Summary

Chapter 3 describes further efforts to research the cause of AIDS, with limited signs of success. Based on the determination that an immune deficiency was involved, Sonnabend advanced his “immune-overload model” which postulated that the sickness was caused by a high number of venereal diseases, which overwhelmed the immune system and opened the body to further infection. This could also explain why some IV drug users appeared to be suffering from GRID, given that drug use was similarly taxing of the immune system.

Two of Sonnabend’s patients, Michael Callen and Richard Berkowitz, were impressed with this explanation and published a layman’s description of it encouraging abstinence as a way to avoid GRID. This publication faced significant backlash from the gay community who, having been oppressed and closeted, saw sex as an essential form of liberation. Undermining Sonnabend’s model was the...