... what?
The war, the battle?
The war.
Battle.
Against whatever the hell they call it now.
Look what they're calling it.
"He died after another 'long illness.'"
It's so sad.
This could be the first deadly epidemic in history
of which nobody officially died.
Yeah.
Hey, look at this.
Did you see this?
Look at this article.
Where?
"In order to move quickly
"and take the lead in what seems likely to be
"a fierce scientific battle against GRID,
"Dr. Robert Gallo has formed a special unit
"of the National Cancer Institute
"to fight and win the battle against this disease
by the end of the year."
- What? - Hey!
Hot damn. We're in business.
Don.
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, no. I don't mean hemophilia.
He was doing fine until, well, recently, wasn't he?
Well, 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, no, no, it's... it's real blood,
but they get it from thousands of different people
and 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, well, 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, well,
embarrassing, but I've got to ask them.
Has he ever had sexual contact with another man?
I don't understand the question.
I mean, 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 still have to prove the blood is contaminated.
We've got to prove it. What do we know?
What do we think? What can we prove?
It is in Factor VIII.
- You think? - I know.
- Proof? - Well, we can't prove
anything is in the blood till we have a test.
We can't develop a test until we find the virus.
Yeah, assuming that it even is a virus.
Finding the virus with the equipment we've got?
You got a better chance of winning the Indy 500
with a pair of roller skates.
I'm sorry. What about Max Essex?
Does his... is he finding anything out?
He can't keep the cells alive long enough
to see if there is a virus.
I hear the French have the same problem.
Yeah, so does Gallo.
Does anybody have anything positive?
Well, we may be able to do something about the blood supply
even though we can't find the virus.
We know that the people that are getting this disease are
almost identical to the group of people
that are 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% effective in detecting the disease.
- Really? - That is fantastic!
- Don! - I mean, if the blood banks can
weed out that many people who have the disease
- before they donate blood... - Exactly. Exactly!
Wait. Wait, wait, wait.
Do all of you really believe that the blood industry is
gonna spend millions of dollars
on an idea that is scientifically radical as that?
It's not so radical, Jim, if you're a hemophiliac.
Can we be realistic just for one second?
We have got to prove that it's even in the blood supply
before we get any action from those people.
It is bound to turn up in the regular blood supply
sooner or later,
so I think what we should look at is transfusions.
In fact, if we can find one patient
who got the disease after getting a transfusion
what we need to do then is to look at the donors.
Check 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.
Then all we've got to do is prove the patient
couldn't possibly have gotten it any other way.
That's interesting.
Interesting?
That's so obvious.
It's brilliant, Harold. 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 could not have gotten the disease
from any other source
except the transfusions.
The legal protection of donor confidentiality prevents me...
One of those donors has a disease
that's gonna kill the man who got that blood from you
to save his life,
and if we don't find that donor
before he donates more blood
and kills more people, then...
Unless there is irrefutable scientific evidence
that the alleged disease does in fact 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, huh?
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.
And he had 13 donors?
Mm-hm. All from Irwin Memorial.
That's all I could find out.
They keep a lid on the place so tight,
it's like the Pentagon.
So, forget about getting a list of donors from them.
The first irrefutable case caused by transfusions,
and these people are stonewalling us.
Mm-hm.
You know what we need?
Somebody just to scare the hell out of them.
Only Attila the Hun could.
Selma Dritz!
- Well? - I got it.
But there's one problem. Well, 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 we can't prove it?
How can we not prove it?
He was from one of the richest,
most socially prominent families in town,
and he swore to his dying breath he wasn't gay.
What's the difference what he said?
I mean, when somebody dies from this,
you can't exactly mistake it for whooping cough.
According to his doctor, he died from encephalitis.
It's on his death certificate.
All right, let's talk to the doctor.
And get him to say what? He lied?
Well, somewhere in this town, there's got to be somebody...
a gay man he had sex with, or...
what about his family?
Do they know?
My brother wasn't gay.
