“In the beginning, the deaths and disappearances were isolated, frightening but shorn of consequence, like short, scattered tremors before a massive earthquake. Gay San Francisco Chronicle reporter Randy Shilts suggests in his extraordinary AIDS history “And the Band Played On” that the mysterious contagious disease that would claim the lives of millions silently exploded when sailors in ships from fifty-five nations came to New York Harbor on July 4, 1976 to join thousands celebrating America’s bicentennial…”
AIDS @40: Dr. Michael Gottlieb on the Beginning of the AIDS Pandemic
