AIDS Follies
24th May 2020
Was thinking about similarities and differences between the reaction to AIDS and to SARS-2. AIDS hit much more slowly, of course. It was way more dangerous per customer, but it was obvious early on that it was only spreading in a small fraction of the population.
The health authorities such as the CDC didn’t believe in quarantine then, either, and they prevailed. They were wrong, of course. They spent a lot of effort trying to convince the public that HIV was a significant threat to straight men and women: that was a lie. Presumably it was motivated by the probably-correct notion that people wouldn’t give a shit unless they were personally threatened, or possibly just because. Wiki is still doing its part to further nonsense on this topic: ” Announcements by various celebrities that they had contracted HIV (including actor Rock Hudson, basketball star Magic Johnson, tennis player Arthur Ashe and singer Freddie Mercury) were significant in arousing media attention and making the general public aware of the dangers of the disease to people of all sexual orientations.” Arthur Ashe got a bad transfusion: as for the others, what do you think?
Although it really did manage to spread in the general population in Sub-Saharan Africa – but not much elsewhere.