undefined | Better HN

0 pointsfortran775y ago0 comments

Isaac Asimov was so embarrassed to have contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion that it wasn't mentioned 'til after his death.

0 comments

djaque5y ago

I had no idea that he died of AIDS and that was in the 90s. It's terrifying how recent it was that he would have received public backlash for contracting a disease during a surgery.

foldr5y ago

I feel like you're leaving homophobia out of the equation. Asimov was ashamed, and there would have been a backlash, because society associated AIDS with gay men. If people had really believed that he'd got it through surgery, there wouldn't have been a bad reaction.

neltnerb5y ago

To be fair, 1990 is 30 years ago.

I remember how much of a hero Magic Johnson was presented as being for simply publicly admitting he got it during surgery and advocating.

It was brave for a multi-millionaire celebrity to admit publicly that he got it by accident. If he'd have been gay too my gosh... what scandal...

Terrifying indeed.

redis_mlc5y ago

At the time, some pediatricians used to give moms after birth a pint of blood to "pinken them up" (make their cheeks rosy.)

Of course, that gratuitous pint gave some of them AIDS or liver disease for no useful purpose.

More and more you realize hospitals are the most dangerous place to be, emphasized by corona, but the CDC maintains a list of about 18 infectious diseases rampant in hospitals today.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse