http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/8-mistakes-were-making-about-ebola-we-also-made-when-aids-appeared?akid=12377.294211.jn06At&rd=1&src=newsletter1023618&t=3
Anyone who was alive in the 1980s will find these headlines familiar:
- “Rare cancer seen!”
- “AIDS: Fatal, Incurable, and Spreading!”
- “AIDS Alert After 3 Babies Die!”
- “Now No One is Safe From AIDS!”
The sheer panic the new and unfamiliar disease caused was mirrored
and amplified in the media in a way we have not seen since. Until now.
The parallels between reactions to Ebola and AIDS are evident in the
media coverage of the crisis today. The same jittery headlines, same
hysterical fear of a deadly disease, same paranoia, and in some cases,
same prejudices.
The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Thomas
Frieden, who was also involved in the fight against AIDS, recently
compared the two diseases. "In my 30 years in public health, the only
thing that has been like this is AIDS,” he said. “We have to work now so
that this is not the world's next AIDS."
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