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Watkins: 25 Years Later: The AIDS Vaccine Search Goes On

Not long after the virus that causes AIDS was identified, Margaret Heckler, then the U.S. secretary of health and human services, told a group of reporters that the discovery would enable scientists to develop a vaccine to prevent AIDS. â??We hope to have such a vaccine ready for testing in approximately two years,â? she declared proudly. It was 1984.

The author is a UW-Madison faculty member.