Q Toon: Ugly Sweater Contest

It would have been nice if this idea had come to me last week, when it would have been in time for any of my subscriber publications' World AIDS Day editions. Sometimes the brain has no regard for deadlines.

After nearly four decades, HIV/AIDS still awaits a vaccine, although we now have mitigating treatments available. With their advertisements running on TV and other media alongside those for heart disease, diabetes, restless intestine syndrome, and erectile dysfunction, HIV/AIDS almost recedes into the background noise.

There are certain parallels between the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics. Where some gay men initially criticized health activists of being Cassandras and complained about having to wear condoms, a loud contingent of libertarian right-wingers disbelieve science and refuse to wear masks in public. 

We do not appear fated to wait decades for a coronavirus vaccine, which is a good thing. We need that vaccine to come out before the corona "bug chasers" do.