And I can assure you no matter how hard you search,
you're not gonna find one shred of 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're trying to prove that it can also be transmitted
by blood products.
Now, as you know, 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. Here's 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.
There's 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?
Yes, this is Dr. Marcus Conant's office.
May I help you?
Sorry. Wrong number.
Only for you, Selma.
I was the secret doctor he came to
for those messy little problems he...
he couldn't let his family physician know about.
In 1980, he had a case of KS, pneumocystis,
the whole bag of horrors.
Marc, thank you very much. I love you.
Thanks a lot, Doctor.
All right, let the blood banks stonewall this one!
Excuse me. I would like to remind everyone...
I'd like to remind everyone
that these are not regulations...
these are not regulations from the CDC.
This is a workshop where every agency connected
to the blood industry can evaluate information
that the CDC has found.
And together, we are hoping to be able to arrive
at some course of action.
One option is to establish guidelines
to keep people who are at high risk
from donating blood to begin with.
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.
Have you any idea of the civil rights implications
of establishing such guidelines...
Civil rights, my ass.
My son's a hemophiliac,
and if homosexuals are infecting the blood supply,
why not keep them from becoming donors?
What do you mean? The entire gay community?
Then what? Separate drinking fountains?
One for gays, one for humans?
Don't start that gay rights crap with me.
There are 20,000 hemophiliacs in this country,
and GRID has become the second leading cause of death
amongst them.
We have rights, too, and 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 it would help a lot if...
I wonder how you can expect us to be unemotional
when at least one person is dying every day
from a disease that doesn't even have a name?
Now, if the CDC can't bother to come up with a name,
at least it should stop the media from calling it GRID.
We have enough people hating gays
without having the entire stigma of this disease placed on us,
especially since it has been shown
that this disease is no longer merely gay-related.
Now I make a motion to officially call this disease
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome,
or AIDS.
Questions or discussions on this issue, please?
I second it.
All right. 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 even 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 the FDA, according to Dr. Bove,
does not acknowledge that 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 do you suggest we do?
Destroy the entire blood supply in America
because some of it may or may not be contaminated?
No, no. Well, in fact, testing is the second option
that we should discuss.
Now, we at the CDC have found...
we have found that the hepatitis B test is
88% effective in identifying patients
with this disease.
Is the CDC seriously suggesting
that the blood industry spend $100 million a year
to use a test for the wrong disease
because we've had 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 people to do something about it?
A hundred? A thousand?
Give us a number so we won't annoy you again
until the amount of 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 the disease AIDS...
Henry Piña, who has AIDS,
got into a minor traffic accident,
so 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.
Jim! Jim, I've been looking all over for you.
Listen, I just talked to Paul O'Malley.
He's wrapping up the hepatitis B study,
and listen to this:
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.
Look, we've been talking about using the hepatitis B test,
but we 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 different cities, taken every year
since three years before the epidemic broke out.
We've got the whole natural history
of the AIDS epidemic in a freezer in Phoenix.
I'm familiar with the study. And what you're saying is
we should pull all those blood samples and organize them.
- Exactly. I mean, who knows... - And where are we gonna
get the money to do that, Don, huh?
I don't know. Juggle it. Steal it.
Juggle 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,
so where the hell do you think we'll get all that money
to do a job as massive as all this?
I don't know. That's your job. We've got to get the money.
That's my job? How the hell am I supposed
to do my job, Don, with you running around
- shooting your mouth off? - What?
Your outburst at the blood bank meeting
damaged the credibility of the CDC.
The only way we are ever gonna get the blood banks
to start testing is if we can find somebody
with so much clout they've got God's unlisted phone number,
which these people do.
Well, Jesus, this is proof.
Why haven't they sued somebody
or raised hell or done something?
Publicity, litigation, pictures in the tabloids.
My dear young man, it simply is not done.
But if you can convince them
how many lives can be saved if they go public,
that comes under the heading of public service,
which they are very 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'm...
Um...
I have here... I have here your medical records.
You're aware that during your surgery you were given
20 units of blood from Irwin Memorial?
