Distribution
Approximately 126 million copies of Understanding AIDS were distributed. Their printing and mailing cost about 20 cents per copy—in total, about $25.2 million [1] ( $0.44 per copy in 2023, equivalent in total to about $56 million [5] ). The pamphlet was mailed to all 107 million US households, "making it the largest public health mailing ever." [6]
One million advance copies of the brochure were sent to doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, hospitals, and public health officials to prepare them for questions about AIDS from the public. [7]
The 1988 distribution of Understanding AIDS was of an English-language version of the brochure, with a Spanish version distributed in Puerto Rico. Only later would the brochure be translated into other languages or distributed electronically. [1]
Response
A national survey found that at least 60 percent of people interviewed following the mailing remembered receiving Understanding AIDS. Of these, 80 percent read at least some of the pamphlet, and 40 to 50 percent reported discussing it with family or friends. [1] Call centers for AIDS-related questions, which were created or expanded in advance of the mailer, were flooded with calls. [2] [8]
As a result of preparatory research on how to make the pamphlet understandable to a wide audience, the authors avoided labels for people like "gay" or "drug addicts," and instead described behaviors like anal sex or needle sharing. This type of explicit description, pioneered by Understanding AIDS, would later become standard in sex education. [9] [1]
The frank descriptions of human sexuality in the pamphlet upset some American religious conservatives. Phyllis Schlafly remarked that the pamphlet looks "like it was edited by the Gay Task Force" because of its avoidance of the subject of homosexuality. [9] Jerry Falwell expressed skepticism of the pamphlet, saying a simple message of "no sex outside of marriage would have saved taxpayers' money." [2] Surgeon General Koop was himself an Evangelical Christian and a friend of Falwell's who believed the pamphlet was consistent with his religious beliefs on sexual morality. [9]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
The AIDS epidemic, caused by HIV, found its way to the United States between the 1970s and 1980s, but was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in homosexual men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981. Treatment of HIV/AIDS is primarily via the use of multiple antiretroviral drugs, and education programs to help people avoid infection.
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Joseph B. McCormick is an American epidemiologist, physician, and academic.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), formed in 1946, is the leading national public health institute of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Its main goal is to protect public health and safety through the control and prevention of disease, injury, and disability in the US and internationally.
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NMAC, formerly known as the National Minority AIDS Council, is a nonprofit organization that works for health equity and racial justice to end the HIV epidemic in America. The nonprofit organization, located in Washington, D.C. was founded in 1987. The organization changed its vision and mission in 2015 to reflect their efforts better. NMAC represents over 3,000 community and faith-based organizations across the US. The agency advances its mission by providing minority and minority-serving faith and community based organizations with capacity building assistance programs, online and classroom-based trainings, printed and electronic resources, grassroots organization and political advocacy. These activities improve the delivery of HIV/AIDS services, helping to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS in underserved and marginalized communities.
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And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic is a 1987 book by San Francisco Chronicle journalist Randy Shilts. The book chronicles the discovery and spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) with a special emphasis on government indifference and political infighting—specifically in the United States—to what was then perceived as a specifically gay disease. Shilts's premise is that AIDS was allowed to happen: while the disease is caused by a biological agent, incompetence and apathy toward those initially affected allowed its spread to become much worse.
NewsRx is a media and technology company focusing on digital media, print media, news services, and knowledge discovery through its BUTTER platform.
Since reports of emergence and spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the United States between the 1970s and 1980s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has frequently been linked to gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) by epidemiologists and medical professionals. It was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in homosexual men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981. The first official report on the virus was published by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on June 5, 1981, and detailed the cases of five young gay men who were hospitalized with serious infections. A month later, The New York Times reported that 41 homosexuals had been diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma, and eight had died less than 24 months after the diagnosis was made.
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