First Assignment:

View HBO movie titled, “And the Band Played On.” The movie is 140 minutes in length and stars Matthew Modine. This movie is a chronicle of how HIV/AIDS was researched and made public in America. Matthew Modine, stars as Dr. Don Francis, a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who seeks to uncover the cause of a number of mysterious deaths. With little funding, not only must he fight the disease, but also fight a disinterested public, the government, the media and even the communities where the mysterious virus strikes hardest. But as the death toll mounts, public interest is stirred and Francis’ research becomes a desperate race against time.

You can view the movie on cable, Netflix or you can download the movie for free at the following link: https://vimeo.com/85778803

Write up a short commentary about one of the subtopics of the film that you found interesting. This should be about 200 words. Please note that I’m not looking for a summary of the movie. I’m looking for your impression of the way it was dealt with by the characters. For example, what obstacles did the physicians, epidemiologists and other scientists meet with in trying to solve the mystery? How did human nature interfere with their efforts?

You can focus on a single topic. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

a.  how they realized that they had a potential epidemic on their hands,

b. what they went through to determine how it was transmitted.

c. what obstacles they went through to they tried to assemble the clues and data to solve the mystery.

d.  target populations, 

e.  efforts by epidemiologists to tracking the disease transmission 

f.  how the politics of science put road blocks into their efforts 

g. identifying the viral microbes 

h. government agency intervention 

i.  eliminating the HIV virus from the blood banks 

j.  human emotions

2. prepare a answer for in class discussion

In class Discussion: Be prepared to answer questions in class regarding target populations, disease transmission, epidemiology, viral microbes, government agency intervention, and human emotions.