1980s. Reagan repeatedly avoids HIV/AIDS ‘conversation’

Ronald Reagan (right) with Jesse Helms, the man who blocked Federal funding of needle and syringe exchange programmes.
One of the reasons I began this blog was to record our history: another was to challenge any re-writing of that history for political expediency. But never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that a Democratic candidate for the US Presidency would so glibly re-write history to paint Republicans Ronald and Nancy Reagan in a positive light.
Hillary Clinton has, apparently, apologised for ‘mis-speaking’ after claiming that the Reagans ‘started a national conversation about HIV/AIDS’. ‘Mis-speaking’ means claiming that the Reagan’s were keen to address the topic when, in reality, they went out of their way to avoid the subject.
Ronald Reagan first said the word AIDS in public on 17th September 1985.* Even then, he did not raise the topic himself; he was merely responding to questions at a Press conference. By that stage there were 15,948 recorded cases of AIDS in the USA, of which 5,636 had died.
When a journalist asked him if he thought children with AIDS should be allowed to attend school – a reference to immense bigotry being experienced by 14 year-old Ryan White – Reagan replied:
“I can well understand the plight of the parents and how they feel about it. I also have compassion, as I think we all do, for the child that has this and doesn’t know and can’t have it explained to him why somehow he is now an outcast and can no longer associate with his playmates and schoolmates. On the other hand, I can understand the problem with the parents. It is true that some medical sources had said that this cannot be communicated in any way other than the ones we already know and which would not involve a child being in the school. And yet medicine has not come forth unequivocally and said, ‘This we know for a fact’, that it is safe. And until they do, I think we just have to do the best we can with this problem. I can understand both sides of it.”
It was classic ‘political speak’ for “I’d rather not get involved” but, by saying what he did, he either lied or demonstrated an appalling ignorance of AIDS research. In 1983, the US Centers for Disease Control had issued a very clear statement ruling out casual transmission of AIDS.
But Reagan was unwilling to say this, as it would have appeared that he was criticising those who argued that AIDS was a threat to their families. On the other hand, Ryan White and all the other children with AIDS were the epitome of the ‘innocent’ AIDS’ victim’; and Reagan’s approach to AIDS was very much informed by the moralistic jargon of ‘innocent’ versus ‘culpable’ AIDS victims. So, rather than take a position one way or the other – and start a real dialogue about the realities of AIDS – he pleaded ignorance in order to get off the hook.
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