“Everyone else couldn’t have cared less. “
Wrong.
My Godson received a transfusion in 1983 after an automobile accident and died in 1984-—San Francisco.
He was 22-—and we were all wrecks.
.
>>Everyone else couldn’t have cared less.
This isn’t accurate. It wasn’t until the late ‘80s when the heterosexual/non-drug user link to AIDS was essentially refuted. During most of the ‘80s the media and the gay crowd were doing everything they could to get the idea across that everyday Americans were at high risk.
We didn’t know initially that HIV was fairly difficult to transmit and that it would stay largely in the high risk groups. What if it had been as easy to catch as herpes?
Lots of people were afraid.
I was very glad my sexual island had no bridges to the mainland.
I think a lot of people were afraid of becoming the next Ryan White.
Homosexual activists are still intent upon allowing gay men to donate blood. So, yeah; people cared and still care.
HIV infected people are immune compromised. Add to that the lifestyle of homosexuals and IV drug users which puts them into intimate contact with sometimes hundreds of partners who are also living in a very risky manner. Tuberculosis and many other highly infectious diseases are easily passed among this group and then among the unsuspecting public is also exposed.
HIV are walking petri dishes of infectious diseases. No, I would not want a active homosexual to babysit my children.