How to Survive a Plague Page #7

that we found out we had won

some of our n.I.H. Demands.

Fauci came up to me and said,

"we had a meeting, we decided

that we're gonna put you guys on

all the committees, and we're

gonna let your observers go to

the meetings, and the meetings

won't be secret anymore."

Never again... could any of

this be done without taking

people with AIDS and their

advocates into consideration.

This would be public

business from now on.

You know, we should all be

going through the bushes

like this, like sticking

our heads up...

...it was beginning to feel a

little different because we'd

spent all the time up until then

being on the outside, sort of

beating on the doors and trying

to get in, and now they actually

wanted to hear what

we had to say.

We brought them in at Merck.

We made... we made a very, uh,

specific effort to bring those

individuals in so that they

would see what it is that we

were doing... or trying to

do from the very beginning.

This was really fantastic

stuff because we were sitting

down with them, and... sometimes

from the very earliest stages

of development of a drug...

and helping them plot out their strategy

toward, uh, designing clinical trials.

The chemists who had worked

on the project, a bunch...

uh, couple chemists said,

"let's look at all the aspartic

protease inhibitors that

we have on the shelf."

And they tested 'em and they found a

few molecules that actually worked.

The challenge was is now you had

these molecules that were really

good inhibitors in your assay,

which is just in a test tube.

When you put it into animals

they just would never work

or they would never get

absorbed by your system.

And I remember being very

disappointed 'cause I had to

share this information with

sort of my own personal view,

this is gonna be a lot

more difficult than,

you know, we thought

it was gonna be

originally, and in fact

may not be possible.

And Bill Bahlman said, "take a break,

pick yourself up and go back at it."

If he and his colleagues and his

friends around the table can

take that attitude and do that,

I remember saying to myself,

"Emilio, you've got no right to

say to yourself, 'I don't know

if I can do this, ' all right?"

And... so, off we went.

And we kept going at it.

We're spending $4 billion

a year on AIDS research.

When you consider that on a

per-capita basis for... compared

to heart disease or cancer,

it's an awful lot.

Almost nothing stops George

Bush from a round of golf.

He's played nearly every day...

and sometimes twice a day...

during his August vacation.

I'll be glad when you're

dead, you rascal, you

rascal, you

I'll be laughin'

when you're in your

grave, you dog

dirty dog

when you're dead

and in your grave

no more ravioli

will you crave...

If the message is research,

I would say please

talk to Dr. Fauci and others at

the national institute of health

who would tell you that, uh, we're doing

pretty well in funding of research.

...dirty dog

I invite you to my

house for a meal

all my meatballs

you tried to steal

mm... you're a devil, yeah

We've got to factor in the

sensitivity of those of us

who feel that there's a

spiritual and moral aspect to

this playing to the

homosexual, lesbian crowd.

It makes it different

from anything else.

Oh, shh-.

I wish they'd shut their

mouths and go to work

and keep their private matters

to themselves and get their

mentality out of their crotches.

I'm here today because

Jesse helms is the devil.

Jesse helms has worked for years

to do as much as he possibly can

to ensure the continuance

of the AIDS epidemic.

The disease is spreading because of him,

and people are dying because of him.

This is an educational effort, it's not a

violation of people's property rights.

We've been very careful that

absolutely no damage is done,

and if any damage is done, whatever

it is, we'll be happy to pay for it.

We have the money with

us to pay for it.

You guys don't want to tangle

with these people 'cause

you don't want to get AIDS,

I know, but what's next?

Come on, get out.

If they would keep their

mouths shut and go about

their business with whatever

their sexual orientation is,

nobody would ever say a word and we

wouldn't know anything about it.

But, no, they march in the

streets, and they defy you to

say anything about it.

Well, they don't like me

and I don't like them.

Back off the property.

Bunch of 'em climbed up

on my house in Arlington

and hoisted about a 35-foot

canvas, uh, condom one

day in protest of me.

Fight AIDS! Fight AIDS,

fight AIDS, fight!

I'll be glad when you're

dead, you rascal, you.

Sir, when we started this

colloquy, I thought I was

on your side, particularly

on the first amendment.

And under the first amendment,

people don't have to shut their

mouths, they have

a right to speak.

Well, uh... they can speak,

uh, just so long as, uh,

they don't offend anybody

else, uh, I suppose.

Make sure your second

coming is a safe one.

Use condoms.

- ...are you shooting?

- Yeah.

I just turned it on.

Okay, rolling.

Tell him we're rolling.

The machine is rolling.

You can start

talking now, honey.

Oh, I didn't know

she meant now.

What I was gonna say was I just

love, I love so much to go up to

the 10th floor because no one

ever had explained to me that

there was going to be light

again in the world and that the

whole world wasn't

going to be dark.

Some great challenges

face us as young people.

We're in our 20s, and, and

this is the challenge that's

been placed in front of me.

And, who knows, little camera.

Lots of other blind, deaf

men have lived happy lives.

There are, there are many

years to come, let's hope.

So...

What the hell?

Life is worth living...

Isn't it?

The death rate just

kept on climbing.

We realized that science really

was up against a brick wall.

We kept getting new drugs

approved to prevent

opportunistic infections, and then

somebody would just get another infection.

So, Peter, where are we going?

We're gonna be going to the headquarters of

daiichi pharmaceutical companies of Japan.

This is their U.S. headquarters,

and, uh, we're blockading their

offices because they have a drug

that's important both to AIDS

activists and cancer activists,

specifically, uh, breast cancer,

um, that they've been dragging

their feet on for over two

years now, and, uh, we don't

understand why, but we certainly

are gonna try to let them

understand why we're concerned.

...and, everybody...wait for

you at the end of the hall.

Just wait outside

the elevators.

Shh...

Hey.

Hi, we're with ACT UP.

We're doing an act of civil

disobedience, please remain calm.

Jim, it's Peter, we're in.

Send all the press.

Hello, we're from

ACT UP New York.

You already have the blood of

several thousand people on your

hands, and those of us like me

who have Kaposi's sarcoma are

gonna die, and we are here

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