The history of the response to African AIDS

From William Easterly in The New York Review of Books, this fine sentence:

The history of the response to African AIDS can be divided into two phases: (1) fiddling while Rome burns, and then (2) trying to use the fiddles to put out the fire.

I know too little about the subject to comment on the article, though a it's not reassuring to read a review that says the book in question's key claims are thin on evidence but plausible and convincing.