HIV and COVID-19 have consequences for mental health. Fear of AIDS became part and parcel of AIDS. Its harm still haunts. The mental health repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic will live with us for years to come, and well after the virus has been brought under control.
HIV and COVID-19 also share mourning. During the AIDS crisis, we became expert at grief. How will we mourn those who died from the coronavirus? When your loss is part of a global pandemic, how do you make sense of that sorrow?
AIDS taught us that the crisis is not more important than the individuals affected by it. We talked about ‘people with AIDS’ (PWAs), not ‘AIDS victims’. They were people living as well as dying with AIDS. We put human dignity first and we looked after each other.
As with the early years of AIDS, those affected by the coronavirus are presented as faceless and nameless victims. This denial of dignity is a problem. It suggests that a higher value can be attached to some lives than others. We could not countenance that during the AIDS crisis. Ventilators must not be rationed.
The biggest lesson from AIDS is that it taught us to speak out. We stopped whispering in the shadows. There can be no deference to government or people with power during a pandemic. PWAs took control. They resolved that crisis. It was those most affected who ensured that governments, drug companies and healthcare providers stepped up. It was PWAs who demanded the treatment regimes that would go on to solve the crisis.
My four beloved friends did not die in vain. They helped pioneer a new future for healthcare where those most affected became key partners in its delivery. In this pandemic we need to follow their example. We cannot be passive. We need to multiply our toolkits to ensure we outlive COVID-19. If there are licensed ventilators to be had within the EU, we must compel our government, through the courts if necessary, to join all schemes that protect the right to life. We must demand access, again through the courts if need be, to experimental treatments.
And we must hold our government to account – legally if required – if it turns out that more of us died due to decisions they made or chose not to make.
Update, 18 April 2020: This article has been amended to clarify the communicability of the viruses and diseases in question.
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