How to Survive a Plague Page #2

I'm willing to meet with three

people if the rest of you leave.

Okay, one at a time,

one at a time.

It's unclear how to play it.

My own instinct would be to say,

"we'll be glad to meet with you,

and when the meeting's

over, we'll leave."

Not to leave before the

meeting takes place.

Gregg.

We've shown the kind of power we

can have by immediate action,

by sticking together, by

reaching a consensus together.

We should take this in steps

and we should be cool-headed.

I'm going to take

a straw poll, Okay?

...and we agreed to leave the

waiting room while he met with

three of our representatives:

Gregg, Jerry and Neil, in that

public space right there.

And then we would stick around out here

and wait to see what the outcome was.

So I said, "enough of this,

this job is gonna kill me."

So, I went on disability and

decided to become a

full-time AIDS activist.

In the beginning, what

drugs did we have?

We had nothing.

And the pneumonia could come

on like that, and be gone

and that person is dead.

The skin lesions, the Kaposi's sarcoma was...

people would be

coming in with a purple spot.

Everybody was coming in

with, "what is this spot?

What is that spot?"

You'd have some guys come in with k.S.

On their face and

they'd be putting makeup on

their face and they'd be...

It was... and they were lucky if

it just stayed in the skin.

If it didn't go into their

lungs, and then if it went into

their lungs, chemo didn't

work and then they were gone.

You were grasping at straws for

everything because these are

young, vibrant people.

And all of a sudden

they're being snatched.

I think everything has to

be put in perspective.

Larry?

Iris long is lifesaving.

If you can't hear in the back and you

want to, just shout it out, please.

This is a report from the

American society of microbiology,

a conference I went

to at the end of may.

Quiet!

There were many infections

talked about, including AIDS

at this conference, and it was

overwhelming to know how many

pathogens, bacteria, fungus,

protozoas and viruses there are

out there that can really make

you very sick...

One day this woman just showed up, this

housewife who had been a scientist and

still was, and said, "you guys don't

know diddly about what this is.

And anybody who wants to learn

about the system, how it works,

how grants are made, how the

science works, how everything

works, how the N.I.H. Works, how the F.D.A.

Works, how you

can deal with all this enormous

amount of material, I'll teach you."

There should be much more funding than

there is for infectious diseases.

Iris was not gay, but

she could not see, with what was

going on around her and what

she knew, not reaching out to the

affected communities of AIDS.

I waited and went up to

iris afterwards and said,

"I'm interested in what you were

saying, I'd like to know more,

I'd like to help."

And a few people joined her,

and that became a bigger and

bigger group and that became the

treatment and data committee:

T & D.

They're still getting a hell

of a lot more money than

actually getting those treatments in...

...it was kind of a dorky

activity for a bunch of east village

hipsters and artists to sit around reading

medical journal articles.

We called it science club, like

it was chess club or something.

There aren't drugs.

Individual after individual

had to come to grips

with the fact that "I will

survive the longest, the most I

know about what I'm

putting into my body."

So they all had to be become

scientists, to some degree.

And what I'd like everyone to

do is to keep on thinking of

ways to refine these things to

make them more clear to people

that don't necessarily

know the issues.

Like, 'o. I.', no one knows what 'o.

I.' Is... Okay, so I wrote it

here, just 'cause

it's shorthand.

Only 17% of people in their

trials have been taking drugs

for opportunistic

infections or cancers...

Mark wasn't like the

big, beefcakey guy.

He was super smart,

smoked nonstop.

Right away, Mark

digested, as by osmosis,

everything.

And within a few weeks, he had

come up with a glossary of AIDS

treatment terms and we started

giving it out in our meetings.

Next we have an announcement by

Tom Dwayne regarding housing.

This is Bernard Braverman, who's

in danger of being evicted

from his apartment that he shared with

his life partner for many, many years.

His life partner died and the

landlord wants Bernard out of

his home, because his name

was not on the lease.

What's his landlord's address?

There are cards here to fill

out to write to the governor.

Let's make sure our voices

are heard in New York City

to save the homes of p.W.A.S and

other non-traditional families.

Thank you.

I just want to say something

about what's just happened.

I've realized we haven't done

anything yet for him and we

haven't been effective and

we haven't been powerful.

But we will be.

It's very inspiring to know

that the power in this room is

potentially available to

each and every one of us.

One, two, three.

Good?

How's it?

Is that as good as

daddy's or better?

You're better.

Yay!

Would you like daddy to try it?

Are you ready?

That's not very good.

One, two, three.

I know this sounds ironic, considering

that it ended in divorce, but I think it

is fair to say it is the only really

successful love affair of my life.

I came out at age 40.

It was very bad timing to come out

in the middle of an epidemic.

The question is what does a

decent society do with people

who hurt themselves because

they're human, who smoke too

much, who eat too much, who drive

carelessly, who don't have safe sex?

I think the answer is that a

decent society does not put

people out to pasture and let them die

because they've done a human thing.

For the first time today,

the government approved

prescription sales of

a drug to treat AIDS.

The drug, A.Z.T., is not a cure

for the disease, but it has

prolonged the lives

of some AIDS victims.

It's the only government-approved

AIDS drug in America.

But even this most promising of drugs

is a source of frustration and anger.

At $10,000 a year cost per

patient, it's prohibitively expensive

for most and not widely available.

Out of the bars and

into the streets!

Out of the bars and

into the streets!

A.Z.T. Was the most

expensive drug in history;

They charge $10,000 a year.

We need to get a substantial price

reduction out of this company.

The incident began at 10

this morning when four AIDS

activists took over an office at

Burroughs Wellcome, saying they

had enough food and water to

stay holed up for a long time.

The activists are demanding that Burroughs

Wellcome lower its price of A.Z.T.

Burroughs Wellcome is

profiting off of our lives,

that's why we did

today what we did.

And, if they don't see to, start

listening to my community,

to our community, the AIDS

community, then we're

gonna be back.

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