The discourse on “should we close the bathhouses” during the AIDS epidemic is basically identical to how people talked about how to respond to COVID. There are far too many parallels
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For my money: preemptive shutdown to prevent highly lethal transmission (during periods of high mortality/when research is catching up to pathogens) followed by institution of preventative measures & adaptations to allow resumption of social activity is the way to go
I do wonder if bathhouses have ever returned to their previous business heights (particularly in the hookup app smartphone age) compared to the late 70s/early 80s. Hard to shed a tear for the owners either way.
With Covid it would’ve been ideal to simply have adopted widespread (& publicly funded - just get masks everywhere) preventions - including adopting new norms for air filtration in public places. It’s a no-brainer. Not cheap, but in the long run cost effective. Lost opportunity.
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