[Letter to Kevin Klose from Jon Cohen]

TO: GEORGE POWELL
FROM: JON COHEN
March 13, 1992
Dear Mr. Powell,
I did a story for NPR's weekend Sunday show March 8 that I
thought might interest you. The 12-minute story is about HIV
vaccine therapy--AIDS vaccines being tested in people who are
already infected with the virus.
After introducinq an infected man who is taking part in the trial
of an HIV vaccine, I explain what they are and how they differ
from the preventive vaccines most people think of when they think
vaccine. Dr. Jonas Salk of polio vaccine fame, the first to
publicly discuss the idea of HIV vaccine therapy (in a June 1987
issue of Nature), then discusses his views on the topic,
including the early resistance he met. I follow with a little
vaccine therapy history from one of the world's bigqest buffs on
the topic, Col. Donald Burke, the Army doctor who heads the U.S.
military's AIDS proqrams. I cut to congressional testimony Burke
gave February 24, urging more government support for the
approach.
The second half of the story focuses on an HIV vaccine therapy
public forum held in New York City February 25, where six leading
scientists discussed their work with 500 people. The scientists
explain the different strategies they are pursuing and their
early results and budding optimism. The meeting becomes tense
when infected people take to the mikes, pleading for qreater
access to these experiments, better government coordination of
AIDS research, and, ultimately, a cure. I bookend the story with
the same man I opened with, who attended the forum.
I am writing a book on AIDS vaccine research for Delacorte Press.
I frequently write about AIDS for Science magazine. I'm faxing a
Village Voice article I did with this week about HIV vaccine
therapy and one I did a few months ago for Science.
I hope to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Jon Cohen
3445 17th St. NW
Washington, DC 20010
202-332-9564 or 202-387-7517