fight to look back at another deadly disease he managed 30 years ago. But he met increasing resistance from the scientific community, who were put off by ACT UP’s tactics."We were putting Tony in a tough spot,” acknowledged Peter Staley, the ACT UP leader who spearheaded the protest.
The NIH demonstration also advocated for the group’s quest to reduce the dose and price of the only AIDS-fighting drug approved by the FDA at the time, AZT, made by Burroughs Wellcome Co. Fauci attended an ACT UP meeting in October 1989. After that, some of the group’s leaders on its Treatment and Data committee would meet the NIAID chief and his deputy, Jim Hill, for dinner at Hill’s townhouse on Capitol Hill.
Between March and May, ACT UP spread the word about “Storm the NIH” to its chapters across the country. The group took out full-page ads in The Washington Post. Staley’s group stayed behind the bulk of the protesters, who marched ahead to confront about 200 police officers, some on horseback, who were clubbing some activists. Others set up a mock graveyard in front of Building 31, with tombstones describing deaths from “drug profiteers” or “AZT poisoning.”Chanting, “NIH, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide,” according to United Press International, affinity groups carried banners, posters, effigies, including one of Fauci, and mock coffins.