Iron Spike: Gaëtan Dugas was a sexually active, gay, French-Canadian airhost. He was diagnosed so early, he participated in a study to prove HIV was sexually transmitted. (Yes, this was WAY back.) Gaëtan kept an address book (people used to do that), and the researchers used it for contact tracing.

So hey, here's a thing I don't think a lot of folks know: That whole "Patient Zero" thing? The French-Canadian airhost who supposedly spread HIV all over America? That's not real. That's not what happened or how it happened.

Gaëtan Dugas was a sexually active, gay, French-Canadian airhost. He was diagnosed so early, he participated in a study to prove HIV was sexually transmitted. (Yes, this was WAY back.) Gaëtan kept an address book (people used to do that), and the researchers used it for contact tracing.

Gaëtan's submission of his address book of sex partners pretty much sealed the deal on HIV being sexually transmitted. And because he submitted a record that extensive, he was at the center of a lot of the contact tracing. On charts, Gaëtan was marked "O." Not 0, O. For "Out of California."

But this was misinterpreted as a zero by a different research group down the line. And the narrative of an out-of-control (and foreign, and flamboyant) super-spreader was just just too delicious for the media to resist. Full doc here. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jamd...

Uncover The Truth Behind "Patient Zero" (AIDS)www.youtube.com The story of the AIDS epidemic and the man accused of starting it.When a new, deadly virus spreads across North America at an alarming rate, one man is singl...

Gaëtan's family has never publicly commented on anything, but have been known to say to friends, "He did everything he could to help the researchers, and this is the thanks he gets." Which is incredibly sad.

They aren't wrong. Blaming victims reduced the chance they would seek help and control the spread. We had people harranging Sen Danforth at town halls, demanding gays be sent to camps "for their own good" back then. (To his credit, Danforth was horrified.) Those days were wretched.

Thank you, Rock Hudson Rest in piss, Reagans

I wasn't even born until '87, but the hollowed out generation of gay elders is pretty evident if you look for it.

I knew this story but not about the doc. What Dugas provided was epidemiologically invaluable, but if his family tried to set the record straight it would discourage others from disclosing. I don't know if that's the reason for their stoicism on this, but god is it heartbreaking. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for telling this story. I’d never heard it and it merits telling.

If I understand correctly, that's why we call it the *spanish* flu even though it didn't originate there.

There was a Canadian made musical comedy in the 90's that debunked the super spreader theory called "Zero Patience" m.imdb.com/title/tt0108...

Zero Patience (1993) ⭐ 6.2 | Musicalm.imdb.com 1h 41m

Saved it for later, but for some reason the uploader is prejudiced against Canuckians so I'll have to be sneaky.

font-wise… that is a zero. maybe they meant it some other way but that is not an O

I think this was a figure produced after the 0/O confusion, it looks pretty clear from context that 0 was meant here.

yes. but “Out of California” has an overwhelming whiff of “made it up later to fit the 0” C for California would make infinitely more sense if that were the intended meaning

"out of" in the sense of "outside of" which makes sense for a study based "in* California.

“out of” doesn’t mean “outside of” any more than “pet” means “petrol” “out of” *only* has one meaning and that is “coming from”. nevertheless, they put him at the center of a diagram. that is their direct active fault. not a typo.

So I’d ask for elaboration between these, but eh: - ‘C for California would make infinitely more sense if that were the intended meaning’ - ‘“out of” *only* has one meaning and that is “coming from”.’ - ‘where did i say it means “from california”? please quote the exact line’

The chart pictured here isn’t a good illustration of the issue. And it’s acknowledged elsewhere that he was originally designated “Patient O” but at some point the O was changed to a zero routinely.

How a typo created a scapegoat for the AIDS epidemic - Macleans.camacleans.ca A 1984 study planted the seed that would lead the media to falsely demonize Gaëtan Dugas as Patient Zero of an epidemic that would kill more than 700,000 people in North America

www.npr.org/sections/hea... Interview with Darrow confirming the Out-of-California

Researchers Clear 'Patient Zero' From AIDS Origin Storywww.npr.org A Canadian flight attendant had been blamed by media for years for bringing HIV to the U.S. A new study proves that's impossible. The virus that took hold came from Haiti in the early 1970s.

wow 🙏 “The scientists also sequenced the virus from eight other men infected with HIV during the 1970s. From these genetic codes, the scientists estimate HIV came to the U.S. from Haiti in 1970 or 1971, but it went undetected by doctors for years.”

I’m really puzzled trying to understand what’s supposed to be implausible about this!

I think it’s mostly in the context of that graphic that was posted up thread.

> Dugas was the study’s “original” patient, placed at the centre of the cluster diagram, between patients from L.A. and New York. Darrow stressed that there was no evidence that Dugas had infected the others— i still doubt the 0/O explanation. sounds like passing the buck. this is more likely

Plus, every other dot on the chart is a number. It would undermine the sequence of events being depicted if one of them was a letter. Even if Gaetan was unfairly blamed for the AIDS epidemic.

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