Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
It happened 26 years ago ... Magic Johnson, one of the biggest superstars in sports and one of the greatest athletes of all time made a grave and startling announcement.
That he had contracted the HIV virus.
It sent ripples all over the world, for a variety of reasons. Johnson didn't fit into the idea of who contracted the disease, he wasn't gay or a drug user. But at the time, most everyone assumed that contracting the virus meant that eventually, you would die.
But that's not what happened. Robert Fullilove is a Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at the Columbia University Medical Center. He's been involved with HIV/Aids research for more than thirty years, and when he heard the announcement - he knew something huge was about to happen.
More than anything else, we've been sending this message for years that everyone is vulnerable to an infection of HIV, and that message was finally going to be heard ... probably for the first time.
We spoke to him about the lasting effect of Johnson's announcement - and what still needs to be done in terms of fighting the disease.
An earlier version of this post stated that it has been 25 years since Magic Johnson announced he contracted HIV, it has in fact been 26 years. We regret the error.