Semi-related: Thinking about this era I wondered how long it look for AIDS to kill 100,000 Americans. The answer is about 5 years. CoViD did it in 5 months.
Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966
11–20 of 227 posts
Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Regan administration had two options. The first was to spend billions of dollars hoping to find a cure while certain behaviors continued to spread the virus. (what these activists wanted) The second option was to reduce the occurrence of those behaviors, namely intravenous recreational drug use, and unprotected sex with large numbers of sexual partners, which is particularly widespread among homosexual males. The…
They did not see the problem as a black and white problem with two active solutions. They took a third option: they did nothing until public opinion had shifted and Rock Hudson, Reagan's personal friend, died of the disease. They. did. nothing.
It was worse than that. They laughed and made jokes while they did nothing [1].
[1] https://www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9828348/ronald-reagan-hiv-aids
Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
The white house lawn comment sounds powerful. But I don't see any evidence it actually happened. Right?
I followed the AIDS crisis in the newspaper from Day One, starting with one-inch long columns about "mysterious purple lesions called Kaposi's sarcoma" to shrines with hundreds of photos occupying whole sections. The similarity with corona in 2020 is that so little was known, but for years, not months. The difference was that AIDS was 100% fatal until drugs were developed, and AIDS killed a generation of young adults…
>There's a Canadian film on Youtube that covers this.
Yeah it was a major scandal here in Canada. The Red Cross lost the right to handle blood a new organization called Canadian Blood Services was created.
Many people with hemophilia died but I think people at the tail end of it were around when the new drug cocktails slowed the disease.
As a teen in the 80s AIDS was pretty scary even for a straight kid with no girlfriend. It seemed like everyone was talking about it, getting it, scared of people with it, or denying it existed.
Anthony Fauci had a hard time getting Pres. Reagan to even take it seriously (sound familiar!?). Many conservatives saw it as the "gay disease" and dismissed it as irrelevant.
Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966
#14Semi-related: Thinking about this era I wondered how long it look for AIDS to kill 100,000 Americans. The answer is about 5 years. CoViD did it in 5 months.
It's disturbing that we are being told to learn to live with the virus when there is such a high risk of contraction.
Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966
#15I didn't understand the AIDS epidemic until I listened to a podcast [1] where they interviewed a gay survivor. I can't imagine my friends dying off one by one around me from an unknown specter. The government pretending you didn't exist and ignoring you because it was a "gay problem". Society demonizing you. He said that even after it was understood that AIDS was not transmissible by touch, morgues would refuse to ac…
You know how public restrooms in the USA always have paper toilet seat covers? This dates to that era (the product existed already but was extremely uncommon).
Because of that whenever I see those I think of the bigoted attitude that lead to their deployment and won't use them.
Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966
#16"When AIDS was funny"
https://youtu.be/yAzDn7tE1lU
It shows the challenges of the press to have serious conversations about the disease with the Reagan administration.
Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966
#17I didn't understand the AIDS epidemic until I listened to a podcast [1] where they interviewed a gay survivor. I can't imagine my friends dying off one by one around me from an unknown specter. The government pretending you didn't exist and ignoring you because it was a "gay problem". Society demonizing you. He said that even after it was understood that AIDS was not transmissible by touch, morgues would refuse to ac…
The Regan administration had two options. The first was to spend billions of dollars hoping to find a cure while certain behaviors continued to spread the virus. (what these activists wanted) The second option was to reduce the occurrence of those behaviors, namely intravenous recreational drug use, and unprotected sex with large numbers of sexual partners, which is particularly widespread among homosexual males. The…
> The first was to spend billions of dollars hoping to find a cure while certain behaviors continued to spread the virus.
And yet here we are, with governments spending billions of dollars to find a cure when we can stop the spread of COVID-19 by reducing certain behaviors.
The difference in government response to the (ongoing, btw) AIDS crisis and COVID-19 has a hell of a lot to do with the fact that COVID-19 is not seen as a “gay” disease, and is not “othered.”
Having sex is all it takes to get HIV. Once. I won’t sit here and listen to you claim it’s “selfish and destructive behavior” to have sex. Once.
Take your thinly veiled homophobia and moralizing elsewhere please. It’s not a good look, and I don’t want to hear it in my professional community.
Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966
#18I didn't understand the AIDS epidemic until I listened to a podcast [1] where they interviewed a gay survivor. I can't imagine my friends dying off one by one around me from an unknown specter. The government pretending you didn't exist and ignoring you because it was a "gay problem". Society demonizing you. He said that even after it was understood that AIDS was not transmissible by touch, morgues would refuse to ac…
The Regan administration had two options. The first was to spend billions of dollars hoping to find a cure while certain behaviors continued to spread the virus. (what these activists wanted) The second option was to reduce the occurrence of those behaviors, namely intravenous recreational drug use, and unprotected sex with large numbers of sexual partners, which is particularly widespread among homosexual males. The…
The bathouse behaviour is still present. I went to a korean spa in nyc with my kids and ran into a group of young men having an orgy in one of the spas which is not private. I was so embarassed, didnt know what to say to my kids, they saw a live scene. We never talked about it.
So, some of that stuborness in behaviour is something rampant in the gay community. They have for example, drug fueled parties and have continuous sex for days. The gay scene is doing itself a disservice by turning a blind eye on this and promoting hypersexuality at the expense of its health. I understand it’s found its freedom recently but they gotta get their shit together
I am not a Reagan appologist and am genetally tolerant of gay or anything that is part of out humanity. Im sure I’ll get downvoted here but I had to say this.
Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966
#19"When AIDS was funny" https://youtu.be/yAzDn7tE1lU It shows the challenges of the press to have serious conversations about the disease with the Reagan administration.
This makes my blood boil.
Re: Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The Regan administration had two options. Por que no los dos?
He did do both. From wikipedia: >"It's been one of the top priorities with us, and over the last 4 years, and including what we have in the budget for '86, it will amount to over a half a billion dollars that we have provided for research on AIDS in addition to what I'm sure other medical groups are doing." He also remarked, "Yes, there's no question about the seriousness of this and the need to find an answer." Annu…
You cherry-picked the end of the statement, but you left off the beginning. It says a lot:
> Although AIDS was first identified in 1981, Reagan did not mention it publicly for several more years, notably during a press conference in 1985 and several speeches in 1987. During the press conference in 1985, Reagan expressed skepticism in allowing children with AIDS to continue in school
Reagan waited years, and a generation of gay men died. Better late than never, I suppose, but he didn’t do nearly enough and his response to the crisis is not worthy of honor or respect.