Anyone remember who published the first accurate and non-hyperbolic information about AIDS?

[NNN0LHI]

It was Playboy magazine sometime during the 1980's. I've looked for it a couple of times but can't find the actual article. It was the first article that didn't try to scare everyone to death about the subject. They gave the truth. I actually was concerned their conclusions were too mild at the time. But they weren't. They turned out to be correct. It was bad but it wasn't as bad as most of the media was portraying it at the time. Before that article many believed you could catch it from casual contact such as from sneezing or hugging someone.

Anyone else remember that Playboy article? It was really important. Seemed like everything changed soon after that. And they were right.

Don

[Liberal Veteran]

1. Sadly, the lack of real leadership by the Reagan admin contributed to the stigma.

They didn't come out in front of the issue to reassure people that HIV is not particularly easy to catch.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. That's putting it kindly. Reagan and his team were utterly silent, not so much as mentioning

the crisis, for years and it was only Surgeon General Koop's efforts that forced the old man's hand to action. Reagan did not say the word until 1986, although his Press Sec Larry Speakes made 'jokes' during a presser a few years earlier.
Thousands of Americans were dead and Regan said nothing. For years.

[murielm99]

3. Do you remember who wrote it?

Was it referenced in any other works?

The first article I remember was in Newsweek, in about 1979. I remember the date, because I was home caring for a newborn baby. I did not find the Newsweek article particularly hyperbolic. Of course, they did not know enough then to point fingers at the evil gays.

Does the Randy Shilts book, "And the Band Played On," have a bibliography? If so, it might refer to the article. You could peruse it quickly to see if it is there. That is the best history of the early years of the pandemic that I have ever read.

[NNN0LHI]

4. Sorry I don't remember but some of their work is referenced here

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2005-12-01/news/0512010287_1_aids-partnership-aids-related-national-hiv

Playboy chief honored for AIDS contributions

December 01, 2005|By Maegan Carberry

Playboy CEO Christie Hefner will be honored by the National HIV/AIDS Partnership on Thursday for her contribution to fighting the spread of the disease. snip

Hefner is being honored for raising $30 million to form Chicago's CORE Center, one of the first health centers for people with HIV/AIDS, and also for leading efforts to develop the first fellowship for AIDS research at the California-based City of Hope, said Sonya Lockett of NHAP.

She was really out there doing a lot of things at the beginning of the crisis when other people weren't stepping up as much," Lockett said. snip

"Playboy became a supporter of AIDS-related work back in 1983, shortly after doctors identified AIDS as a new disease that affected the human immune system--and our commitment to this cause has been unwavering ever since," said Hefner in an e-mail sent by her spokeswoman

[asjr]

6. Wasn't Randy a journalist with a SF newspaper at that time?

I remember his book.

[murielm99]

7. He was a freelance journalist,

but very well known in San Francisco. He also wrote the Harvey Milk bio, "The Mayor of Castro Street."

[Behind the Aegis]

5. Is it this?

"Night Life in the Age of AIDS" by David Seeley July '87

Night life in the age of AIDS.
Article from: Playboy | July 1, 1987 | Seeley, David | Copyright 2002 Playboy (Hide copyright information) Copyright


ARE YOU afraid of AIDS? If you're straight and you aren't, it's. probably only a matter of time. This past spring after a series of events-the deaths of Liberace and other celebrities, the controversy over AIDS testing and condom ads on TV, the passing out of free Trojans at a New England church and reports of increased AIDS cases among heterosexuals-people who'd rarely talked about the disease were suddenly talking about it constantly, in health clubs, in singles bars, at the office. In cities across America, local TV news crews turned their lights on in churning discos and asked heterosexuals, "Are you nervous about AIDS?" If they hadn't been nervous before, being asked the question made them think twice. And simply seeing those reports on TV made people wonder if they were in danger. Could making love to a stranger, or even a longtime lover, be an embrace with death?

It was bad. Then it got worse. "You haven't heard or read anything yet," Health and Human Services Secretary Otis R. Bowen said in February, predicting that AIDS might make the black plague, smallpox and typhoid epidemics "pale by comparison."

"I think the risk groups should be abandoned," Dr. Robert Redfield of the Walter Reed Institute of Research in Washington said that month. "There's really only one risk group-that's someone who has sexual. . . exposure to the virus" that causes AIDS.

Just weeks after those reports came out, I traveled to New York, Denver and Los Angeles, talking with heterosexuals about AIDS. I went to places where single people meet-discos, parties, restaurants, neighborhood bars-and I heard some amazing things. Some people blamed AIDS on gays or a Commie plot or the wrath of God. Some wouldn't go anywhere without a condom. Some were angry; most guys joked about it. But nearly everyone felt the danger looming on .the horizon, and worried that it might only become greater with the passage of time.

more...

[NNN0LHI]

8. Just about certain that is the article I was thinking of

Thank you for finding it.

Don