Arts & Entertainment
Emerging epidemic
Belgian researcher recounts AIDS discoveries
(Image courtesy W.W. Norton)
Author and epidemiologist Peter Piot knows what it’s like to be on the ground floor of something important. He was there when two previously unknown viruses were identified and in “No Time to Lose,” he explains what that was like.
The package arrived in a blue plastic thermos. It wasn’t wrapped well; in fact, one of the vials inside had broken, mixing glass with blood that had been taken from a Belgian nun who bled to death in Zaire for reasons no one could explain.
Peter Piot was an infectious disease researcher in Antwerp, Belgium, and this kind of mystery made his “heart beat faster.” When his boss sent him to Kinshasa, along the river Congo, to learn more about the crisis, Piot was even more excited. He became part of a team that teased out the root of the sickness and how it traveled from patient to victim.
The virus, highly contagious and almost always deadly, was later named after a river in Africa. Piot is still aghast at the careless, cavalier attitude given to that initial, highly dangerous flask of Ebola he encountered.
After his work in Africa ended, Piot went to Swaziland to work with a colleague assigned to eliminate sexually transmitted disease there. The endeavor was, of course, ill-fated, but this led him to work with STD patients in Antwerp. There, an alarming situation was just starting to appear in the city’s gay population. It “seemed to be a new syndrome” and it seemed to be on the rise.
It was a virus that didn’t care “whether the sex is good, or about the color or gender of the person.” Researchers called it GRID at first, then renamed it AIDS.
Almost from the opening pages, “No Time to Lose” immerses readers in excitement. Author Peter Piot does such a fine job in describing his African surroundings and the people there that you can almost hear the surrounding jungle.
But Piot’s story is not meant for entertainment. There’s a heightened sense of urgency and force here; in fact, Piot repeatedly admits regret that he didn’t do enough, soon enough. Looking through a backward lens, though, readers will wonder why he questions himself. He writes of fighting bureaucracy and politics, establishing organizations to study and prevent of infection and the now-outrageous beliefs he battled.
That makes this a triumphant book with a coda of sadness for a job that seemed, to the author, unfinished.
This book is serious stuff and it’s filled with scientific terms, acronyms and world politics — but don’t let that scare you away. If you’ve got the time to give it the attention it deserves, you’ll enjoy “No Time to Lose” from the start.
Blog #1: I was excited about my trip even though Gate 1 Travel notified me there was a change in the itinerary. France decided to close the Burgundy canal for long overdue repairs, so we would be traveling on the C. du Rhone au Rhin. I boarded my Air France flight arriving in Paris on time. Contrary to what I was told to expect, customs went really smoothly.
Day 1: Because customs went quickly, I waited 45 minutes for my pre-arranged driver, to take me to the Gare de Lyon, where I boarded my fast-train to Lyon. A two-hour trip. In Lyon it was a long walk to the hotel, The Radisson Blu, but only because I exited the station on the wrong side. Finally got there, checked into a room on the 36th floor with a spectacular view of Lyon. Then took a stroll around the area, a short nap, and finally it was time for dinner and to meet the rest of the traveling party. There would only be 13 of us in the group. Five of us from D.C./Rehoboth, and eight others. I met our guide Patricia, who is from Portugal, and spoke fluent French and English. She is charming, and clearly very knowledgeable. She worked with Gate 1 for many years. We stayed at the hotel for our welcome dinner. It was a great meal, and over drinks, each of us was asked to introduce ourselves to the group. Aside from the five of us, there were three women traveling alone, one gentleman alone, and two couples. They were from New Jersey, New York, Florida, Houston, and Nebraska. I was sitting across from the woman from Nebraska. Conversation at dinner was pleasant but I quickly realized one person was apparently a MAGA. Wonder if you can guess where she was from, lol. But we also found if we didn’t talk politics, which we agreed not to do, things were fine. After dinner we all headed to our rooms for a good night’s sleep.
DAY 2: We woke to beautiful weather. I headed to the included breakfast at the hotel, which was really very good. After breakfast we boarded a bus for a tour of Lyon. We had a full-size bus for just the 13 of us. Our guide for the half day tour, was Vincent, and he is charming and young, and told us his fiancé lives in Lyon. He was incredibly knowledgeable. We began at the Basilica, which is being repaired on the outside, but the inside is, wow! Incredible stained glass, and there was a service going on in one of the smaller side chapels which I l listened to for a bit. The Basilica is high on the hill and the views of Lyon are spectacular from there. Then we headed to the old city and walked around for an hour, ending up at the smaller cathedral. Directly in front of it they had set up a great market, mostly food, which would be there for a week. Lyon is a foodie paradise, with, we were told, a restaurant, or at least coffee shop, for every 250 people. We then had a choice of staying in town, or going back to the hotel on the bus, which I did. The afternoon and evening were free time to do as we pleased. I headed to the Les Halles du Lyon Paul Bocuse, named after the famous chef, to take a look around. It is a large market with small restaurants connected to most of the stalls. It was charming. I then headed to the huge three-story mall across from our hotel and walked around for an hour. Then caught up on some emails, and writing, and met my friends, Paul and Martin, John and Dan, for dinner at 6. We went to a really nice Bistro, which John had found, two tram stops away from the hotel, and enjoyed some drinks and a relaxed dinner. The owner of the place found us a waitress who spoke great English, which made ordering really easy. After a two-hour great meal, we headed back to the hotel. Riding a tram in Lyon is easy, you just need to use your credit card. It is an honor system. Back at the hotel I headed to my room and packed, our luggage had to be outside the door by 8:00 am the next morning. I set my alarm for 6:30 so I had time to eat at the buffet breakfast. Then it was on the bus to head to our barge.
Baltimore
This John Waters interview has been edited for readability — but perhaps not human decency
Pope of Trash dishes on Trump, plane etiquette, last meal, and more
By WESLEY CASE | At 80 years old, John Waters is still the ideal dinner guest — incisively sharp, quick-witted and funny as hell.
The chic Baltimore native proved it again and again in a recent Zoom interview, calling from his summer home in Provincetown, Mass.
The occasion was the Blu-ray releases of two of his movies — the 1977 dark comedy “Desperate Living” and his enduring 1988 musical “Hairspray” — on June 23 by the Criterion Collection, which publishes restorations of films it deems culturally important. The Criterion stamp of approval has become the gold standard among cinephiles.
“It’s like getting an award,” said Waters, who wrote and directed both films.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
The Washington Blade held the seventh annual Pride on the Pier at The Wharf DC on Saturday, June 13.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
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PHOTOS: Pride on the Pier
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