Glass Healing
© Dave Awl 1997
[John sits at a table, slumped forward, head down on his arms. Dave and Rachel stand just behind him, on either side.]
DA: There's medication now, but he can't afford it.
RC: There's medication now.
DA: He waits tables for a living.
RC: He lives in a small town in Indiana.
DA: There's medication now.
RC: They say the new combination therapies are working wonders for some people.
DA: People who have been sick for years are rebounding, their HIV levels dropping dramatically, in some cases possibly disappearing altogether.
RC: He waits tables for a living.
DA: It's too early to know anything for sure, and the medications don't work for everybody.
RC: Still, there's a ray of hope that didn't exist before.
DA: He lives by himself, in a small town in Indiana. He has no immediate family.
RC: He thinks about the people who are getting better. He thinks about the people who just might be the very first people to survive.
DA: He thinks about the people who have died, and who will continue to die.
RC: He thinks about himself.
DA: They say the new combination therapies cost somewhere between 20 and $25,000 a year on average.
RC: There's medication now.
DA: At last year's International AIDS Conference in Vancouver, a reporter wrote about the elaborate booths built by the pharmaceutical companies to promote their AIDS drugs. Glaxo Wellcome's, for instance, was a two-story booth built to resemble a cruise ship with built-in video screens and an upstairs espresso bar. These booths stood in stark contrast to the so-called "Poverty Row" booths occupied by non-profit groups trying to provide support for people with AIDS.
RC: There's medication now, but it costs $25,000 year.
DA: His take home pay is $15,000 a year. He has no health insurance.
CURTAIN