I see some similarities (not medically) but more social/political. Remember when HIV first came out everyone was afraid of catching "The AIDS" and it didn't help with people speculating how contagious it was (lookup Dr. Fauci and HIV and see some of the things he put out there that scared people which turned out to not be true).
And of course, if you got "The AIDS", then that meant one of two things:
1) You were a drug addict and deserved it
2) you were a homo and deserved it
Kinda like COVID.
If you got COVID it was:
1) because you were selfish and didn't "stay home", and thus, deserved to catch it
2) You didn't wear your mask, and thus deserved to catch it (even if you DID wear your mask)
3) You were doing the "wrong things", and are a bad, horrible person, and thus deserved to catch it.
Anyone who got COVID "early on" was shunned and treated like a Pariah.