Flight Attendants and the Origins of an Epidemic
Flight Attendants and the Origins of an Epidemic
Chapter 6 examines the early AIDS crisis. Flight attendants experienced how AIDS was both a medical and a political crisis. The demonization of steward Gäetan Dugas, known as “Patient Zero,” illustrates the ways that flight attendants became embroiled in pitched social battles over AIDS. This chapter details the facts of Dugas’s life and the state of the “Patient Zero” myth circa 1984, before journalist Randy Shilts circulated the myth more widely. I also chronicle the plight of another flight attendant with AIDS, Gär Traynor, whose response to his diagnosis ultimately offered a legal basis for overcoming AIDS-phobia. In a key 1984 legal victory, Traynor became one of the first people with AIDS to win the right to return to work.
Keywords: HIV/AIDS, HIV, AIDS, Patient Zero, Gäetan Dugas, Gär Traynor, United Airlines, Centers for Disease Control, William Darrow, Air Canada
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