There are a few genuine heroes: the chain-smoking onetime punk Mark Harrington, who mastered both the science of H.I.V. Nine years into the fight against H.I.V., the average survival time had increased from 18 months . AIDS was not an early crisis that finally abated; it was a slowly building mass death experience. But in the end, science takes time. These young men both witnessed their friends and lovers dying excruciating deaths, knew that they were next and yet carried on.

Source: New York Times November 21, 2016 16:23 UTC