123 School Work

Good AIDS Bad AIDS

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  Randy Shilts, the national correspondent for The San Francisco Chronicle, was the author of the New York Times article "Good AIDS, Bad AIDS" an article about Kimberly Bergalis, a young woman who was "unfairly" infected with the horrible AIDS virus. The Bergalises were angry at the Florida dentist they believed infected their daughter, and angry with politicians that did not do enough on the issue of H.I.V.-infected health care workers. Shilts points out that though there is no denying that Kimberly Bergalis' story was a tragic one, the Bergalis' message was largely one of anger and uninformed logic. Shilts' article accurately portrayed America's prejudice feelings towards people with AIDS; he was correct in saying that "Americans believe that only people who have done something 'wrong' get the disease." People affected with the AIDS virus, no matter how they received it, should be treated with the same sympathy and affinity.
       In a speech lobbying for legislation that would require testing of health care workers for the virus that causes AIDS, Kimberly Bergalis expressed what she considered "unfairness" that she had to suffer from AIDS even though she "didn't do anything wrong." In saying that, she was separating those who do not deserve AIDS from those who do...