On this day, June 5, 1981, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reported an unusual disorder.

[PJMcK]

2. Wow, more than 40 years ago

I remember the time well. I had graduated college and lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Over those first few years, many friends and colleagues succumbed to this new disease.

It was a terrible and fearful time.

Randy Shilts, in his excellent "And The Band Played On," illustrated how everyone failed their responsibilities in the beginning of the endemic: the president, the Congress, governors, the media, the medical community, the gay community, the clergy and others. Interestingly, Dr. Anthony Fauci makes a few cameo appearances. It's an excellent early chronicle of the disease.