And the Blogger Blogged On
Last week, the other Howard Hughes fellows and I watched And the Band Played On, a movie about the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic in the 80s. If I were a film critic, I would have written this blog about the dragging pace of the two-and-a-half hour movie, or its performances that ran hot and cold, or its lackluster 1990s-made-for-TV production values, but I’m not a film critic, so instead I’ll write about the issues brought up in the movie, which, despite the flawed filmmaking, were intriguing and well-developed.
The issue of Responsible Conduct in Research is flagrantly disregarded by one of the characters, Dr. Robert Gallo, who is played by Alan Alda. I’m sure the real Dr. Gallo was less than thrilled with this one-sidedly negative portrayal, but assuming the movie is accurate, Dr. Gallo’s behavior is a prime example of how not to responsibly conduct research. In the movie, Gallo repeatedly takes credit for discoveries made at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, creating a dispute for recognition that delays the treatment of people around the world suffering and dying from AIDS. His ego gets in the way of scientific objectivity, and the rest of the world pays the price. Obviously, that’s not how research should work. Researchers should acknowledge any previous work they have benefitted from, and they should worry more about making discoveries than taking credit for them. As I’m learning from the work I’m doing, effective research takes a lot of time and effort, and if I found out someone else had taken credit for the data I’ve collected, I’d get wicked pissed.
Another issue in the movie is the relationship between science and policy. Often, the scientists in the movie make a discovery, but the government is hesitant to act on it because it does not want to upset the gay community or other groups. Medical institutions are also hesitant to act because they are worried about costs of certain procedures. During a board meeting in which doctors decide not to implement a test that is almost 90% effective in detecting HIV in blood for transfusions, one doctor claims that the others have started to act less like doctors and more like businessmen. The translation of science into policy is still a major issue today. One case that comes to mind is that of climate change. For years, the consensus among climate scientists has been that human activity has caused dangerous and almost irreparable damage to the earth’s climatic patterns, but policymakers are still hesitant to act because of costs and because of a few dissenting voices.
It’s great to learn about biological systems, but to truly use what we’ve learned, we need to understand another system, the human social system. This is the system that is all around us, and it is just as intricate and as difficult to manipulate as any system inside us.
