Ronald Reagan and the AIDS Crisis of the 1980s

What a Creep
Season 26, Episode 4
President Ronald Reagan and the AIDS crisis
When the AIDS epidemic started in the early ’80s, the Reagan administration's response mainly involved making jokes in the daily press briefings. Throughout his two terms as president, Reagan and his administration didn’t even do the bare minimum to help. According to The Atlantic, almost 83,000 cases of AIDS were confirmed while Reagan was in the White House, and nearly 50,000 people died of the disease. Reagan, what a creep.
Trigger warning: Homophobia

• Sources for this episode
• The Atlantic
• Buzzfeed
• History
• HIV.gov
• The New Yorker
• PBS
• “The Reagans,” a documentary series on Showtime
• "When AIDS Was Funny," a short film directed and produced by Scott Calonic
• Vice
• Vox
• Washington Post
• Wikipedia
• Wikipedia

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