Of course, widespread fears among the public were promoted by respectable spokespeople like Oprah and Magic Johnson who claimed that HIV didn’t discriminate, that everybody was at risk. In reality, the one broad public health danger was that the blood supply for transfusions was infected, which was pretty awful, and killed a bunch of hemophiliacs and surgery patients.

Fortunately, a test was developed fairly quickly and policies for discriminating against male homosexuals and needle junkies were quickly put in place at blood banks. Otherwise, outside of junkies and male homosexuals who liked to catch as well as pitch, Americans were in little danger of catching HIV. But that didn’t stop the respectable press from stoking sleepless nights, and then retconning history to pin the blame on Reagan of all people.