American journal of public health | 2021
Joseph Sonnabend and the AIDS Epidemic: Pioneering and Its Discontents.
Abstract
Joseph Sonnabend, a pioneering figure in the early effort to confront the multiple dimensions of the AIDS epidemic in the United States, died January 24, 2021, at the age of 88. A lengthy and admiring obituary published in the New York Times said of him that he was one of the most important figures in the fight against AIDS, if also one of the most unheralded. 1(pD6) In the current moment, when the language of heroism is routinely employed in describing the work of medical workers struggling to control COVID-19, it is sometimes difficult to recall that the life and work of those regarded as AIDS pioneers were all too often tinged by recrimination and bitter controversy. Such was the career of Sonnabend, someone who saw himself and was viewed by others as a devoted clinician and a combative iconoclast. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print June 10, 2021: e1-e3. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306291).