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How to survive a plague : the inside story of how citizens and science tamed AIDS

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"Shortly after David France arrived in New York in 1978, the newspaper articles announcing a new cancer specific to gay men seemed more a jab at his new community than a genuine warning. Just three years later, he was reporting on the first signs of what would become an epidemic. Intimately reported, suspenseful, devastating, and finally inspiring, this is the story of the men and women who watched their friends and lovers fall, ignored by public officials, religious leaders, and the nation at large. Confronted with shame and hatred, they chose to fight, starting protests, rallying a diverse community that had just begun to taste liberation in order to demand their right to live. We witness the founding of ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group), the rise of an underground drug market in opposition to the prohibitively expensive (and sometimes toxic) AZT, and the gradual movement toward a lifesaving medical breakthrough. Throughout, France's unparalleled access to this community immerses us in the lives of extraordinary characters, including the closeted Wall Street trader turned activist; the prominent NIH immunologist with a contentious but enduring relationship with ACT UP; the French high school dropout who finds purpose battling pharmaceutical giants in New York; and the South African physician who helped establish the first officially recognized buyers' club at the height of the epidemic. Expansive yet richly detailed, How to Survive a Plague is an insider's account of a pivotal moment in the history of civil rights."-- Provided by publisher.

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Summary Note

"Shortly after David France arrived in New York in 1978, the newspaper articles announcing a new cancer specific to gay men seemed more a jab at his new community than a genuine warning. Just three years later, he was reporting on the first signs of what would become an epidemic. Intimately reported, suspenseful, devastating, and finally inspiring, this is the story of the men and women who watched their friends and lovers fall, ignored by public officials, religious leaders, and the nation at large. Confronted with shame and hatred, they chose to fight, starting protests, rallying a diverse community that had just begun to taste liberation in order to demand their right to live. We witness the founding of ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group), the rise of an underground drug market in opposition to the prohibitively expensive (and sometimes toxic) AZT, and the gradual movement toward a lifesaving medical breakthrough. Throughout, France's unparalleled access to this community immerses us in the lives of extraordinary characters, including the closeted Wall Street trader turned activist; the prominent NIH immunologist with a contentious but enduring relationship with ACT UP; the French high school dropout who finds purpose battling pharmaceutical giants in New York; and the South African physician who helped establish the first officially recognized buyers' club at the height of the epidemic. Expansive yet richly detailed, How to Survive a Plague is an insider's account of a pivotal moment in the history of civil rights."--
Provided by publisher.

General Note

"Inspired by the award-winning documentary"--Cover.

Content Note

When it rains, it pours. Independence Day ; Early thinking ; Compromised ; Doubt all things ; A man reaps what he sows -- Incurable romantics. Life, apparently ; Paranoid fantasies ; Testing limits ; Warfare -- An ounce of prevention. The barricades, 1987 ; Things fall apart ; Terminal velocity ; Against nature ; Denial ; Madness -- Revolt of the guinea pigs. New beginnings ; Days of desperation ; Life ; The old days -- Epilogue: For dear life.