How to Survive a Plague Page #3

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.

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