title: A tale of two tragedies.
abstract: When the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked on September 11, Americans were stunned by the tragedy unfolding before them on television. Thousands of lives were lost in the outcome, resulting in an unprecedented outpouring of sympathy, support and demands for action. Most people felt they had never seen or experienced anything like it before. To a smaller portion of the population, however, the shock of sudden and unforeseen disaster was strangely reminiscent of what we experienced in the onset of the AIDS epidemic. There were many similarities to what people were feeling then and now. Little more than a month after the terrorist attacks, however, it was clear that there were also some striking dissimilarities that added to the pain felt by all those who have lost someone to AIDS. Those dissimilarities became clearer with each passing month.
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000401:mortality; D000401:Aircraft; D006801:Humans; D009519:New York City; D023481:Terrorism; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014768:Virginia