Right, I don't mean to downplay the severity of COVID at all. It's just interesting that we generally don't hear a lot about HIV/AIDS anymore, even though there were still 690,000 deaths associated with it in 2019.

I also realize that probably depends largely on where you live.

The treatments for HIV are incredibly effective, if you can afford them. It can even reduce your viral load to undetectable. There is a campaign that Undetectable=Untransmittable, to reduce the stigma associated with it. I have to admit I don't know if I'm comfortable with having unprotected sex with someone who had the virus, but the data says it's safe.

There is also pre exposure prophylaxis, which isn't a vaccine but does dramatically reduce the risk.

Between the two, the disease just isn't the problem it used to be -- assuming you can afford it. In poor counties it's still a problem.

HIV is not a proximity transmissible disease so the reality is it's well controlled anywhere you've managed to get the use of barrier contraception methods into widespread adoption.

And at the end of the day if it can't spread through casual contact then it's impact on wider society will be limited once it's understood.

> I also realize that probably depends largely on where you live.

Yeah, I think this can largely be explained by the usual tendency to focus on our own backyards. Google says 'nearly 13,000 people with AIDS in the United States die each year', and I assume the rate is similar in other wealthy countries. Even if we assume the full total is causally attributable to AIDS, that's significantly less than the usual toll from flu, which we also tend to treat rather casually (which isn't to say that we should).

HIV is only transmitted during the exchange of bodily fluids.

Beyond that, we learned to treat it extremely effectively, today if someone who is HIV-positive adheres to their antiretroviral therapy they have a normal life expectancy.