Week 12 – 5B response

[lilah116]

As an avid documentary watcher, 5B was one of the most beautifully crafted documentaries I’ve watched in a while. This movie portrayed the first-hand narratives and feelings during one of the most terrifying global pandemics in history. The fact that people who were diagnosed with this disease included nothing but a slow and miserable death. I found it really interesting that we got to see this film start off where people had no idea what they were dealing with, to nurses and doctors coming together to build an entire ward from the ground up, to the creation of a solution to slow down the spread of the infection. I also found it quite interesting the amount of hatred people give off when they are faced with their own fears. I understand that people, at the time, had no idea of what aids were or how contagious it was, but it kind of was sad to see how people (even nurses) wanted nothing to do with and the most protection from those who were infected. Today with the Coronavirus, we see the familiar stigma and discrimination against people of one race/ social group. One of the scenes that hit me the hardest was when the child who had HIV was being bullied by adults and not allowed to go to school because he was a risk to the other students. They blamed the kid like it was his fault, which I felt was completely unfair. I’m not sure how I would have handled that situation, but I felt nothing but anger when parents were saying that he is dangerous and they didn’t want him around their children. The fight for PPE is also another aspect of contagious diseases we are dealing with today and then during the aids pandemic. Today, we know how contagious COVID-19 is and lack much of the PPE needed to protect ourselves from the virus. In contrast to, knowing that aids was a blood-borne / bodily fluid spread infection and wanting to use unnecessary amounts of PPE. I understand the fight on both sides, however, when you become a nurse or a doctor you know the risks that come along with your job and your priority is to care for your patient. Hearing about Jane Doe and then finding out who it was to me made this argument even more real. It was very unfortunate but then again, we know the risks that come along with that line of work. I’m not sure how she could have better protected herself with PPE and felt that the only way she could have prevented that from happening was to be more cautious. This documentary also talked about the stigma surrounding the gay community and how they thought that this disease was brought upon themselves. I think the documentary did a really good job at showing how they fought to lessen the idea that it was just because they were gay to that the behavior that this group liked to engage in, is what helped the rapid spread throughout this specific community. Overall I thought this was a really good film, and I really liked the message of the importance of human beings being here for one another.

[Author]

Posts