# What Could Ronald Reagan Have Done \[About AIDS\]? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 7, 2004, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085 "2004-06-07T12:16:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/1 "2004-06-07T12:16:03Z")
(I am not sure if this is a GD or a Pit, move it as you might like.) So Ronald Reagan is dead. The man is as loved and hated in the grave a he was in office. I myself sort of like the guy. Many people have been criticizing RR for not doing enough soon enough on AIDS. I do not see what he could have done that would have made a difference. But, I am willing to be educated. As I see it, if in 1970-something RR had come out and called for bathhouses to be closed, or for gays to use condoms or whatever, he would have been derided by the very people he was trying to help. Heck when SF tried to shut the bathouses in the eighties The Community hit the roof. Increasing AIDS funding Way Back When would not (I think) made a difference. AIDS drugs might have come online faster, but terribly so. Such action would not have nipped the problem in the bud. OK, so I am showing my own ignorance here. In an alternate timeline what could RR have done, and what impact might it have had? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/2 "2004-06-07T13:49:23Z")
He could have been a pro-gay-rights, pro-abortion liberal. It wouldn’t have solved the problem any faster, but he wouldn’t be pilloried for it, because the AIDS activists like those guys. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/3 "2004-06-07T14:12:30Z")
He could have permitted C. Everett Koop to speak publicly about AIDS before his second term. He could have suggested to his cabinet that we have a bit of an epidemic on our hands, so maybe we should listen to the nice doctor rather than try to get in his way because we’re upset that stopping the epidemic will involve talking about seeeeeeeeeeeex. He could, for fuck’s sake, have _mentioned_ the disease sometime before _1987_. He could have named a Watkins Commission that included fewer outspoken critics of AIDS education, more scientists who had participated in AIDS research, and more doctors who had treated PWAs. He could have paid more attention to the commission’s report when it was released. Here’s an [article](http://www.thebody.com/encyclo/presidency.html) on the subject from [TheBody.com](http://TheBody.com), an encyclopedia of HIV and AIDS. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/4 "2004-06-07T14:15:51Z")
He could have provided some reassurance on the topic, instead of letting it erupt into a full-grown panic. I remember 1988 clearer than I’d like to. Reassurance was something Reagan was good at. Instead, he just waited for it all to go away. His own scientific advisers were telling him that sooner or later, this disease was going to make the crossover to white heterosexuals. He did nothing until white heterosexuals began dying en masse due to tainted blood from transfusions, among other reasons. I mean, talk about fiddling while Rome burned. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/5 "2004-06-07T14:29:24Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > He could have… All those things are true. But I think Paul’s point is that Reagan is, to a bizarre extent, being blamed for the spread of the disease, as if he personally was running around having unprotected sex with everyone in sight, sharing needles, and tainting the blood supply. The question I think was meant to ask what was the marginal result of Reagan’s not publicly addressing the issue? I cannot help but notice that nobody is blaming Pierre Trudeau or Brian Mulroney for the spread of the disease despite the fact that the pattern of infections in Canada mirrored the U.S. experience. In Canada, we certainly were quick to blame the RED CROSS for its appalling fuckups with respect to the blood supply, but nobody personally attacks Mulroney over it. I find that curious; our government screwed the pooch on this issue just as badly as the U.S. government, but in the U.S. case people want to blame Reagan (and Bush 1.0) rather than the agencies that screwed up, whereas in our case we blame the agencies involved. I believe the European experience was much the same, too. That would suggest that Reagan’s behaviour didn’t have a lot to do with the epidemic. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/6 "2004-06-07T14:29:29Z")
Here’s a letter from today’s _NY Times_, echoing what I was thinking reading Reagan’s 4-page obit: > [@](#): > > "I find it incredible that there was no mention of the AIDS epidemic in your June 6 front-page obituary of Ronald Reagan. During his tenure, tens of thousands of Americans died of this disease. Many more became infected. Hospitals in metropolitan centers were full of people suffering and dying from complications from AIDS. For years, we begged, we pleaded, we lobbied and we marched in the streets to get the attention of the Great Communicator, knowing that leadership in the fight against AIDS was sorely needed. Alas, no support came. On the subject of AIDS, Mr. Reagan was silent. Years from now, I believe that people will look back on the Reagan years and scratch their heads, puzzled by the lack of sensitivity and interest he displayed. AIDS, not the fall of the Berlin Wall, may very well be the marker by which Ronald Reagan’s presidency is judged. > > CHRISTOPHER L. BABICK > _The writer is a former executive director of People With AIDS Coalition, New York City._ ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/7 "2004-06-07T14:29:50Z")
