Two epidemics, two wildly different responses

Image of HIV. Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

I've said this before, about the differences between the response to HIV and the response to COVID.

There was a lot of stigma and discrimination early in the HIV response. There were attempts to close gay bars, bath houses. But people persisted in terms of doing what was right for patients and for the community to try and stop virus spread.

With COVID, it's just been different. I realize it’s a different population. But I’ve said that had there been a vaccine in those early years of HIV, no question that people would have taken it. It was just that desperate.

Look now at COVID, and the demand for COVID has gone away. Fewer than 20% of people in the United States have received the booster.

Image of COVID virus. Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

If younger people today think that the COVID pandemic response is a suitable response to stopping a virus, we need to inform them that no, look at the AIDS era. Look at the response of this medium-sized little town Rochester.

And let's then talk about the differences.