Mm-hm.
We know that.
And then when you started getting
all these bizarre diseases, one after another,
didn't your doctors tell you why?
Well, we've had so many doctors.
None of them had any specific explanation,
just severe complications...
- 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?
Shh, shh, shh.
Oh, no, no, no.
Every blood bank in the country
has known for some time that some of the blood
that it has been using for transfusions is contaminated.
We've been unable to get them to start any testing
or to take any precautions whatsoever.
I'm really terribly sorry.
Are you telling me
that 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 1st,
Irwin Memorial will begin testing for antibodies
to the core of the hepatitis B virus.
Good.
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.
And 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.
Well, 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% of severe hemophiliacs...
the ones who got the most transfusions...
have become infected.
89%.
I find it very hard to equate these figures
with a possible loss in revenue.
I make a motion that the 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 or melon?
Hm? Melon? Melon.
Anything new?
Any hope yet? Anywhere? Of anything?
Reagan still hasn't said the word "AIDS" in public.
I'm not asking about miracles here.
No, 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 really quick.
Oh, 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."
So, if they're spending $10 million
on research for the common cold,
they're calling that relevant to AIDS research
because in both cases, the immune system breaks down.
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.
- Ah, Don. - Say, listen,
I know this is kind of a strange question,
but who do you know in Washington
that can get me an electron microscope?
Try Nancy.
- Bob? Montagnier. - Luc, how are you?
We tested our virus with your antibodies,
and we find the two not immunologically related.
- Really? - I'm writing a paper
with all the details.
What we've found is a completely 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 the AIDS virus.
Look, why don't you...
why don't you send me your paper,
and I'll make sure it gets published
in the same issue as mine.
In fact, I'll even write the summary
to make sure it gets published.
And send me samples of your virus
as soon as you can, by courier.
I'll verify what you got, okay?
- Sure, Bob. - Okay. Bye.
Just got a call from Paris. They found the virus.
All right!
- Found the virus! - That's terrific.
- I just got a call. - That's great!
I just got a call from Paris.
They think they've found the AIDS virus.
So 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.
No... not Sadie Thompson, the preacher.
Sadie Thompson was her name.
Rain, wasn't it?
The name of the...
Oh, 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, Bill.
God damn you! God damn you!
Why... why just can't this happen to somebody that you hate?
I'll leave you and Kico my house.
- What? - I'll put it in my will.
I don't want to live with Kico.
He... I... he is completely irresponsible.
He's not gonna pay his half of the phone bill.
He wouldn't even... he would never take the garbage out
on Friday nights.
I mean, come on.
If that's the most that you have to leave me,
then to hell with you.
Live. Please.
Anything?
How can I... how can I isolate this virus
if I just 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,
and since then, we haven't found it in another case?
- I told you... - Not one other case.
I told you, both of those men had T cells.
No, no. I don't wanna hear that.
- But you... - I'm sorry. No. Listen to me.
- I don't wanna hear it. - I'm giving you the...
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.
- I mean, that's ridiculous. - Fine, Robert.
- All right? - Robert, fine.
Somebody in this lab made a mistake.
I want you to call up the French Institute
and get some more samples of their virus.
Popovic here. Yes?
Yes. Who's calling?
It's Dr. Essex for you.
Yes. Max, how are you?
How's it going?
Everybody keeps wondering when you're gonna publish.
I have the cause of AIDS, but I...
I just... the thing is
it comes from my... my family of viruses.
That's definite. But I...
you know, I may have something else, too.
I've got three different variants.
I can't analyze it yet, you know,
in a way that I'd want to put my name on it.
What do you think the French have?
How do you know they have anything?
Don Francis sent them blind samples
to verify that their virus is the AIDS virus,
and they passed, almost 100%.
Don Francis from the CDC sent the French samples?
The French?
Are you upset?
Upset?
No.
No. The French amuse me.
You know, what I don't understand is
how somebody from my own side,
somebody, you know... somebody from the US...
Max, listen, I got to run.
