Health Affairs July 12, 2024
In “Dispatches from the AIDS Pandemic: A Public Health Story,” authors Kevin DeCock, Harold Jaffe, and James Curran sketch a detailed and fascinating picture of how a vital federal agency – the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – responded to the emergence of what would be the defining public health crisis of the late 20th century.
Each of the authors has held a senior position at the CDC and they were intimately involved in the domestic and global responses to AIDS. They are considered by advocates to be among the heroes of the American response. Given their history, I looked forward to reading their recounting of the inside stories and their perspectives on what went well and what...