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Abstract: The emergency of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s has been widely viewed, in retrospect, as having been handled poorly by those responsible for US public health measures and its blood supply. But how was it seen by those facing key decisions at the time? Why would there have been doubt as to the wisdom of screening blood donors for the HIV virus? Why would organizations, such as the Red Cross--with a nationwide system for blood collection--have been slow to change its methods?
Learning Objective: This case allows for analysis of the factors that make dramatic change difficult in large organizations, using the prism of an epidemic, the response to which may seem obvious in hindsight but was not for those involved in the early response to it.