Help Us Stay Paywall-Free

We rely on readers to keep our website open to all. Help sustain a public space for collective reasoning and imagination—make a tax-deductible donation today.

Image: ACT UP

April 5, 2020

From HIV/AIDS to COVID-19

Are there any useful comparisons to be made between the two pandemics?

On social media this week, an image circulated of a face mask riffing on David Wojnarowicz’s famous denim jacket, on which he had painted his protest of the FDA’s mishandling of the AIDS crisis. The image has been controversial, but comparisons between government ineptitude in the face of COVID-19 and AIDS are neither groundless nor intrinsically disrespectful.

At the same time, we can ask whether such comparisons are necessarily useful. In a new piece from Boston Review stalwart Michael Bronski, he argues that despite the parallels between the two pandemics, “there is probably less to learn from these comparisons than many now suppose.” Instead, what is abundantly clear is that the United States has learned almost nothing from HIV about how to deal forthrightly and honestly with a major health crisis.

Writing in her new essay, “Love One Another or Die,” Amy Hoffman agrees. She describes the overarching similarity as being one of inaction, and that Trump’s strategy of “ignore it, cover it up, and wish it away . . . while thousands suffer and die” isn’t unprecedented—it’s the status quo. Indeed, it’s exactly what Reagan did during the AIDS crisis. Still, Hoffman argues we can learn a lot from how the queer community came together under seige to care for one another.

And in Alex de Waal’s wide-ranging historical analysis of pandemics published today, he argues that our reaction to COVID-19 can learn from ACT UP’s response to inaction in the face of HIV/AIDS. “Each pandemic is different,” he writes, “but the logic of political action is much the same.”

Supplemented with archival essays that analyze the HIV/AIDS crisis from a range of angles, these three new installments in today’s reading list offer a moment of critical reflection amidst the noise of a news cycle that superficially implies COVID-19 and AIDS are much alike, without actually stopping to reflect on what that might mean for how we act now.

Amy Hoffman
During the AIDS crisis, different contingents of the LGBTQ movement set aside their differences to prioritize mutual care. What can we learn from this strategy today? And why is it still so difficult to talk about AIDS?
Michael Bronski
The HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics are very different, but both reveal that the United States has never understood the connection between community and personal well-being.
Alex de Waal
We should be wary of simplistic uses of history, but we can learn from the logic of social responses.
Jeremy Lybarger
In his acerbic and often hilarious Village Voice column, Gary Indiana documented a cultural world being lost to AIDS and corporate greed.
Andrew Spieldenner

“I was living in fast-forward, trying desperately to have a life before I died.” A veteran AIDS activist recalls living in the Bay Area during the 1990s, the queer people of color usually left out of the epidemic’s history, and how the decade taught him to value endings.

Our weekly themed Reading Lists compile the best of Boston Review’s archive. Sign up for our newsletters to get them straight to your inbox before they appear online.

Boston Review is nonprofit and reader funded.

We believe in the power of collective reasoning and imagination to create a more just world. That’s why we’re committed to keeping our website free and open to everyone, regardless of ability to pay. But we can’t do it without the financial support of our readers.

Help sustain a public space for collective reasoning and imagination, without ads or paywalls:

Become a supporting reader today.

Get Our Newsletter

Sign up to get vital reading on politics, literature, and more sent straight to your inbox.

Most Recent

Lewis Gordon and Nathalie Etoke discuss the space for freedom opened up by Black existentialist thought.

Nathalie Etoke, Lewis Gordon

The post-work movement reckons with reproductive labor.

Rachel Fraser

Melvin Rogers and Neil Roberts discuss the difficulty of keeping faith in a foundationally anti-Black republic.

Melvin Rogers, Neil Roberts

We can't publish without your support.

For nearly 50 years, Boston Review has been a home for collective reasoning and imagination on behalf of a more just world.

But our future is never guaranteed. As a small, independent nonprofit, we have no endowment or single funder. We rely on contributions from readers like you to sustain our work.

If you appreciate what we publish and want to help ensure a future for the great writing and constructive debate that appears in our pages, please make a tax-deductible donation today.

"An indispensable pillar of the public sphere."

That’s what sociologist Alondra Nelson says of Boston Review. Independent and nonprofit, we believe in the power of collective reasoning and imagination to create a more just world.

That’s why there are no paywalls on our website, but we can’t do it without the support of our readers. Please make a tax-deductible donation to help us create a more inclusive and egalitarian public sphere—open to everyone, regardless of ability to pay.