In the movie Shilts said that the epidemic spread widely because the federal government put a budget on the nation’s welfare. Scientists were often more concerned with international prestige than saving lives . The epidemic spread so rapidly because gay men were going in and out of the state and having unprotected sex with other people. The man who was passing it around did not think he was the reason why every man was catching HIV. The scientist were trying to figure out how everybody else was dying expect the main person passing it around. When they were trying to figure out what was causing this epidemic the cell would die before they could find out . They needed to find a way the cell would stay alive long enough for them to test