Stephen Black (they/them)

ALT Screenshot of the HIV/AIDS epidemic article on history.com: By the end of 1984, AIDS had already ravaged the United States for a few years, affecting at least 7,700 people and killing more than 3,500. Scientists had identified the cause of AIDS-HIV-and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified all of its major transmission routes. Yet, U.S. leaders had remained largely silent and unresponsive to the health emergency. And it wasn't until September 1985, four years after the crisis began, that President Ronald Reagan first publicly mentioned AIDS.

ALT Screenshot of the Spanish flu article on history.com: Why Was The Spanish Flu Called The Spanish Flu? The Spanish Flu did not originate in Spain, though news coverage of it did. During World War I, Spain was a neutral country with free media that covered the outbreak from the start, first reporting on it in Madrid in late May of 1918. Meanwhile, Allied countries and the Central Powers had wartime censors who covered up news of the flu to keep morale high. Because Spanish news sources were the only ones reporting on the flu, many believed it originated there (the Spanish, meanwhile, believed the virus came from France and called it the "French Flu.")