HEP 452 Module 6 Discussion Health Advocacy on Film

Summary: And The Band Played On

The film, “And The Band Played On,” is a health advocacy film that involves an American epidemiologist Don Francis who discovers that people were dying from a mysterious illness which he later came to identify that it was AIDS. Most of the deaths were among the gay community in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco. As an epidemiologist, he was tempted to investigate the cause of the unexplained deaths, and thus, he got into contact with politicians, members of the medical community as well as gay activists. These are some of the stakeholders that could directly be affected by the deaths, and thus, to raise mobilization, he had to start with them (Butterfoss, 2007). Unfortunately, most of his efforts were not supported by the politicians, members of the medical community, and the gay community. However, Bill Klaus, one of the victims of the mysterious disease supports him, while others expressed resentment on Francis as they perceived his activities as unnecessary interference with their lives, especially with the efforts of having the bathhouses closed. Klaus was diagnosed with AIDS, and this is what helped Francis come up with the theory that the disease was transmitted by blood and was sexually transmitted. Despite this, the CDC trained to block his efforts, failing to prove that the disease was transmitted by blood. Also, scientists such as Dr. Robert Gallo were against his efforts and were only interested in who would receive the credit for discovering the virus. As the battles continued, the death toll continued to increase as there were no measures put forth to prevent the spread of the disease, as the gay community had refused the bathhouses to be closed, the CDC had blocked efforts to prove that the disease was caused by blood, and therefore, attempts to stop blood transfusion practices were fruitless. Sometimes people fail to believe that the cause of a problem is deep-rooted in them, and this makes it difficult to help them. The gay community refused to close the bathhouses because they didn’t know that they were the cause of the disease. In the same way, Ron Finley identified that food was a major problem in his community and needed to do something to prevent conditions such as obesity and diabetes in his community by planting crops that gave the community access to healthy foods (Finley, 2013). Unlike Finley, Francis ended up losing his sponsorship for his research.

References

Finley, R. (2013, March 6). A guerilla gardener in South Central LA | Ron Finley. [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved February 9, 2022, fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzZzZ_qpZ4wLinks to an external site.

Butterfoss, F. D. (2007). Coalitions and partnerships in community health. Jossey-Bass.

Roger Spottiswoode, Carter Burwell, Carter Burwell & Carter Burwell. (1993) AND THE BAND PLAYED ON . USA.