‘Déjà vu’: HIV-positive Pittsburghers say we have much to learn about COVID by comparing it to our other deadly epidemic
By OLIVER MORRISON
February 2, 2021 - When stay-at-home orders for the coronavirus were announced in March, some Pittsburghers who have lived with HIV for decades felt what they described as post-traumatic stress from the first epidemic they lived through.
“It’s like déjà vu all over again,” thought Marc Wagner, who was first diagnosed with HIV in 1985. “And this one could take you out much faster.”
Several Pittsburghers living with HIV told PublicSource the COVID pandemic echoed many of the scariest and most dangerous parts of living through the HIV and AIDS epidemic, including confusion about the science, social isolation, a reluctance to adopt public health measures and a lack of leadership from the president of the United States. They said the way many have dismissed deaths of the elderly from COVID-19 in order to open the economy reminded them of how gay men’s health was passed over during the AIDS crisis, a time of rampant homophobia.
Contiue reading... https://www.publicsource.org/hiv-aids-covid-coronavirus-pandemic-epidemic-pittsburgh/
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