A pandemic takes our society’s deep desire for blame, blends it with medical stereotyping and unleashes the joy-sucking dementors In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I heard this story often.
A man on a scooter gives another man a lift. A little later, the pillion rider gets off. As he does, the scooter owner feels a slight prick on the shoulder.
When he turns to look, the hitchhiker, who now has a syringe in his hand, tells him, “Welcome to the world of AIDS." Sometimes the setting would vary.
In a movie theatre, a man feels a prick on the arm. The stranger sitting next to him says, “Welcome to the world of AIDS", and leaves.