AP Statistics
And the Band Played On
Name
Date
Period
I. Answer the following questions as you watch the film.
1. In what year does the story begin?
2. When Dr. Francis is introduced to the other people at the CDC, what are some of their specialties?
3. What is “shoe leather epidemiology”?
4. How long does the CDC manager say, “…will be plenty of time”, to investigate this disease?
5. Where does Dr. Gallo work?
6. In the study showing that AIDS is sexually transmitted, where did most of the sexual encounters occur?
7. How did the CDC demonstrate that AIDS was being transmitted via the blood supply?
8. What blood test is found to be 88% accurate in detecting the AIDS virus?
9. Why is there a legal fight between Dr. Gallo and the French research group?
10. When does the film end? At this point how many people were infected with AIDS? How many had
died?
II. Answer these questions after watching the whole film.
11. Why does the CDC have to use case-control studies rather than true randomized experiments?
12. The researchers frequently use the phrase “Think, Know, and Prove”. What is the difference between
“Know” and “Prove”? How do people who hold differing opinions use this to their advantage? Cite at
least one specific example from the film.
13. Much of the research in the film involves personal interviews. Explain how bias could be a factor in
the data collected? How do the researchers try to reduce this bias?