Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1989. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - Saturday June 10, 1989
"Having compassion for people with AIDS is like having compassion for starving people. Starving people don't need compassion - they need food," Shilts told 12,000 warmly applauding delegates at the final session of the assembly of AIDS researchers, health officials and community organizers.
"It does no good to tell starving people that the food is growing in some field somewhere," he said.
Because of the glacial pace of clinical trials of AIDS drugs, Shilts said, "Those hungering for treatment news are merely being told that the grain is growing in the field, somewhere, out of reach."
Shilts, who has covered the AIDS epidemic for The Chronicle since 1982, was the first journalist ever to address a major session of the prestigious annual AIDS meeting. His speech ended what had often been a fractious conference marked by protests of AIDS advocacy groups.
Shilts said the protests reflected "a new era of accountability" into which the AIDS epidemic had entered. Scientists, he said, will be held accountable for the speed of their work by a "politically sophisticated coalition" of AIDS organizers.
"You in science are not getting hundreds of millions of dollars in government research grants simply because you look fabulous in white coats," Shilts told the scientists.
"You're getting that money because you're supposed to produce under the tight deadline pressure the epidemic demands. Any solution to HIV infection that comes only after most HIV-infected people are dead will not be relevant science."
However, Shilts also cautioned protesters that they "would be held accountable for the manner in which they conduct their anger."
"Expressing anger can give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside, but this conference is not a therapy session," he said, drawing hisses from New York City gay radicals.
"It is not enough to be angry, if that anger is not paired with intelligence about its best tactical timing and its best strategic targets," he said. "Anger that does not move us forward, that, too, is irrelevant."
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