This is probably politically incorrect, but there was always a path to end AIDS, just like there was and is a path to end syphilis and gonorrhea. That path is safe sex: get tested, check your partner's test, wear condoms if you're both clean, and abstain from sex if you are infected. Venereal diseases continue to exist because selfish people put lust ahead of science and hygiene. People refuse to change their behavior, and, because (not "so long as") they refuse, there will be no end to venereal disease of any sort. Sure, there are edge cases of transmission by blood transfusion or something else non-sexual, but the vast bulk of cases are from irresponsible sex.
This is so unreal to me. In the 80’s AIDS was an enormous specter that guaranteed death. Now there are long term maintenance drugs that can be had for like $20/mo. Not that anyone wants to have to take pills for the rest of their life, but now they can be annoyed by it until old age.<p>I love science.