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206 ROGERS
118,124
120,000
100,000
Call Attempts Calls Answered
80,000
60,000
42,741
40,000
20,000
10,938
0
10/27/91 10/28/91 10/29/91 10/30/91 10/31/91 11/1/91 11/2/91 11/3/91 11/4/91 11/5/91 11/6/91 11/7/91 11/8/91 11/9/91 11/10/91 11/11/91 11/12/91 11/13/91 11/14/91 11/15/91 11/16/91 11/17/91 11/18/91 11/19/91 11/20/91 11/21/91 11/22/91 11/23/91 11/24/91 11/25/91 11/26/91
FIG. 8.1. The effects of Magic Johnson’s news conference on November 7, 1991, on
the number of call attempts made to the National AIDS Hotline (only English-
language calls are shown here).
Source: CDC National Aids Hotline.
occurred during this 5-month period, so it seems clear that most of the
increase in calls to the CDC’s National AIDS Hotline was due to mass media
reports of Magic Johnson’s disclosure of seropositivity. 9
This conclusion is supported, and amplified, by several other investi-
gations of the effects of Magic Johnson’s disclosure of his HIV status:
1. A comparison of 186 patients at an STD (sexually transmitted dis-
ease) clinic in the Washington, D.C., suburbs during the 14 weeks
prior to November 1, 1991, versus 97 patients at this clinic during
the 14 weeks following Magic Johnson’s announcement (Boekeloo
et al., 1993). The patients were predominantly African American
and male. The main impact of the Johnson disclosure was a
decrease in the number of sexual partners and fewer “one-night
stands,” rather than in increased condom use. These effects fit
9 A somewhat similar investigation of the effects of President Ronald Reagan’s July 13,
1985, colon cancer operation by Brown and Potosky (1990) showed a fourfold increase in the
number of telephone calls to the Cancer Information Service (CIS) of the National Cancer
Institute, a major increase (more than doubling) in the number of examinations to detect
colon cancer (reported to Medicare), and a decrease in the reported incidence of colorectal
cancer in the several years following the president’s operation, leading to an estimated sav-
ing of 5,163 lives.
