asic synthesis of the problem of AIDS in social theory and will formulate some further possibilities.
The book, And the Band Played On, is an account of the medical and societal events that led to the epidemic known as AIDS. In basic terms, Shilts (1987) is concerned with the way the epidemic spread, and the reasons the disease became so serious before it was considered any sort of a social priority by the governmental and medical systems in the United States.
Shilts is of the opinion that the reason AIDS spread so quickly, and became such a public health problem, was that, during the Reagan Administration, officials were more concerned with budget development than with public health, and that the medical community was more concerned with research and grant money than actually helping society in its struggle against the disease. Combined with these interpretations, Shilts believes that it was the very nature of AIDS, and its primary attack on the homosexual community that gave the affliction its stigma. In Shilts' words:
People died while Reagan administration officials ignored pleas from government scientists . . .
People died while scientists did not at first devote appropriate attention to the epidemic because they perceive little prestige to be gained in studying a homosexual affliction . . .
People died while public health authorities and the political leaders who guided them refused to take the tough measures necessary to curb the epidemic's spread . . .
People died while gay community leaders played politics with the disease, putting political dogma ahead of the preservation of human life . . .
People died and nobody paid attention because the mass media did not like covering stories about homosexuals (1987, pp. xxii-xxiii).
In a real sense, then, AIDS became a problem of proportions and focus. In the theoretical sense, it was a problem of focus and desire to place the needs of the
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