My pal Hank Plante -- who was one of the first openly gay TV reporters in the country, and among the first to cover AIDS full-time back in the beginning -- recently returned to his old station and filed two wonderful pieces for CBS 5 TV in San Francisco. The first clip recaps 30 years of the disease, and features an interview with activist Cleve Jones -- who reflects on his early efforts to help his friends -- recalls the San Francisco Model -- when Mayor Dianne Feinstein's budget was bigger than President Reagan's -- as well as a chat with Dr. Paul Volberding, a doctor who treated patients in the early days who recalls his recurring nightmares that he might infect his own children back when there were no such things as bodily fluid precautions, and discusses the early days of AZT, which had a beeper on it to remind patients to take it every four hours. (The "AZT beep" became a mantra around the Castro in those scary early days.)
And here's Hank's interview (the first) with the so-called Berlin Patient, the first man believed to be cured of HIV. Great work, Hank. Glad you're not fully retired yet!
(Photos via HERE.)
No comments:
Post a Comment