Fauci guided US through AIDS crisis, too. Survivors say it's a roadmap for coronavirus.

Most patients died with friends and family at their bedsides.“With (COVID-19), it eliminates any continued contact with people who are facing maybe the last days or hours of their life, and it is incredibly difficult, not only for patients and medical staff, but also families to abide by this concept of social distancing for people who are in the process of dying,” Wright said.USA TODAY investigation:Coronavirus response delayed despite health officials’ private alarmHealth experts worldwide say society will likely be forced to adjust to life with COVID-19, similar to how people, especially gay men, adapted to the AIDS outbreak.Those who were sexually active had to establish new cultural norms for intimate interactions.“Gay men had to learn to relate to one another with shields and barriers,” said Perry Halkitis, a dean of the Rutgers University school of public health and a specialist in HIV/AIDS prevention. They also say leaders must address systemic disparities among minorities and others that result in the spread of illnesses, such as poor living conditions and lacking access to transportation.The coronavirus test that wasn’t: How federal health officials misled state scientists and derailed the best chance at containmentAt the height of the AIDS epidemic, doctors and counselors advised gay men to treat anyone with whom they had intimate contact as though they were HIV-positive, a way of thinking that could guide social interactions in the age of COVID-19.“If you made that assumption, you protected yourself from other people, and they protected themselves from you,” Johnson said.After the AIDS outbreak, many gay men also began taking their overall health more seriously, going to the doctor for routine physicals and getting vaccinations for illnesses such as the flu.“This is another one of those crises that is going to force us to be better,” Halkitis said.