Transcript – Fear is Contagious: Is AIDS? (10.1)

00:00-00:36 Song “Tomorrow” plays in the background

  • 00:26-00:33 [Randi Kaye] Right now when I say HIV or AIDS, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Probably death, right? Or at least sickness.

00:36-00:45 [Unknown Narrators] AIDS: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. No one with AIDS has been cured. AIDS is now the leading cause of death among young people in this country.

00:45-00:51 [Dr. Marc Sycklick] And we have no cure. And worse than that is that the mortality rate is really astronomical. 

00:51-01:23 Song “Tomorrow” plays in the background

  • 00:54-00:59 [Jordan Trilling] Everyone was discriminated against, everyone thought it was a homosexual gay male disease.
  • 00:59-01:08 [Unknown Female Interviewer] A lot of myths began to spread. I remember when people said you could get it from touching someone if there was perspiration
  • 01:08-01:10 [Dr. Anthony Fauci] Of course, of course.
  • 01:10-01:12 [Unknown Female Interviewer] You could get it from breathing air that the person
  •  01:12-01:21 [Dr. Anthony Fauci] Hugging someone, casual contact. All… even though the overwhelming evidence indicated that that was not the case.

01:24-01:36 [Unknown Male Narrator] But at weekly meetings on AIDS, the doctors tell other hospital workers there is no danger if the proper precautions are followed. There’s a lot of panic being spread. Nobody has come down with AIDS from breathing the air, that’s number one.

01:36- 01:51 [Unknown Female Narrator] That HIV could be transmitted through blood transfusions. And that women can get HIV. And pass it on to babies in the womb, or through breast milk. Intravenous drug users, who share needles, are also at high risk.

01:51-04:20 Song “A Day to Remember” plays in the background

  • 01:56-02:16 [Jordan Trilling] It was eye opening to know that like the doctor who came in to treat him, he was afraid, put on like all a bunch of protective gear, and um just assumed that he would get the infection just from touching him. But obviously just from learning everything about HIV and AIDS, I know that it takes more than just touching a person to become infected with the virus.
  • 02:20-02:32 [Unknown ABC Male Anchor] Ryan White was a so-called innocent victim of AIDS, that was a polite way of saying that he wasn’t gay or an intravenous drug user. He got the disease from a bad blood transfusion, by the end of his life he also got a lot of compassion, but it was awfully late coming.
  • 02:37-02:4 [Ryan White] They marked my folders, they marked fag and other cruel things. 
  • 02:44-02:48 [Unknown ABC Male Anchor] I was talking, you know, they accused you of what spitting on the vegetables, or something?
  • 02:48-02:57 [Ryan White] Yeah, spitting on vegetables and taking bites out of cookies, and putting them back. Their fear just took control of them, and they just believed what they wanted to believe.
  • 02:57-03:05 [Unknown Female News Anchor] After a six-year fight against AIDS, 18-year-old Ryan White is still clinging to life tonight in an Indianapolis hospital.
  • 03:05-03:11 [Elton John] Singing: It seems to me, like you lived your life, like a candle in the wind.
  • 03:11- 03:24 [Unknown Male Narrator] Ryan is getting plenty of moral support. Elton John, who Ryan met at an AIDS fundraiser, came to visit. Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash, Joe Montana- hundreds have sent cards, telegrams, flowers.
  • 03:27-04:12 [Alexa Austin] I’m a member of IU Dance Marathon which was created the spring following Ryan’s passing, when he would have been a student that fall, joining the Hoosiers here in Bloomington. And so, his best friend, Jill Stewart, set up the marathon to honor him, his legacy, and also encourage people to continue donating to the cause. Ryan’s story is special because not only was his diagnosis something that affected his immediate family and their ability to care for him medically, but it also affected their ability to support him emotionally and mentally, as well as the community. And it all stemmed from this ignorance about how the disease was contracted and how Ryan was handling it, and so creating that education piece along with the philanthropic side of things is something that IUDM uniquely accomplishes.
  • 04:16-04:20 [Randi Kaye] Brave men and women are coming out of the shadows to tell their stories.
  • 04:20-05:09 [James McLarty-Lopes] I was 17 at the time, and I contracted HIV from the very first person that I ever dated when I came out. My family has been instrumental in me getting back to the person that I was. In the very beginning, my family did struggle because they had that image of HIV and AIDS from the early 80s, where people were dying left and right. And to be honest, my mother she didn’t know how to take it. She wasn’t afraid of the disease or the illness, her biggest fear was of losing me. And again, in the beginning being so sick, I can understand where that was a real concern for her. And I have to tell you, in all sincerity, that my mother is probably one of my biggest heroes, in terms of being able to overcome the stigma of having someone close to them with HIV and AIDS.
  • 05:44-05:58 [Randi Kaye] Go ahead and get those images out of your head, please. Today, 30 years after HIV/AID was first discovered, people are surviving. They’re living full, successful, healthy lives. It’s not the death sentence that it once was. 

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