And the Band Played on: a Reference to the Titanic

The title of the movie is And the Band Played On because it’s a reference to the Titanic. In the movie, Titanic, the band kept playing while the ship was sinking. In the movie, And the Band Played On everyone kept their daily activities going although the new disease was going around and killing several people. Don Francis is an epidemiologist who worked on the Ebola outbreak in Africa in the late 1970s, and researched on HIV and AIDS. Dr. William Darrow helped in the discovery of HIV. Dr. Robert Gallo is the discoverer of HTLV (the human T-cell leukemia virus), and co-discoverer of HIV. Bill Kraus was a gay rights and AIDS activist and congressional aide who served as a liaison between the San Francisco gay community and Congress. These four characters are real life people. Don Francis retired from the U.S. Public Health Service in 1992, after 21 years of service. He currently lives in San Francisco, California. Dr. William Darrow is a Professor of Public Health at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Florida. Robert Gallo is the director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Bill Kraus died from AIDS on January 25, 1986. The most controversial real life character is Robert Gallo because he is said to be the discoverer of HIV but Montagnier, in France, also discovered it. It was just that Gallo published his findings first. At the end Montagnier and Gallo were named co-discoverers of HIV.
At the time moral, ethical, and political considerations were prevalent. Political because the government did not listened to the scientist when they said that the blood supply might be contaminated with HIV. The government did not want to lose any money. The ethical issue was that many knew its danger but decided to ignore it and not their citizens. AIDS first was seen in the gay community. Today we can relate diseases with a certain type of group. For example blacks are easier to get sickle cell

Cited: "And the Band Played On (1993) (TV) - Full Cast and Crew." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 07 Dec. 2011. . "Interviews - Don Francis | The Age Of Aids | FRONTLINE | PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. PBS, 30 May 2006. Web. 07 Dec. 2011. . Liversidge, Anthony. "HIV & AIDS - Interview Robert Gallo (1989)." HIV & AIDS - VirusMyth. VirusMyth, 11 Nov. 2010. Web. 07 Dec. 2011. .