Shilts made comparisons to the government 's disparate reaction to the Chicago Tylenol murders , and the recent emergence of Legionnaire 's Disease in 1977 . In October 1982 , seven people died after ingesting cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules . The '' New York Times '' wrote a front-page story about the Tylenol scare every day in October , and produced 33 more stories about the issue after that . More than 100 law enforcement agents , and 1,100 Food and Drug Administration employees worked on the case . Johnson & Johnson disclosed they spent $ 100 million attempting to uncover who had tampered with the bottles . In October 1982 , 634 people were reported having AIDS , and of those , 260 had died . The '' New York Times '' wrote three stories in 1981 and three more stories in 1982 about AIDS , none on the front page . The Tylenol Crisis was a criminal act of product-tampering ; Legionnaire 's Disease was a public health emergency . Twenty-nine members of the American Legion died in 1976 at a convention in Philadelphia . The National Institute of Health spent $ 34,841 per death of Legionnaire 's Disease . In contrast , the NIH spent $ 3,225 in 1981 and about $ 8,991 in 1982 for each person who died of AIDS
Chicago Tylenol murders
Chicago Tylenol murders
And the Band Played On