Emerging Diseases Fall, 2016
Writing Assignment: And the Band Played On
I. Introduction
HIV-AIDS is the best-known emerging disease of the 20th Century. It seemingly came out of nowhere and helped to destroy society’s sense of optimism about infectious diseases. A disease with no origin, no cure and no recovery did not build confidence in the medical establishment. The spillover of HIV/AIDS and its worldwide spread helped to drive another of the great health transitions .
II. Instructions
L1) Locate the video entitled And the Band Played On at the following url:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua5RrxvfVJU
2) View the video at this you tube url or from some other source. Let me know if you encounter problems with this You Tube video.
3) The video is a docudrama based on a non-fiction book of the same title (author = Randy Shilts). Today, 30+ years later, Shilts’ book is still considered the single best history of the early days of the AIDS pandemic in the United States (author = Randy Shilts). Like the book, the video is not objective and does not make any attempt to seem objective. Similar to the techniques used by your textbook author Laurie Garrett the book and the video make an effort to humanize the real-world people who are part of the story. The video makes heroes out of some and villains out of others but they are depicted as human beings.
4) Use the discussion questions and discussion points given below to guide your viewing and be prepared to discuss the questions and points in class and in the writing assignment on this video.
Some version of these questions is likely to appear on Exam #4 next month.
Some of the discussion questions overlap with discussion questions from Chapters 10 and 11 of your text because they relate to the same events.
III. Questions on DVD And the Band Played On
Instructions
1) What were the first signs of the AIDS epidemic in the United States and when did they occur?
Were there prior cases outside the United States? If so, where and when did they occur?
2) What is GRID?
3) How did Jim Curran’s team at CDC react to the “new” disease that eventually came to be known as HIV/AIDS? How did their reaction compare or contrast to that of the NIH?
4) How did the political apparatus react to the new disease in the gay community? How was their reaction different from their reaction to Legionnaire’s Disease or Swine Flu?
5) Who was Gaetan Dugas and how did his job as an airline steward affect the course of the AIDS epidemic? Does modern science (i.e. 2016) support the video’s point of view regarding Dugas?
See
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/10/27/health/hiv-patient-zero-genetic-analysis.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&referer=
for additional information on this question.
6) What lines of evidence showed that AIDS could be transmitted via blood and not only by homosexual activity?
7) What was the impact of AIDS on the American blood supply and what factors delayed recognition of a problem?
8) How did the gay community react to the gradual understanding that a new disease was rampant in their culture?
9) How did politics and ideology play a role in the US government’s reaction to the beginning of the AIDS epidemic?
10) Do you think that Don Francis was effective in advancing the cause of AIDS research?
Important people, places, diseases, etc: Don Francis, Robert Gallo, Max Essex, Luc Montagnier, Jim Curran, Francoise Barre, Michael Gottlieb, Pneumocystis carinii and PCP, candidiasis, Kaposi’s Sarcoma and KSV
IV. Writing Assignment
Writing: After you have viewed the assignment and thought about your answers to discussion questions, write a brief summary of the video. Approximately one-half of a standard page is sufficient (approx. 250 words). Write your brief summary as though it is intended for a group of IUP students at about your own level of education. Use complete sentences organized in paragraph format for your summary. Write your summary to briefly explain the key points of the video as if you were presenting them to someone who had not viewed it. In order to receive full credit your summary must be scientifically accurate and backed up by specific examples from the video. There is no right or wrong way to write or organize the summary. Use your own words. Your grade for this part of the assignment will depend on your accuracy and how well you use examples.
In addition to your brief summary, address the following question in your writing assignment. An additional 250 words should be sufficient for the answer to the following question, bringing the overall writing assignment including both parts to a total of approximately 500 words.
QUESTION: The DVD presents a point of view that the US government essentially ignored the initial outbreak of AIDS in the early 1980’s out of political convenience and this point of view has become accepted as conventional wisdom today. Based on your viewing of the video, what steps-if any-do you think that the government and the US medical establishment could or should have taken to try to halt the disease during the period depicted by the DVD? There is no right or wrong answer to any aspect of the question. Your grade will depend on how well you use facts and examples to back up your answer.
Write your answer as though it is intended for a group of IUP students at about your own level of education. Use complete sentences organized in paragraph format for your answer.
Grade: The written part of the assignment will count toward the “Writing” component of your grade as outlined in your semester syllabus with the summary and the answer to the question weighted equally in the grade.
The assignment is due on Thursday, December 15 at 4:00 PM in hard copy format. This is during finals weeks. The extended deadline is to allow plenty of time to complete the assignment and avoid overlap.
V. A Final Note
Make sure that you save a copy of your answers and discussions.
Some version or form of the discussion questions above is likely to appear on a course exam.