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While I do not like Ronnie for many reasons(Especially his record on Taxation, Labor and the environment), his policy toward AIDS was ahead of the rest of the Country. When AIDS hit in 1981 it was first observed in the homosexual community. Standard Policy of the time period to any new sexually transmitted disease was to isolate the individual and locate all sexual partners of anyone affected. This had been done for Syphilis and Gonorrhea for decades. Do to pressure from the Homosexual community the Government did NOT do its standard policy and treated AIDS as a potential Civil Rights problem NOT a Health problem. The county wanted it treated like a Health problem, isolation of anyone who had it and forcing people to tell who they had sex with (With Criminal sanctions imposed if you did NOT give out who you had had sex with).
The government instead of treating AIDS as a Sexual transmitted disease, treated it as a potential Civil Right Violation. People who had sex, were NOT asked who they had sex with, they were NOT jailed to prevent the spread of AIDS, and were NOT even asked NOT to have sex even after it was determined Sex is how the disease was spread. They are people in the Health Professional (i.e. about the spread of disease NOT its cure) who still would like the law to require you to give out the names of everyone you had sex with and even be permitted to give out people's names so that the fact he or she had AIDS could be plastered all over the place (So that people who had sex with the affected person could seek out help and help prevent the Disease from being spread). The Homosexual community opposed these practices and the Federal Government under Reagan agreed with their opposition. This was the main reason AIDS spread so fast after 1981, was this concern about the CiviL Rights of the Homosexual Community.
As to a cure, AIDS is difficult. They have only been one Viral infection ever "Curd", that was rabies. While it is now down to three shots, for almost 100 years it was 21 shoots over 21 days in the stomach, one shot per day. We have had vaccines, but vaccines do NOT cure, they prevent a person from getting a viral infection. Rabies vaccines worked as a "Cure" do to the nature of Rabies. It took several weeks for Rabies to grow to the level to affect someone. During that time period you could develop an immunity by having the 21 shots (Now 3 shots).
AIDS is different, it is a constantly mutating decease. In the 1980s it was thought that AIDS had two forms, one was minor and helped spread the AIDS the other the true killer. It would take time, but it was thought that the minor AIDS virus mutated to the KILLER type. In the 1990s the true nature of AIDS came to light. AIDS was a constantly changing virus. As it mutated from one version to the next, the body would have to develop new antibodies to the new form of AIDS. Thus the body and the AIDS virus went into a see-saw battle. AIDS would affect a body, the body would develop antibodies to that version of AIDS. Then AIDS would mutate, and the body had to develop new anti-bodies. This would go on and on. Sometimes the body would win and defeat AIDS (Rare but does happen) but most times AIDS slowly gets the upper hand against the Antibodies. This weakens the body to other diseases (most people do NOT technically dies of AIDS, some other diseases is the actual killer, but these are diseases people do not normally catch let alone die off except the body is so weaken by AIDS that the person dies from these relatively minor decease).
Anyway back to Ronald Reagan and AIDS. Under Reagan, the Government did a lot a BASIC research on AIDS. The US even looked into the 50 year British project to cure the Common colds for ways to defeat AIDS (The British Project to find a cure for the common cold was de-funded in the 1980s so Britain could transfer the funds to AIDS research, but the basic idea of how virus spread and mutated was first extensively research in the British project to find a cure for the Common Cold). The chief result of the British research was the common cold was NOT that common (in the sense the Common Cold was a constantly changing Virus, whose defeat by the body is still unknown do to the complexity of the cold Virus and its constantly changing form). This type of Basic research for AIDS was done under Reagan. This basic Research lead to most of the treatments we have today for AIDS victims. Thus to blame Reagan for NOT doing anything on AIDS is wrong, he did a lot. The bad points was his refusal to treat AIDS as a Disease, instead treating it as a Civil Rights Problem, the good points is the basic research he funded giving us a better idea of how AIDS works.
As to a cure, the problem is we have NEVER found a cure for any Viral infection (Even Rabies is a vaccine that works AFTER you are exposed to the Virus, do to the slow speed Rabies affects people NOT do to any actual real cure for Rabies). The efforts at a Vaccine have all failed do to the nature of AIDS to mutate so that the it is a constantly changing. We have some to various dead ends on AIDS research (Through you will NOT hear anyone said that, let AIDS research grant end like the British Common COld research needed in the 1980s do to similar problems, i.e. the more they found out about the Disease, the less it looks like we will ever find a "cure"). More research is needed, but a Cure is unlikely. Thus the problem can be traced ot Reagan and his refusal to take the heat and treat AIDS as a disease, but how would the Homosexual Community reacted to a traditional approach to a new Sexually transmitted disease? A disease that first appeared in the Homosexual community?? No Reagan did what he could given the nature of the Country at that time. Reagan did a lot of harm to the US, but AIDS was not one of them.
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