Institutional Negligence: The AIDS Crisis in 1980s America

Previous scholarship published on the AIDS crisis has also sought to assign blame to the various institutions that control American society. Whether it was the lack of media attention, the Reagan administration, or other social factors, historians and critics have blamed numerous characters in AIDS history for their lack of action. This study avoids placing blame on a single actor or institution and, instead, explains how the bureaucratic process allowed for avoidance of the epidemic. Partisanship also played a large role in the responses of the government, as those placed in government and health agency jobs worked for a conservative Republican administration. A deeper understanding of the AIDS epidemic is necessary because it exemplifies how political issues can take priority over American lives. The strong partisanship that controlled the bureaucratic makeup of the Reagan administration and various health agencies allowed for the AIDS epidemic to plague the 1980s as a silent killer of homosexuals, intravenous drug users, and hemophiliacs. This work will highlight how social, government, and medical responses to a health issue can be influenced by partisanship and result in inadequate action