Let me call you back as soon as I can, okay?
Okay, okay. Yeah. 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% of them were abnormal,
and had no idea they had it.
No symptoms whatsoever.
- No symptoms? - No. Nothing.
It's like all the plagues in the history of the world
got squeezed into this one.
Worse. If you take Bill's cluster study
where sexual contact with one person
led to 40 people getting it...
And if each of those 40 give it to 40 others...
You've got people who don't know they have the disease
giving it to other people
who don't know they have the disease
for up to six years.
Don? Don, can I talk to you alone for a second, please?
Yeah. What is it, Jim?
I got a call from Gallo.
From now on, you can expect
practically no cooperation from him at all.
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.
- Oh... - Let me see. Let me see.
- Wait, wait, wait. - Let me see.
Oh, my God.
It's open.
It is now the country's number one health priority,
and 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.
And 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,
and 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.
And that's the message we got to get across.
If the numbers stay in the general area that they are now,
I do not think this represents a great problem.
Hey, Jim, you need a lift?
Oh, hi. How you doing?
You know, 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?
No, no. He's got it. He's got it.
He's passed both tests.
Well, that's good news.
No, it's not good news, Don,
because Gallo wants to take all the credit,
and he wants the patent for the NIH.
If he does that, the French will sue.
That's right. They're gonna 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... that's what this means to me.
And all I can...
All I can say is thank you.
Congratulations, Bob.
- You need to talk to me. - Oh, 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.
Did you like my phone call?
No, but I'm beginning to understand it.
If you understood it, you wouldn't be here.
Look. We can play this any way you want:
charm, intimidation, or without the bullshit.
All right, 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? What do you want?
Just tell me what you want.
I want to stop you from turning a holocaust
into an international pissing contest.
Oh, by letting them take all the credit?
I talked to the French. They're willing
to settle this in private.
It's important we get together.
There can't be confusion among scientists
in the public.
But if you go to court now
when nobody's done a goddamn thing
to stop this epidemic...
You do what you want.
I've said what I came here to say.
I'm going to Switzerland.
April 1st, 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?
Gentlemen.
Francoise!
Good to see you.
You look wonderful!
Jean-Claude.
How are you?
You lost some weight, huh?
You look good. You look good.
- Bob. - So good to see you again.
Don, hi.
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 you if I need you.
- What? - You don't think I'd
discuss anything with you in the room?
That's fine.
So, you made some good progress, huh?
We did, too.
Don, come in.
We've all 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,
and we'll do the paper discussing the proteins.
And we've all agreed to make a joint announcement together
and share the credit.
And 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?
But within six months, a blood test will be available.
And 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 obviously are other major contributors.
And in our own group, I have to mention someone
who came to us from Czechoslovakia,
Dr. Mika Popovic.
A lot of this could not 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.
And what they had identified in "Science" a year ago
is the same...
Phase One is finished.
We 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 unrealistic.
It's cheap.
It's about 15 cents per person
to make the entire population safer.
It's what's needed. Read the report.
I'm sure it's what's needed, but you're not gonna get it,
and if you ask for this much, you'll get nothing.
Try to refigure this for $4 to $5 million...
I'm not going to refigure it. It's an honest report.
I want you to send it in.
Don, look. I'm trying 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 of dollars in healthcare.
I'll send it in.
Four more years.
Thank you.
Thank you all very much.
It seems we did this four years ago, and...
Nancy and I would like to express...
Nancy! Nancy! Nancy! Nancy!
Nancy! Nancy! 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,
I'm sure the Reagan administration
would've been breaking 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
that I died of red tape.
Four more years!
Dave, 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, they say...
and they say this diplomatically...
that you should look busy and do nothing.
Was that meant to be diplomatic,
how you just told me?
No. It was meant to sound angry.
At me or at you?
At me?
Why me?
Oh, I don't know. I guess, both, all right?
Both.
You know, Jim, sometimes I look at you in awe and wonder.
I mean it.
How you wind your way
through miles of bureaucratic bullshit every day
and never get a single drop on you.
