Sunday evening I met a man returning to KCMO for a visit. I think he was a native.
As the story goes, he owned a dirty bookstore some thirty years ago here in town…
As the story goes, he spent some time in Paris, doing work with a lab there that dealt with viruses in the eighties. You know… retro-viruses…
As the story goes, he knows the real folks upon which the entire cast of And the Band Played On was based. Including Robert Gallo. As a matter of fact, he informed me that in order to get hands on live virus back then, one had to pay money to a fake company run by Gallo’s employees that basically stole the virus and sold it black market…
As the story goes, Gallo was more of an ass than the movie portrayed. And no one was ever in it to save lives….
As the story goes, this man was doing work with viruses before HIV came on the scene. As it happens, he was working with the Epstein Bar virus, the virus that causes mononucleosis. It is also the virus that causes Burkitt’s lymphoma.
My lymphoma….
Yeah, he caught my attention by this point. Actually, he caught my attention was he mentioned that he worked on viruses in Paris in the mid-eighties…
Wow.
I am floored.
I met him through a common acquaintance. He is here for at least a month. I look forward to more time with him.
I really am pretty floored….
gryphon's hole 