Regarding hindsight, I'm reminded of all the hysteria about letting HIV kids attend schools. Do you remember that?
Yes, though I wouldn't term it hysteria but grave parental concern. And at the time, when we had no idea how AIDS was transmitted and there was no effective treatment, let alone cure, it was a sensible precaution to take.
Suppose it had turned out that HIV was trasmitted as SARS does, or had the ability to mutate rapidly as flus do. Imagine us facing a killer flu with no flu shots and no treatments for the flu. That's what faced the world in the pandemic of 1918-19. Don't you think it would have been sensible for people to keep those flu sufferers out of schools?
At the emergence of AIDS, before researchers had any idea what caused it, how it was transmitted, or that there was any option other than to die from it, serious concern was not only not unreasonable, but highly appropriate.
As it turned out, HIV was not the Spanish Flu or the Black Death, and as we learned about it and how to deal with it the hysteria, your term, dropped off. But still we have the very dangerous case of people with HIV deliberately having unprotected sex with others without warning them. So concern and caution are still watchwords for parents of adolescents. As I know full well, being a parent of three. |