How do you do it?
By not asking questions like that, for one thing.
Look. Insult me if you like, directly,
but don't insult both of us by trying to disguise 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.
Could you help push it through?
I already have. It's done.
Really?
Where to?
Well, how do you want this? Diplomatically?
I've gotten used to angry.
San Francisco.
Reward or exile?
If you hate it, why did you 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, bugs, bugs.
You know,
sometimes I look at you with awe and wonder.
Don?
- Whoa. - There it is.
- Oh... - Look at it.
A little cake for the maverick among us.
Something the boys in the retroviral lab whipped up.
Don? Excuse me. Sorry.
Can I speak to you alone for a second, please?
I think you might need this.
That's great. They're rose-colored.
That's great.
Definitely you.
- Well done. - Looks good, Don.
- To Don Francis. - Yeah.
- Long may he live. - Here, here.
- Speech? - Say something.
Luc?
Mm-hm.
Okay, Monsieur Gallo.
The genes of any two different isolates
of the same virus
are expected to deviate from each other,
usually by 6% to 20%.
The genetic sequence
of Dr. Gallo's HTLV III prototype isolate
varies from our virus, called LAV,
by less than 1%.
They are identical
to a degree that would not be anticipated
from any two isolates from the same family.
Thank you.
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?
Okay. I'll... stay there.
Selma.
Billy.
I just heard.
Let's go up.
Hello. Hi.
- Kico. - Hi.
This is Don.
Hi, Don. Nice to meet you.
Bill, look who's here.
Is that Don?
There's two of you.
Oh, well, 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 want to join us?
No, I think...
I'll be back in a minute.
Would you hand me my krogite?
Krognite?
Glasses?
Yeah.
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.
♪ Yesterday ♪
♪ You came to lift me up ♪
♪ As light as straw ♪ ♪ and brittle as a bird ♪
♪ Today I weigh less ♪ ♪ than a shadow on the wall ♪
♪ Just one more whisper ♪
♪ Of a voice unheard ♪
♪ Tomorrow ♪
♪ Leave the windows open ♪
♪ As fear grows ♪ ♪ please hold me in your arms ♪
♪ Won't you help me ♪ ♪ if you can ♪
♪ To shake this anger ♪
♪ I need your gentle hands ♪
♪ To keep me calm ♪
♪ 'Cause I never thought ♪ ♪ I'd lose ♪
♪ I only thought I'd win ♪
♪ I never dreamed I'd feel ♪
♪ This fire beneath my skin ♪
♪ I can't believe you love me ♪
♪ I never thought you'd come ♪
♪ I guess I misjudged love ♪
♪ Between a father ♪ ♪ and his son ♪
♪ Things we never said ♪ ♪ come together ♪
♪ The hidden truth ♪ ♪ no longer haunting me ♪
♪ Tonight we touched ♪
♪ on the things ♪ ♪ that were never spoken ♪
♪ That kind of understanding ♪
♪ Sets me free ♪
♪ 'Cause I never thought ♪ ♪ I'd lose ♪
♪ I only thought I'd win ♪
♪ I never dreamed I'd feel ♪
♪ This fire beneath my skin ♪
♪ I can't believe you love me ♪
♪ I never thought you'd come ♪
♪ I guess I misjudged love ♪
♪ Between a father ♪ ♪ and his son ♪
♪ Things we never said ♪ ♪ come together ♪
♪ The hidden truth ♪ ♪ no longer haunting me ♪
♪ Tonight we touched ♪
♪ on the things ♪ ♪ that were never spoken ♪
♪ That kind of understanding ♪
♪ Sets me free ♪
♪ 'Cause I never thought ♪ ♪ I'd lose ♪
♪ I only thought I'd win ♪
♪ I never dreamed I'd feel ♪
♪ This fire beneath my skin ♪
♪ I can't believe you love me ♪
♪ I never thought you'd come ♪
♪ I guess I misjudged love ♪
♪ Between a father ♪ ♪ and his son ♪