When I was a teenager in the 90s, I was genuinely afraid of HIV/AIDS. We knew it was a death sentence, and we knew that everyone who had sex was going to get it.

I mean heterosexual sex, btw. Homosexuality was never mentioned in this or any context, other than vague references.

There was even a poster at my school wherein Billy has sex with Tina, Tina has sex with Tommy... Pretty soon half the school is dead.

I was fascinated by how much sex the poster suggested everyone else was having.

And I as terrified of AIDS.

If you had told me then I would make it to 40 without knowing a single person who has died of AIDS, I simply wouldn’t have believed it possible.

COVID-19 is 2020’s Heterosexual AIDS.

If you‘re in a particular demographic, it’s deadly. But that demographic is too narrow to create the widespread fear that allows government to overreact, so they and the media just lie about who is at risk and make everyone afraid.