Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966
I didn't understand the AIDS epidemic until I listened to a podcast [1] where they interviewed a gay survivor.  I can't imagine my friends dying off one by one around me from an unknown specter.  The government pretending you didn't exist and ignoring you because it was a "gay problem".  Society demonizing you.<p>He said that even after it was understood that AIDS was not transmissible by touch, morgues would refuse to accept the bodies of gay men.  When people knew they were at the end of the rope, they would ask their friends to throw their ashes over the fence into the white house lawn.  That way as their final act, they could tell the government that their active silence was literally killing people and that even if they considered them others, they wouldn't be ignored.<p>It's heartbreaking, but I'd recommend anyone to listen to the interview if you don't know much about that period in history.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/shame-on-you/e/66787240" rel="nofollow">https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/shame-on-you/e/66787240</a>