Act I—Before the Storm, 1981–1985

Abstract

AbstractThe next three chapters under the broad label “Blood Stories” are crisis narratives. They tell the stories of HIV contamination of the blood supply, of how it became a full-blown political crisis in France (and not in the United State), and of the social mobilization of the afflicted (principally hemophiliacs but in France transfusees as well). Chapter 3, “Before the Storm,” is about the pathways to discovery of the AIDS/blood connection in each country, initial uncertainties and controversies around this connection (did it exist at all, how dangerous was it and to whom, strategies for prevention), the actors that emerged in each country as major players in the AIDS/blood drama, and the meanings attributed to the disease itself and to its victims. A key difference between the two countries was the active role of organized gay physicians at the national policy table in the United States and their absence as policy actors in France.