Reflection on The Film and The Band Played on

And the Band Played On is a film that was released in 1993 that highlights the AIDS epidemic which took place in 1982 in San Francisco, California. Essentially, the film revolves around dedicated medical professionals who are yearning to understand the reasoning behind a new, severe, and mysterious disease that is killing the population at a rapid rate. Epidemiologist Don Francis, member of the Center for Disease Control, discovers a fast and increasing death rate among gay men which motivated him to investigate the cause and reasoning for this. Upon investigation, it was discovered that this disease is known as today’s current AIDS virus and he tries to study the nature of the disease, as well as how it can be treated. Originally, the disease was believed to only have affected the gay population, which explained its limited attention and minimal importance to the public and government eye. The movie really emphasizes the struggles of minority populations and how their health is jeopardized and at risk. It offers viewers an inside look on the struggles the affected victims went through as well as those working to find a cure or cause of the disease. Additionally, the movie tackles a negligent government who turns a blind eye towards the dispute, as well as challenging bureaucracy and government differences.

While watching this film, I really had to shift my focus from the 21st century back to the 1900’s, when diseases like AIDS were still in its infancy, with not much research or evidence. It is beneficial to watch movies filmed in different time periods as it allows us to learn from past mistakes and offers a very distinct contrast to the existing health field we have today. Additionally, throughout watching this film, I understood how the government plays a crucial role in the health field as it is extremely difficult for researchers and medical professionals to meet their goal when given limited resources and a tight budget. We start to see Dr. Francis’ frustration and anger with the narrow vision the CDC and government officials displayed. “How many dead hemophiliacs do you need? How many people have to die to make it cost efficient for you people to do something about it? A hundred? A thousand? Give us a number so we won’t annoy you again…”, Dr, Francis says in frustration as he takes in the reality of dealing with this gruesome epidemic on his own with the ignorance of the public eye. In the film, the government was inadvertent to the epidemic issue which cost a lot of lives and wasted a lot of precious time. Instead, the government could have taken the necessary steps to assist in saving lives and provide the professionals with the resources they needed, to find more about this disease and ways to stop it from spreading. This film really emphasized how difficult it is to get a bill passed and how challenging it can be to persuade the government to act on different policies.

Ethics plays a massive role in the healthcare system today, but it can be seen throughout the film that it was not of vital importance back then. Different principles such as beneficence, integrity, honesty, confidentiality, and patient autonomy are key principles to maintaining a healthy and ethical relationship with our clients and the public. The film showed many instances of continual lack of ethical decision-making pertaining to the health of the public, which resulted in the ultimate downfall of the population. Dr. Robert Gallo was a well-known scientist who had received several awards congratulating his success in the medical field. He turned into a fame-hungry individual who yearned for public recognition, success, and money. His reputation and desire for personal achievement and gain meant more to him than the health of the public, which showed his weakness. His primary goal was not to save the lives of the public, but instead to prove his own self-worth. We can see here the unethical manner in which Gallo pushed his agenda, while only being hungry for self-elevation and recognition. On the other hand, Dr. Francis has an ultimate goal of identifying the virus, how it spreads, and how to stop this virus. We can see here how contrasting these two characters are, as their intentions for this virus are very different. When working in the health field, our client’s safety and health should be the number one priority, rather than personal gain. In the film, we witness that the lack of morals and ethics from the government and some medical professionals cost a million lives.