Excuse me, but what would good would talking about sex do? Do people change their sexual practices based on government edict? I was around during those times. I knew I had to use a condom. Not trying to be combative here, but unleashing C Everette Coop would have changed things how exactly? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/8 "2004-06-07T14:36:17Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > Excuse me, but what would good would talking about sex do? Do people change their sexual practices based on government edict? I was around during those times. I knew I had to use a condom. > > Not trying to be combative here, but unleashing C Everette Coop would have changed things how exactly? > [@](#): > > At a time when the surgeon general could have played an invaluable role in public health education, Koop was prevented from even addressing AIDS publicly. Then, in February 1986, Reagan asked Koop to write a report on the AIDS epidemic. Koop had come to the attention of conservatives in the Reagan administration because of his leading role in the anti-abortion movement. Reagan administration officials fully expected Koop to embrace conservative principles in his report on AIDS. > > When the Surgeon General’s Report on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome was released to the public on October 22, 1986, it was a call for federal action in response to AIDS, and it underscored the importance of a comprehensive AIDS education strategy, beginning in grade school. Koop advocated the widespread distribution of condoms and concluded that mandatory identification of people with HIV or any form of quarantine would be useless in addressing AIDS. As part of Koop’s broad federal education strategy, the Public Health Service sent AIDS mailers to 107 million American households. Koop’s actions brought him into direct conflict with William Bennett, Reagan’s secretary of education. Bennett opposed Koop’s recommendations and called for compulsory HIV testing of foreigners applying for immigration visas, for marriage license applicants, for all hospital patients, and for prison inmates. - op.cit. ---
**Author:** ![scule](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@scule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scule)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/9 "2004-06-07T14:40:41Z")
> [@](#): > > Excuse me, but what would good would talking about sex do? Do people change their sexual practices based on government edict? I was around during those times. I knew I had to use a condom. > > Not trying to be combative here, but unleashing C Everette Coop would have changed things how exactly? My thoughts exactly. Reagan could have said more, but it would likely not have made a huge difference for anything but sentiment. In reading about HIV and its initial spread in North America, I’ve noticed that there was a very significant amount of resistance in the gay community to safe-sex messages. It’s understandable, of course, because gay rights and recognition were still a very new thing. I don’t see Reagan as being a significant influence among the gay community to be safe when the party was just getting started, so to speak. Reagan might have been better focussing on African prevention, by encouraging African leaders to adopt prevention tactics earlier, but no one was really prepared for that disaster so I don’t think it’s fair to blame him. ---
**Author:** ![scule](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@scule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scule)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/10 "2004-06-07T14:44:35Z")
And of course as I wrote that **matt\_mcl** posts his quote and shows me to be off base. Good point, I should have said that yes, Reagan was obstructionist towards addressing the issue properly. However, I still don’t think it would have made that huge a difference in the gay community, since they got the message early and effectively anyway, and AIDS never really blew up in the hetero community here like it did in Africa, so I still don’t think he’s fully to blame. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/11 "2004-06-07T14:44:54Z")
Well testing everyone who wanted to get married would have to have helped. I guess it is really too intrusive. Should RR have done that? Would that have helped? AIDS hit the fan right why Herpes was becoming popular. People knew to use condoms. If C Everette Coop had called for gays to use condoms, for people to be careful, would the Gat Community have listened? Even now we have people claiming some groups of people are immune to AIDS, that AIDS is caused by (you name it, but not by bear-back riding). So if an old Hollywood actor had done his best, would that have made a dent in people’s denial? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/12 "2004-06-07T14:46:10Z")
