HIV/AIDS: The Plague Years

Releasing worldwide this summer, PANDEMIC PARADOX: HIV ON THE EDGE is an original CSIS Global Health documentary series looking at the risk of a resurgent HIV/AIDS four decades after the first case was reported and a few months into the coronavirus pandemic.

In the second episode, “The Plague Years,” Dr. Anthony Fauci recalls the “darkest” years of his life in the early 1980s when he and others could do little to stop the surging pandemic which was stealing the lives of previously healthy young men. Through conversations with Dr. Fauci, former CDC Director Julie Gerberding, famed HIV/AIDS doctor Paul Volberding, fashion designer Kenneth Cole and many others, the episode explores how the plague was experienced – confusion, stigma, hysteria, denial – and the historic actions taken to break the silence, confront the U.S. government, and change medical practice. The episode concludes with a look at the epidemic surges in South Africa and the former Soviet Union, and thoughts on how those plague years compare with our current experience of Covid-19.

Video produced by the CSIS Global Health Policy Center

Executive Producer: J. Stephen Morrison

Directed and Written By: J. Stephen Morrison and Justin Kenny

Cinematography and Editing: Justin Kenny

Narration: Ross Huguet

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