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A review by lily1304
How to Survive a Plague: The Story of How Activists and Scientists Tamed AIDS by David France
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.5
It's impossible not to compare this book to And the Band Played On - both first-hand amounts of the early years of the epidemic by gay activist-journalists. Both books (understandably) feature an exhaustive number of "characters" such that it was difficult for me to keep track of who's who, and both nobly attempt to make the medical details of HIV/AIDS comprehensible to laypeople. But How to Survive a Plague has a huge, undeniable advantage over And the Band Played On: the perspective of almost 30 extra years.
And the Band Played On was published in 1987, and author Randy Shilts unfortunately passed away of AIDS in 1994. How to Survive a Plague was published in 2016 and covers the epidemic through the sudden, groundbreaking discovery of the first long-term effective treatments in 1995. Shilts' work also contains some falsehoods - notably, the demonization of "Patient Zero" Gaetan Dugas - making me trust France's account more.
It's a long but essential read for LGBTQ history in the United States. It made me feel proud to be part of the community that invented safer-sex practices, taught themselves immunology and pharmaceutical study design, and came together as a community to support People With AIDS who were abandoned by their own families, doctors, and nurses. It also humbled me to see the ways that gay drama, infighting, and extremism hindered medical progress.
It's especially interesting to read about Anthony Fauci's role in drug research and his public perception at the time - given that he's now such a well-known figure in the COVID epidemic, popular along strict party lines. France in general does a good job of illustrating the challenges that researchers faced, under activist pressure to release new drugs quickly without long-term placebo trials. It is fascinating to read about the rise and fall of AZT (referenced in historical fiction like Rent and Pose) as an AIDS treatment - a drug that apparently helped a LOT short-term, but ultimately did nothing to extend PWAs' lives.
Mental illness and substance abuse are throughlines in the book, which begins and ends with the death of PWA activist Spencer Cox, who had apparently intentionally stopped taking his medications. France's epilogue is beautiful and sad, acknowledging the epidemic of substance abuse that began soon after the AIDS epidemic slowed - of course, both epidemics are still with us in 2021 and I'm sure many more books could be written about queer public health today.
And the Band Played On was published in 1987, and author Randy Shilts unfortunately passed away of AIDS in 1994. How to Survive a Plague was published in 2016 and covers the epidemic through the sudden, groundbreaking discovery of the first long-term effective treatments in 1995. Shilts' work also contains some falsehoods - notably, the demonization of "Patient Zero" Gaetan Dugas - making me trust France's account more.
It's a long but essential read for LGBTQ history in the United States. It made me feel proud to be part of the community that invented safer-sex practices, taught themselves immunology and pharmaceutical study design, and came together as a community to support People With AIDS who were abandoned by their own families, doctors, and nurses. It also humbled me to see the ways that gay drama, infighting, and extremism hindered medical progress.
It's especially interesting to read about Anthony Fauci's role in drug research and his public perception at the time - given that he's now such a well-known figure in the COVID epidemic, popular along strict party lines. France in general does a good job of illustrating the challenges that researchers faced, under activist pressure to release new drugs quickly without long-term placebo trials. It is fascinating to read about the rise and fall of AZT (referenced in historical fiction like Rent and Pose) as an AIDS treatment - a drug that apparently helped a LOT short-term, but ultimately did nothing to extend PWAs' lives.
Mental illness and substance abuse are throughlines in the book, which begins and ends with the death of PWA activist Spencer Cox, who had apparently intentionally stopped taking his medications. France's epilogue is beautiful and sad, acknowledging the epidemic of substance abuse that began soon after the AIDS epidemic slowed - of course, both epidemics are still with us in 2021 and I'm sure many more books could be written about queer public health today.
Graphic: Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Dementia, Excrement, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Outing, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness