Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic
Page 33
The North American Media Response
As Denneny and several critics have noted, the Post’s headline generated
attention across North America and overseas, much of it sensational.
The New York Daily News articulated the dangers of air- traveling dis-
ease spreaders with the article “The Man Who Flew Too Much.” Other
publications drew on the frequently rehearsed narrative of a disease in-
troduced from abroad by a foreigner. “Canadian Said to Have Had Key
Role in Spread of AIDS,” headlined a New York Times story, and later
the National Review nicknamed Dugas “the Columbus of AIDS,” forg-
ing a link between AIDS and the suspected origins of the “French Dis-
ease” from centuries ago.30 Internationally, the Times of London ran a
story with the headline “Canadian Blamed for Bringing Aids to US,”
noting that CDC representatives refused to confi rm nor deny Dugas’s
identity as “the hitherto anonymous ‘patient zero.’”31 The day the New
York Post’s headline emerged, Shilts received thirty- four calls for inter-
29. Ibid., C8.
30. Michael McGovern, “The Man Who Flew Too Much: AIDS Traced to Sexy Stew-
ard,” New York Daily News, October 7, 1987, 18; “Canadian Said to Have Had Key Role
in Spread of AIDS,” New York Times, October 7, 1987, B7; “The Columbus of AIDS,”
National Review, November 6, 1987, 19. These headlines were emphasized in Douglas
Crimp’s blistering critique of Band; see Crimp, “How to Have Promiscuity,” 242.
31. “Canadian Blamed for Bringing Aids to US,” Times [London], October 8, 1987, 11.
198
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views from newspaper and television news reporters from across the
United States.32 It would not take long for headlines like “The Monster
Who Gave Us AIDS” to appear. “Take a good look at this face,” the au-
thors of that article urged their readers, directing their gaze across the
double- page tabloid spread to a nearly page- high reproduction of the
photograph that had accompanied Dugas’s 1984 obituary notice. “This
is the man who brought the scourge of AIDS to North America.33
The book was released into a diverse and multisegmented North
American audience, many members of which knew very little about the
epidemic and relied extensively on the mainstream media for informa-
tion about AIDS, people living with it, and the potential risks they might
face. Others, drawing their understanding from the alternative media
aimed at a range of readers— including feminists, racial and ethnic mi-
norities, leftist and AIDS activists, and gay men and lesbians— made up
a more informed and politically active minority. Generally speaking, the
further one was removed from the alternative media, the less chance
one would have of encountering articles that might be written by, or in-
tended for, people with personal experience of the condition.34 Unsur-
prisingly, there was a wide spectrum of engagement in terms of under-
standing AIDS and reacting to it. The responses to the idea of “Patient
Zero” depended, to a certain extent, on where readers were situated
along this continuum.
On the whole, reporters were quick to jump on the “Patient Zero”
story, though Canadian newspapers such as the Toronto Star adopted
a slightly dismissive tone, suggesting in one headline that “MDs Doubt
Claim Canadian Carried AIDS to Continent.”35 “A Quebecois Man Re-
sponsible for Propagating AIDS in America?” Le Journal de Montréal
asked its readers, in the fi rst half of its headline, before answering em-
32. Patricia Holt, “Behind the Tragedy of AIDS,” San Francisco Chronicle, Octo-
ber 18, 1987, sec. Review, 1.
33. Michael Stinton and Anne Eaton, “The Monster Who Gave Us AIDS,” Star [Tarry-
town, NY], October 27, 1987, 6– 7. For all of its sensationalism, this tabloid appears to be
one of the only English- language newspapers to give the Dugas family’s perspectives any
weight, translating statements from the interview published in Le Soleil earlier that month.
34. Treichler, Theory in an Epidemic, 88– 89; Emke, “Speaking of AIDS in Canada,”
415– 76.
35. “MDs Doubt Claim Canadian Carried AIDS to Continent,” Toronto Star, Octo-
ber 7, 1987, A2, LexisNexis News.
Giving a Face to the Epidemic 199
phatically, “impossible to confirm.”36 This headline contrasts sharply
with a follow- up headline in the New York Post on October 12, 1987:
“Doc Confi rms ‘Patient Zero’ Began Plague,” the title referring to a con-
fi rmation provided by Marcus Conant, the San Francisco dermatologist
on whose recollections and records the book drew frequently.37 Shilts
seems to have been surprised that his story received such a strong reac-
tion in Canada. In an interview recorded several weeks after the story
broke, he noted, “The Canadian press went crazy over that story. . . . It
went all over on front pages in Canada, and Canadians . . . saw it as an
offense to their nationhood.”38
Certainly, Canadian news sources were scrambling to get on top of
the story on October 7, the day after the Post’s bold headline set the
scene. Radio- Canada, the French- language television network, led the
coverage; it featured Dugas’s story and apparently even displayed his
1984 obituary photograph in some areas. On Montréal Ce Soir ( Mon-
treal This Evening), the local evening news show for the largest city in
French-
speaking Canada, the program opened with the “absolutely
breathtaking story that is literally travelling around the world today.”39
Two newscasters excitedly passed on Shilts’s hypothesis that a Quebecois
man was the CDC’s patient zéro, that he had played an important role in
the spread of AIDS at the end of the 1970s, and that he was at the origin
of 20 percent of all cases reported in the United States in 1982. As one
announcer read Dugas’s name aloud, an animated background graphic
showed a fi ling cabinet drawer— labeled with the red letters SIDA, the
French acronym for AIDS— releasing a fi le entitled “G. Dugas.” Giving
a quick biography of fi rst Shilts and then the fl ight attendant, her col-
league incorrectly informed the audience that Dugas had died at the age
36. My translation of the French original: “Un Québécois responsable de la propaga-
tion du SIDA en Amérique? impossible de l’affirmer— Des spécialistes,” Le Journal de
Montréal, October 8, 1987, 2.
37. “Doc Confi rms ‘Patient Zero’ Began Plague,” New York Post, October 12, 1987.
38. Margaret Engel, “AIDS and Prejudice: One Reporter’s Account of the Nation’s Re-
sponse,” Washington Post, December 1, 1987, sec. Health, Z10.
39. My translation of the French original: “Il y a une histoire absolument époustou-
fl ante qui est en train de faire le tour du monde litéralement aujourd’hui”; Montréal Ce
Soir [nightly television news program], presented by Marie- Claude Lavallée, Philippe Bé-
lisle, Réal d’Amours, and Charles Tisseyre, Radio- Canada, broadcast October 7, 1987, clip
purchased by author from Radio- Canada, which furnished it on
DVD.
200
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of twenty- eight in 1984 and that Air Canada had recruited him as a fl ight
attendant in 1978. “We also spoke today with people who knew Monsieur
Dugas. They told us that he had an extremely active sex life and that he
frequently traveled to Los Angeles, San Francisco, the West Coast, and
to the Caribbean as well.”40 The presenter admitted that Radio- Canada
had not managed to contact Dugas’s surviving family members, who had,
he said, instead communicated with colleagues at the English- language
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
Citing a lack of unanimity in the scientifi c community, “where the
story has obviously made a lot of noise today,” the nearly nine- minute
segment incorporated on- location interviews in Ottawa and Montre-
al.41 An awkwardly edited video clip showed Greg (misspelled “Craig”)
Smith, the director of the Federal AIDS Centre, disagreeing with the re-
porter Réal d’Amour’s suggestion that there might be other cases like
this one in Canada. The director observed instead that in the United
States there were several other examples where one individual had in-
fected many other people. D’Amour smoothed over this disagreement
by suggesting in his summary that the AIDS Centre had confi rmed that
Dugas was the fi rst person to introduce the AIDS virus to Canada— and
that although it was unclear, it was certainly possible that Dugas could
have been the one to introduce it to the United States as well. The re-
porter quoted experts who suggested that it was not uncommon for such
cases to report a list of sexual partners numbering up to three hundred.
He concluded with a warning about the risks of “sexual tourism” and
noted that in the United States, there were suspicions that more than a
hundred male fl ight attendants had died since the epidemic had begun.
The program concluded with a taped interview with Dr. Robert
Remis (misspelled “Remiss” in the captions), the director of Montreal’s
regional Infectious Diseases Bureau, who voiced his strong doubt about
the allegations raised in the day’s news. Asked what he, one of the peo-
ple in charge of AIDS surveillance for the province, thought of the news,
40. Ibid. My translation of the French original: “Nous avons également parlé au-
jourd’hui avec des gens qui connaissaient monsieur Dugas. On nous a aussi dit que mon-
sieur Dugas avait une vie sexuelle extrèmement active, qu’il voyageait fréquemment à Los
Angeles, San Francisco, la côte ouest, également dans les Caraïbes.”
41. Ibid. My translation of the French original: “C’est une histoire qui a fait évidem-
ment beaucoup de bruit aujourd’hui dans les milieux scientifi ques canadiens.”
Giving a Face to the Epidemic 201
Remis emphasized that he had never heard of the gentleman in question
and that he doubted that the fl ight attendant would have played a role of
any importance, given that many others were infected at that time. Fi-
nally, since he worked regularly with the CDC, the offi cial said that he
would be surprised if the story was true because the CDC had not men-
tioned it to him. Asked what he thought the goal of the story might be,
Remis closed by observing presciently that, though he could not guess at
the motives of those individuals working behind the scenes, he doubted
that it was for a scientifi c purpose.
Two days after the Post’s headline, a journalist who covered AIDS
issues for Le Soleil (the Sun), the Quebec City daily newspaper, inter-
viewed members of Dugas’s family.42 Their shock and outrage about
the media circus was evident in the article published the following day.
Largely sympathetic in its approach, the article offered readers the fam-
ily members’ perspectives, presenting them as unwitting victims of a
mean- spirited media: “It was with consternation, sadness, and bitterness
that the family of the deceased Gaétan Dugas, of Ancienne- Lorette, saw
his photo projected nationally on the Radio- Canada TV newscast on
Wednesday evening.” The article gave space to Dugas’s mother and sis-
ter to voice their anguished dismay with the media’s “web of ‘untruths’”
and the family’s exhaustion from the attention. Madame Dugas, Gaé-
tan’s widowed seventy-
four-
year-
old mother, complained that such a
story ignored the constant support her son had given to humanitarian ef-
forts during his life— perhaps a reference to the fl ight attendant’s assis-
tance to AIDS Vancouver (an affi liation that will be discussed in greater
detail in chapter 6). She also feared above all else that the story would
cause irreparable harm to his surviving siblings.
One of Gaétan’s married sisters, Hélène, told the newspaper that nei-
ther the author nor his publishing house had made any effort to con-
tact the family and that the news stories and Radio- Canada’s coverage
had caught them completely by surprise. Pointedly, she felt it important
to mention that no family member had spoken to the English- language
42. Roger Bellefeuille, “Propagation du sida aux États- Unis: La famille de Gaétan
Dugas fort affectée,” Le Soleil, October 9, 1987, A3. My translations of the French origi-
nal: “C’est avec consternation, tristesse et amertume que la famille de feu Gaétan Dugas,
de l’Ancienne- Lorette, a vu la photo de ce dernier projetée nationalement au téléjournal
de Radio- Canada, mercredi soir”; and “un tissu de «faussetés».”
202
chapter 4
CBC, countering the claims broadcast on Montréal Ce Soir and pub-
lished in Le Journal de Montréal. She emphasized that her brother had
never hesitated in seeking treatment for his illness and that in the com-
ing days the family would review their options, not only for protecting
their private life but also whether they had any recourse in the event
that Gaétan’s confi dential medical fi les had been breached. The reporter
concluded the article with a confi rmation from sources at the hospital
where Dugas had died in Quebec City that the fl ight attendant had in-
deed been a patient seeking treatment there dating back to May 1980. It
appears that the journalist was seeking to highlight the ease with which
he was able to gain access to sensitive medical information.
Apart from raising the question of broken patient confi dentiality at
the hospitals where Dugas had sought treatment and at the CDC, and
at times displaying more skepticism, the mainstream media coverage in
Quebec appears to have mirrored the sensationalism present elsewhere
in North America. There, as in most other places, the story appeared in
the news for two or three days before falling into the background, res-
urrected occasionally by local responses or by further publicity efforts
by St. Martin’s Press. By the close of 1987, the idea had gradually satu-
rated the media landscape. “I’ve got gay cancer. I’m going to die and so
are you” was featured by U.S. News and World Report as a quote of the
week for its late October edit
ion, and this lurid focus could be seen as
emblematic of the media’s response.43
After visiting Washington, DC, in early October to cover the National
March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, Shilts spent much of
the fall of 1987 and spring of 1988 crisscrossing North America on pub-
licity and lecture tours for St. Martin’s Press. In its drive to sell copies
of his book, the company sent him to New York, Boston, Philadelphia,
Washington, DC, Atlanta, and Miami in October, then to St. Louis, De-
troit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Houston, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle, and
Portland in November.44 Penguin Books acquired the British rights for
the history, and Shilts embarked on a two- week publicity tour in Eng-
land and Scotland in February and March 1988, during which he also
covered an English AIDS conference and encountered a hostile recep-
43. “Quotes of the Week,” U.S. News and World Report, October 19, 1987, 7.
44. Shilts’s book tour schedule, September– October [1987], folder 11 [untitled St. Mar-
tin’s Press publicity], box 1, Shilts Papers.
Giving a Face to the Epidemic 203
tion from British AIDS activists at a book signing at London’s Institute
for Contemporary Arts.45
The book’s mainstream success led quickly to the fame and fortune
of which Shilts had long dreamed, though he noted ironically to one in-
terviewer, “This isn’t exactly how I would’ve chosen to become rich and
famous— by chronicling the decimation of my generation.”46 The atten-
tion given to And the Band Played On saw the author’s profi le in Holly-
wood rise, and by mid- October he had sold the feature fi lm rights to
The Mayor of Castro Street.47 A bidding war over his AIDS history cul-
minated in Shilts selling the rights to NBC in early November, for an
amount his agent described as “in the high six fi gures.”48 He further ben-
efi ted from a sale of the book’s paperback rights in January to Penguin
Books for $577,000.49 Signing a lucrative public speaking contract with a
New York– based literary lecture management company also contributed
to both his visibility and his fi nancial security. Shilts noted, in an aside to
one reporter covering a Maryland conference exploring issues of crimi-
nalization relating to HIV transmission, that he could earn more in two