The current administration& #39;s COVID response has been tragically ignorant, deceptive, and dismissive of science.

But it is not without precedent.

In the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan completely ignored the AIDS epidemic (at least in public) as it swept through gay communities…

For several years, AIDS deaths were an *actual punchline* at White House press briefings, without a single acknowledgment from Reagan as thousands of Americans died https://www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9828348/ronald-reagan-hiv-aids">https://www.vox.com/2015/12/1...

It wasn& #39;t until 1986 when Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and *Dr. Anthony Fauci* published a report about AIDS risks & prevention that the administration was forced to publicly address it.

By the time Reagan gave his first speech about AIDS in & #39;87 30,000+ Americans had died

For years, a deadly epidemic was ignored because its victims (mostly gay men) were politically inconvenient to the party in power.

Even a plea from their friend Rock Hudson, dying of AIDS in Paris, was not enough to move Ronald and Nancy Reagan to action https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/chrisgeidner/nancy-reagan-turned-down-rock-hudsons-plea-for-help-seven-we#.vxy51KB6z">https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/c...

Later presidents devoted massive resources to the epidemic, but many valuable years of research and prevention were squandered in the 80s

COVID has already killed more Americans than AIDS did in a decade. And now we have a choice before us…

To act on behalf of power & politics? Or science & the public good?

True leaders don& #39;t ask if saving lives is politically convenient. So let& #39;s learn from the past, acknowledge our mistakes, and set ourselves on the right course today.