Storm the NIH
On May 21, 1990, over one thousand activists from ACT UP surrounded the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda to protest the agency's handling of the AIDS epidemic. Protesters demanded that the NIH speed up its research, include AIDS activists and patients in the research process, and increase representation of women and people of color in its trials.
Protesters stage a "die-in" in front of the NIH (NIH History Office)
In 1990, AZT was still the only approved drug for the treatment of AIDS in the United States. As the crisis neared its tenth year, over one hundred thousand Americans had died of AIDS, almost one third of these in 1990 alone.
Having successfully protested the FDA's response to AIDS in 1988, and following a "die-in" at the New York Stock Exchange against drug profiteering, ACT UP activists set their sights on the National Institutes of Health for their next action.
The purpose of "Storm the NIH" was twofold:
The first goal was to pressure the NIH to accelerate the pace and broaden the scope of its AIDS research. Activists objected to the NIH's traditional drug testing policy, which entailed studying participants over long-term trials and using control groups who received placebo treatments. Given the high death rate of AIDS, activists wanted Dr. Anthony Fauci--head of the NIH Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases--to make exceptions to these practices so that more people with AIDS could receive experimental treatments. Activists also demanded that the NIH expand its focus beyond studies of AZT to investigate promising new treatments.
The protest's second goal was to compel the agency to include more diverse representation in its trials. ACT UP called for the NIH to:
"End medical apartheid: open trials to all people infected with HIV. The ACTG [AIDS Clinical Trials Group] must actively enroll people from communities presently under-represented in its trials---including women, people of color, and present and former drug users-by providing health care, transportation subsidies, child care, and addiction treatment"
(Storm the NIH - Your Guide to Action, p. 11).
Above: "We're Fired Up" picket sign from "Storm the NIH" (NIH History Office)
Below: ACT UP Poster calling for women to be included in AIDS research (ACT UP Oral History Project)
Ad for "Storm the NIH" in The Washington Post (5/8/90)
Recruitment for "Storm the NIH," which was coordinated primarily by ACT UP/New York, began three months ahead of its scheduled date. ACT UP ran ads in major newspapers criticizing the Bush administration and the NIH's handling of AIDS, and called for protesters across the country to join them in their action.
The night before the protest, ACT UP affinity groups met at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. to finalize their plans for the next day.
According to "Storm the NIH - Your Guide to Action," pre-action events included a teach-in on the NIH's AIDS research process, a civil disobedience training, and a final pre-action meeting.
"Storm the NIH" began early on the morning of Monday, May 21st. Protesters gathered in the plaza in front of the Medical Center Metro station before marching together to the NIH headquarters, picket signs and props in hand. Some ACT UP leaders, designated as "Marshals," were tasked with guiding demonstrators through the NIH's sprawling campus, while "legal observers" accompanied the crowd to monitor the protest.
The protest was concentrated at the NIH's administrative buildings rather than its labs and hospital. During the five-hour event, protesters chanted slogans like "We die, they do nothing" and "Shame, shame" and staged "die-ins" in front of paper mache gravestones. At one point, demonstrators lit smoke bombs on torches, filling the air above the protest with brightly-colored smoke.
Over two hundred police officers were present at the protest, most of them belonging to the NIH's private force. 82 protesters were arrested during the event. 61 of these were charged with trespassing barriers in front of various NIH buildings, while the remaining 21 were charged with loitering at one of the NIH's nearby Rockville facilities.
(NIH History Office)
The ACT UP Oral History Project hosts several videos that were recorded before and during "Storm the NIH." Click the link on the left to visit their page.
NIH officials generally refuted the critiques made by activists at "Storm the NIH." Dr. Fauci told the Washington Post on May 22 that he was sympathetic to activists' concerns, but that the protest was an "inconvenience that could undermine the morale of federal AIDS researchers." Other officials echoed Fauci's statement, saying that ACT UP should direct its protests to Congress instead since Congress controlled the NIH's funding.
Nevertheless, "Storm the NIH" made a notable impact on AIDS research policy. One month after the protest, the NIH announced that its AIDS Clinical Trials Group would include activists, journalists and people with AIDS. The agency also decided that future drug trials would include women of color, drug users and children.
(NIH History Office)