Long times lurker here...
Towards the mid to late eighties hospitals in urban areas were definitely filling up with HIV/AIDS patients.
it's worth remembering the 80%of people infected with COVID-19 show mild symptoms or are asymptomatic, and it's the remaining percentage of people with underlying illnesses and complications who make up the rest of the percentage and are the ones we see dying, but i say this not to minimise or undermine the current suffering we see happening everyday. Whilst i appreciate that COVID-19 and HIV differ greatly in their infectiousness, there is no vaccine or cure forty years on from the outbreak of the HIV epidemic and with HIV you will die a slow and agonising death if you don't take medication. HIV is far deadlier but we have found ways to make it manageable what with advanced antiretrovirals. The international response to COVID-19 has been generally robust, in comparison to the HIV/AIDS crisis whereby it wasn't until politicians became aware that the virus was indiscriminate and infecting straights that they sat up and took action.
in any case, we are living in precarious times and it's incumbent on everyone to take precautions.