The Gat Community? I guess that was supposed to be “Gay Community.” Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![GLWasteful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f05b48/32.png) [@GLWasteful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GLWasteful)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/13 "2004-06-07T15:06:47Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > He could have been a pro-gay-rights, pro-abortion liberal. > > It wouldn’t have solved the problem any faster, but he wouldn’t be pilloried for it, because the AIDS activists like those guys. No, he could have remained the dotty old coot that he was: half-assed about his opposition to abortion and pretty adamantly anti-gay rights. But if he had allowed Koop to get the word out, he would be looked far more fondly. Well, in this regard, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/14 "2004-06-07T15:12:12Z")
IMO it wouldn’t have made one bit of difference…but it would have LOOKED good, and thats what most people are concerned with. Someone like Clinton could have used slick meaningless words and dropped platituded out the ass, and the result would most likely been exactly the same (people being people)…but the PERCEPTION would have been that they were DOING SOMETHING (echo echo echo), blah blah blah. Personally I think this problem was beyond RR’s abilities to really grasp. The guy was a stone age conservative. His mind just couldn’t wrap around a ‘gay’ problem, and he couldn’t grasp how something effecting the Gay Community could cross over to heteros. I cut the guy some slack on this…it was simply a problem beyond him IMO. I know that people want a president to be all things to all people, to be brilliant and shrewd and able to deal with anything…but the reality is they are just men, and RR was an OLD man, set in his ways, a conservative of the old school, and this was simply something he couldn’t grasp the importance of. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/15 "2004-06-07T15:12:34Z")
Fair enough, but would that have made any objective difference? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/16 "2004-06-07T15:14:03Z")
I like what Xtisme just said. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/17 "2004-06-07T15:14:20Z")
He could have addressed the freakin’ issue, as opposed to (inadvertently) providing the impression that the government did not regard AIDS as a matter of any great importance. He could have made federal funding appear a hell of a lot quicker for studying the disease, isolating it, containing it, and most importantly, testing the blood supply for its presence, preventing the slow deaths of a great many people who never did anything Reagan disapproved of. The bottom line was that Reagan simply didn’t want to hear it, and he did not, for the most part, until it became clear even to him that it was not going to go away. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/18 "2004-06-07T15:14:38Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > If C Everette Coop had called for gays to use condoms, for people to be careful, would the Gay Community have listened? Even now we have people claiming some groups of people are immune to AIDS, that AIDS is caused by (you name it, but not by bear-back riding). He wouldn’t have saved everyone who, as it was, contracted HIV after he would have addressed the issue. However, I feel that his silence intensified not only ignorance and confusion, but also hysteria, fear, and attacks on gays and PWAs among the general population. If this were really a matter of national moment and not some scary plague limited to the preverts, the President would be saying something about it. > [@](#): > > So if an old Hollywood actor had done his best, would that have made a dent in people’s denial? I think so. I don’t think it would have stopped it in its tracks, but it certainly would have done more good than (for fuck’s sake!) not mentioning the damn epidemic for six years. And I can’t think of any good reason for him not to have spoken up. (Provided, of course, that in speaking up he would have treated it as an epidemic that called for a rational approach to prevention, rather than as some kind of punishment from God whose solution should be limited to just saying ‘no.’ That would have done more harm than good, and it’s more or less what the rest of his administration favoured, as far as I can tell.) ---
**Author:** ![GLWasteful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f05b48/32.png) [@GLWasteful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GLWasteful)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/19 "2004-06-07T15:28:43Z")
**xtisme** : The man was an actor. He had been an actor for much longer than he had been a stone age conservative. He knew that homosexuality existed. He had interacted with homosexual people. His mind (heh) had no freaking problem understanding the issue. He just chose to ignore it until well after straight people who had actually supported him died. “Conservative of the old school,” my ass. He just thought that if he wished hard enough, it would only kill people that he didn’t support and move along. Waste ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085/20 "2004-06-07T15:32:34Z")
> [@scule](#): > > Reagan might have been better focussing on African prevention . . . (Mental image of Reagan solemnly announcing, “Remember, only _you_ can prevent Africans.”) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-ronald-reagan-have-done-about-aids/249085.md?page=2)