Alright, I’m seeing a lot of swings, and a lot of misses here… cause Hindsight is apparently 20/20.
Preface: The Aids Epidemic started in June 1981.
> Have so much sex that you start an epidemic of a lethal disease.
Besides, gays didn’t start the epidemic. It was prevalent, but unknown, in Africa and made its way to the US.
But you’re right, Totally JUST the gays fault… It’s not like the maturation period of HIV can take a minimum of three months, up to around nine months, to develop. Therefore, enabling it to be unknowingly be transferred. It’s also not like there had ever been a disease quite like AIDS before…
Even if you’ve only had one partner, the devastating effects of immunodeficiency may not be observed for (roughly) a year.
>Knowing that having sex spreads it; Don’t stop having sex.
During the initial years of HIV/AIDS’ discovery, the method of transmission was not fully understood by scientists - let alone by gays. In March, 1983, a CDC article suggests that most transmissions happen through blood transfers (via sex, drug injections, hemophiliacs, or Haitians).
1984. The dessimination of information regarding an illness that affects 300,000 Americans is just as unclear as the exact cause of AIDS.
The NYT even publishes that it can be spread through saliva - which was false. At the same time, the Reagan Administration continued a nonchalant, and insulting way of addressing the issue. Consider this.
>Assuming your personal hygiene and health is other people’s responsibility.
Research into life threatening diseases is definitely other people’s responsibility. It is the government’s duty to find, and develop solutions to all disease. Or, should the government not be actively researching cancer - because that’s a matter of personal health?Especially considering the first five years of the epidemic were shadowed with misinformation, and a slowly developing understanding of the infection. Not to mention, cases from a contaminated blood supply - wherein individuals had no control over their infection.
The fact of the matter is, a Reagan press secretary openly insulted AIDS victims, and the administration more or less ignored the crisis.
Saying that gays deserved AIDS because they were, potentially, promiscuous - especially when information on AIDS was only just developing in the scientific community - is morally bankrupt. “Why yes, of course they deserve it! The scientific community had no idea it even really existed, so of course we should fully expect the laypeople to have a full understanding on it”. That’s quite the position to take.
If the affected population wouldn’t have been a disliked minority, then it wouldn’t have taken 5-ish years for Reagan himself to even MENTION aids.
