Talking with a friend tonight about the COVID situation in the U.S. at the moment, I got to thinking, how bad is it compared to the last major outbreak of an unknown deadly disease: HIV/AIDS. As of December 31, 2000, HIV/AIDS had killed 448,060 people in the U.S...

HIV/AIDS killed half a million Americans over 20 years. COVID has killed a quarter million in less than a year. And it still doesn't seem to have triggered a comprehensive government and community response. It's baffling to me.

I came of age at a time when I was scared by public health campaigns about the need to protect yourself from HIV - or else. It still triggers a visceral discomfort decades on...

So it's kinda baffling to see a new, highly contagious but preventable disease spreading among a much wider community (i.e. everyone) and there's not anywhere near the same intensity of messaging about the need for safety.

I mean ffs, one U.S. state ran a TV campaign that intimated unsafe sex was like Russian roulette with six bullets in the chamber. So how the hell is the idea of promoting, even enforcing, universal mask wearing at all controversial?