The Fragile Coalition: Scientists, Activists, And AIDS - Hardcover

Wachter, Robert M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312058012 ISBN 13: 9780312058012

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 1991

Synopsis

Examines the political side of the AIDS epidemic and looks at the evolving relationship between patients, doctors, and government in all matters of health policy

About this title

From Library Journal:

When Wachter, an assistant professor of Medicine at the University of California-San Francisco and San Francisco General Hospital, was asked to serve as program director of the Sixth International Conference on AIDS, he thought he knew what he was getting into. As he recounts in this first-hand chronicle, he soon realized the naivete of viewing the meeting as purely biomedical. An impending international boycott and Larry Kramer's threats of riots by ACT-UP activists were among the many issues that threatened the success of the event held in San Francisco in June 1990. More than an insider's look at a unique world event, this is a fascinating exploration of the complex relationship between scientists and activist groups that has permanently changed the modus operandi of American health policy. Recommended for AIDS collections. See also Robert Gallo's Virus Hunting and Dominique Lapierre's Beyond Love , reviewed above.--Ed.
- James E. Van Buskirk, San Francisco P.L.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

More than an insider's account of a pivotal scientific meeting, Wachter's re-creation of the Sixth International Conference on AIDS (held in San Francisco last June) is a telling commentary on the politics of the AIDS epidemic. Although the conference dramatized the increasingly confrontational relationship between scientists and groups like ACT-UP, it nevertheless demonstrated that doctors, scientists, persons with AIDS and activists could find common ground and work together, a collaboration due partly to Wachter's behind-the-scenes maneuverings as the meeting's program director. Outspoken activist Larry Kramer called for riots at the powwow to express the urgency of the epidemic; several groups boycotted the meeting to protest the U.S. immigration department's travel policies. Out of this chaos, a fragile coalition was born, and Wachter, a doctor who teaches medicine at the University of California, writes movingly of this process.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0312058012
• ISBN 13: 9780312058012
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256