How to Survive

Being new to the blog, I will begin with a comfortable thing for me to do.  I'll review a movie.

"How to Survive a Plague" is a very inspiring and eye opening story of activism.  The revelation of this story, to me, was that it was about basic science research.  I had never seen the intersection of these two worlds depicted before.

Although I grew up in the 80s, the AIDS crisis was always very distant to my day to day life.  I truly became aware of the issues associated with AIDS/HIV when it was beginning to be cured.

With the use of video-camera footage taken at the time of the initial rallies of ACTUP (through the mid-90s), "How to Survive a Plague" conveys the immediacy of a new disease that could not be touched by current medical science.  Even doctors were afraid.  Beyond that, the LGBT culture (initially affected much more by the disease) galvanized behind their unequal treatment by the medical establishment.  The first protests were due to the people who had been turned away or ignored by ERs in the NYC area.

To be rejected by the mainstream in such a concrete way had an unintended effect on some.  Some brave people decided to work full time to end the disease, despite the fact that most believed that they, themselves, would not live to see a cure.

Although the targets of their protests were at first somewhat predictable (the mayor, the church), protest targets soon became more directly functional to finding a cure.  Those in ACTUP  had a fierce need to be the most informed people about the topic. No one else cared as much.  No one else would fight as hard.  Non LGBT Phds joined in to help educate about the byzantine world of academic research.

The FDA and NIH had no idea how to handle the ACTUP crowd as they protested the (respective) glacial process and research priorities of the two institutions.  Cloistered within the word of basic science and policy, the people within these institutions were confused at the protests.  Although they were not viewed as evil, business as usual was not acceptable to those who were dramatically calling attention to these organizations' ineffectiveness in the face of the plague.

Academic research is its own world.  The day to day pressures of grants and papers can be overwhelming.  Working in business can also be all-consuming .  Business here is represented by Pharma ( "Merck") The film deftly portrays that the day-to-day struggles of research and business can be galvanized and driven forward by a true cause and a real reason for being.

The overview of the movement is balanced by the characters.  We get to know (through real videos taken at the time) people who are very ill, that still are very active and driven to fight for their lives (and their friends lives.)

It made me reflect upon my own life and my own passions.  I would like to make sure that I am aware of the importance of what I do to those around me.  In my professional life, I hope to extend the feeling of urgency that I saw in the people in this film to the work I do and the patients I see every day.

Upon a return to ordinary life, one of the activists' muses after the eventual cure was found.  He reflects that never again would anything in his life seem to matter so much.

I hope we can all find something that matters to us this much.

-Eric Spiegel