How to Learn From a Plague

Activists stood up against the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s, but the tools they used to make themselves heard are unavailable during our coronavirus pandemic. Still, many of that era’s strategies and warning signs seem alarmingly relevant now.

Discussed this week:

• “How to Survive a Plague” (directed by David France, 2012)
• ACT UP New York
• “How ACT UP Remade Political Organizing in America” (David France, The New York Times, April, 2020)
• “‘A Tragedy Is Unfolding’: Inside New York’s Virus Epicenter” (Annie Correal, Andrew Jacobs and Ryan Christopher Jones, The New York Times, April, 2020)
• “America’s Hidden H.I.V. Epidemic” (Linda Villarosa, The New York Times, June, 2017)
• “Amazon’s Whole Foods to Cut Medical Benefits for Part-Timers” (Spencer Soper, Bloomberg, September, 2019)