And the Band Played On 634 people were reported having AIDS, and of those, 260 had died. The "New York Times" wrote three stories in 1981 and three more stories in 1982 about AIDS, none on the front page. The Tylenol Crisis was a criminal act of product-tampering; Legionnaire's Disease was a public health emergency. Twenty-nine members of the American Legion died in 1976 at a convention in Philadelphia. The National Institute of Health spent $34,841 per death of Legionnaire's Disease. In contrast, the NIH spent $3,225 in 1981 and about $8,991 in 1982 for each person who died of AIDS. Shilts accused Ronald Reagan
1976 Philadelphia Legionnaires' disease outbreak 25 had died. Both the first week and later, there were 149 Legionnaires who became sick and 33 other persons associated with the hotel or in the area who also became sick. Of these total of 182 cases, 29 persons died. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mounted an unprecedented investigation and, by September, the focus had shifted from outside causes, such as a disease carrier, to the hotel environment itself. In January 1977, the "Legionella" bacterium was finally identified and isolated and was found to be breeding in the cooling tower of the hotel’s air conditioning system,