On April 23, 1984, in a packed press conference room in Washington, DC, the secretary of health and human services declared, The probable cause of AIDS has been found. By the next day, probable had fallen away, and the novel retrovirus later named HIV became forever lodged in global consciousness as the AIDS virus.

Celia Farber, then an intrepid young reporter for SPIN magazine, was the only journalist to question the official narrative and dig into the science of AIDS. She reported on the evidence that was being continually cited and repeated by health officials and the press, the deadliness of AZT, and Dr. Faucis trials on children, infants, and pregnant mothers. Throughout, Fabers reportage was largely ignored. She was maligned, maliciously attacked, and ultimately canceled.