UNEXPECTED
Déjà Vu How the COVID-19 Pandemic Parallels the 1980s HIV Crisis By Shanna Howard and Kanaka Sathasivan, MPH
FOR NURSES who have been practicing over the last four decades, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a stark parallel to the AIDS crisis of the late ‘80s, right down to seeing Dr. Anthony Fauci back on the news. From the zoonotic origins of the viruses, to the severe and rapid decline seen in people with AIDS or COVID-19, to how quickly both HIV and SARS-CoV-2 have spread with travel—nurses may be facing a new virus, but they are reliving the same challenges.
TRANSMISSION AND SPREAD The spread of both HIV and SARS-CoV-2 started with a lack of knowledge—especially upon their discovery—although communication, science, and technology move much faster now. While the novel coronavirus has been sequenced since January, more strains are found on a weekly basis but without clear connections to the severity of the illness. At the time of publication, we still do not know how many United States residents have gotten the virus and have inaccurate mortality and transmission rates. “You know HIV has really changed medicine,” says retired nurse educator Esther Wooten, BSN, MS. “You don’t sign an operative permit without being reminded about HIV. And if you get a transfusion, they’re exculpating themselves that it won’t be their fault if you catch HIV. It’s still out there, and that’s how prominent it became.”
Like HIV fueling homophobia, COVID-19 has fueled discrimination against AsianAmericans, nurses and doctors among them. Both diseases also have a serious impact on other minority communities. head nurse in the mid-80s at Bird S. Coler Memorial Hospital in New York City. She recalls being desperate for knowledge at the time. “I was wanting to learn, and I had all this literature that I got from the infectious disease faculty.” She read articles during her subway commute but remembers the fear people showed. “The subway was so jam-packed, and you would see slowly people start getting away from me.” While many illnesses start with confusion and anxiety, HIV and COVID-19 face a unique challenge that ultimately hinders public health: stigma.
STIGMA AND FEAR “Stigma is very big with HIV because of the transmission: bloodborne transmission with sexual activity or IV drug use,” says C. Andrew Martin, DNP, MS, RN, CNE, ACRN, CHPN, an HIV/AIDS certified registered nurse and doctorate of nursing practice program director and associate professor at Regis College.
Nurses today have information at their fingertips and the ease of communications means quick dissemination of knowledge. In contrast, the discovery of AIDS, and subsequently HIV, took several years.
That stigma led to people underestimating their own risk. “Everybody wanted to say it was just among homosexuals and that would be the only population affected,” says Wooten, “but all sexually active individuals were at risk.”
Maribel M. Marquez-Bhojani, MSHSA, BSN, RN, NPD-BC, was the
“COVID does not really have the stigma that HIV does, be-
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