This whole situation is for me something like stepping into a time capsule and seeing the HIV/AIDS crisis happen all over again.

We had to fight for government initiative, for drug company involvement, and eventually for affordable access to treatment — because of homophobia, racism, classism.

People being infected with HIV and dying of AIDS were disproportionately gay, Black, and poor.

The American body politic and the pharmaceutical industry essentially yawned. Then as now, Dr Anthony Fauci was one of the few public health authorities calling for focused, well funded research and action.

Even still, we had to fight every step of the way against people who didn’t care or who believed that the people dying deserved to be dying.

The nation learned nothing from that episode, and our collective behavior has changed barely at all.

So color me not surprised.