(Above: People with signs representing the number of AIDS victims, in New York's Central Park on Aug. 8, 1983.)

(From NBC News) Denial can be deadly! HIV and the coronavirus are very different viruses in terms of contagion and lethality. However, in both cases, early decisions made by government officials and members of the public affected how the outbreaks became global pandemics.

One example of this, according to Cleve Jones, a longtime HIV and LGBTQ activist, was the cavalier attitude displayed by individuals during the earliest days of both crises toward their chances of contracting the virus.

Jones, a close associate of gay icon Harvey Milk before Milk's assassination in 1978, stressed "how very difficult it was at first to tell other young gay men in San Francisco that there was a deadly virus spreading in their community and that "we had to change our behavior."

"It was not welcome at all," Jones told NBC News. "I had people spit on me."

That early refusal to properly reckon with the risk of contracting a new virus is also what stood out to Dr. Howard Grossman, a gay physician currently working in Wilton Manors, Florida, who served his medical residency at a public hospital in New York City when HIV first broke out. (To see the entire article, Click Here.)