Viral Memories: from HIV to COVID-19 and Beyond

COVID-19 altered how we feel about risk and wellbeing. In some ways, this has happened before: in the 1980s and 90s, HIV caused the AIDS pandemic, which transformed how we related to each other. Since then, HIV has transformed from a death sentence to a chronic, manageable, condition with several prevention methods. However today, for many, HIV remains associated with gay men, who have turned to their experiences and memories of it to understand and live through COVID-19. 

Through interviews with younger and older gay men, this project explored how they remember HIV during COVID-19, and how their memories and experiences of HIV might have helped them navigate COVID-19 risk in the UK. It has also looked at how COVID-19 has changed the ways in which gay men remember and think about HIV. 

The researchers have worked with community organisations to develop better ways of communicating about risk and to write a new chapter in the history of gay communities. 

You can see some of the early publications here:  

Garcia-Iglesias, Jaime, Sophie Atherton, and Peter Aggleton. 2024. “From AIDS to COVID-19, and Back Again.” Culture, Health and Sexuality, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2024.2408336 

Abstract: This paper examines the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on memories and metaphors associated with the earlier AIDS epidemic. It argues that while previous research has focused on how HIV informs COVID-19, the reverse relationship has received insufficient attention. The authors propose a more comprehensive understanding of the issues, using insights from the sociology of memory. Experiences during COVID-19 not only reshape perceptions of HIV in the present but also transform how we remember the AIDS crisis of the past. We discuss the impact of these pandemics particularly for gay and bisexual men and their connected communities. Doing so underscores the co-construction of collective memories in the present, suggesting that COVID-19 has not only redefined our experience of HIV, but it has also reframed our understanding of the earlier AIDS crisis. We conclude by highlighting the potential for these transformations to be leveraged for empowerment, political action and change. Revisiting and reframing our memories of AIDS in the light of COVID-19 can open up new avenues for optimism and positive engagement.