Zoller And Sastry: A Brief Summary

At 91 minuets and 36 seconds of And the Band Played On (1993) a woman from a prominent family, who had recently had a heart transplant finds out that she had been given blood from a contaminated donor, her response is, “Are you telling me that they knew they were giving AIDs to people and continued to do it?” This response stood out to me both personally, and in regard to material of this class. Unfortunately, I have suffered multiple concussions through growing up and playing sports. When I got my most recent, and most severe concussion during a collegiate football game the coaching staff attempted to put me back into the game, knowing that there is a significant risk of a second concussion and possible death after an initial concussion has been suffered. Luckily, the trainer stepped in and removed me from the game, however, this withholding of information could have been deadly, similar to situation the women in the movie finds herself in. Although our situations are similar in some ways, they are also different in the fact that that the reason the information was withheld from the woman, and other patients, was due to money. …show more content…
Zoller and Sastry explain that, “The production, sales, and marketing of harmful products… puts corporate interests in conflict with public health”(p.317). This statement directly correlates to the reason that there was negligence of contaminated blood donors in the woman’s situation. The corporations behind the blood used in the woman’s transplant did not want to lose money by having to test for hepatitis B, and AIDS, putting the woman, and many others at