AIDS Patient Zero was a publicity strategy, scholar writes
THE MAN WHO GAVE US AIDS Randy Shilts , here at the San Francisco Chronicle in 1987, initially resisted exaggerating Patient Zero's role, but was persuaded that it was necessary to focus public attention on the deadly epidemic. Shilts died of the disease in 1994 The 1987 New York Post headline - THE MAN WHO GAVE US AIDS - was arguably one of the most influential of all time. "Patient Zero" - a promiscuous gay Canadian flight attendant - had spread AIDS from coast to coast. The story sparked sensational media coverage, drove a book onto the best-seller lists, pushed the "gay disease" onto mainstream America's radar screen, and helped jump-start an activist movement, all of which eventually focused more money and scientific brainpower on an epidemic that had already killed tens of thousands. It was also wrong - intentionally creating a scapegoat to publicize And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts' authoritative chronicle of the early years of...