Hello, this is Jennifer Matarise.

Before I start this episode, I'd like to issue a trigger warning for references to homophobia and rape.

Thank you very much for listening, and welcome to disaster area.

Episode 46, the AIDS Epidemic, Part 2. Misinformation.

In the movie version of End the Band Played-on, Matthew Moedine's character, Dr. Don Francis,

is sitting in a meeting between the CDC, hemophiliac advocacy groups and blood donation centers.

When one blood donation center rep asks if the CDC seriously expects them

to spend $100 million a year just because of a few transfusion-related deaths

and eight dead hemophiliacs, Dr. Francis has finally had enough and says,

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. Discrimination and

misinformation played a large part in stifling the progress toward identifying, treating, and

curing HIV and AIDS from the very beginning. In this episode, I'll look at several instances in which a lack of the correct information

or dismissal of the information provided due to its connection to marginalized groups

led to the virus grabbing a toehold in the population and spreading more thoroughly

before it finally began to get serious notice.

Now, some of you may have listened to the first episode of this series and wondered finally began to get serious notice.

Now, some of you may have listened to the first episode of this series and wondered,

Where is Patient Zero?

...