Larry Speakes: Lester, I have not heard him express anything.
Lester Kinsolving: No, but I mean, is he going to do anything, Larry? Unidentified person: Has he sworn off water faucets now? Unidentified person: It isn't only the jocks, Lester. Lester Kinsolving: That seems to have evoked such jocular reaction here. Larry Speakes: I haven't heard him express concern. Lester Kinsolving: Is the president concerned about this subject, Larry? Will the president, as commander in chief, take steps to protect armed forces, food, and medical services from AIDS patients or those who run the risk of spreading AIDS in the same manner that they bed typhoid fever people from being involved in the health or food services? Lester Kinsolving: Can I ask the question, Larry? That an estimated 300,000 people have been exposed to AIDS, which can be transmitted through saliva. Larry Speakes: This is going to be an AIDS question. Lester Kinsolving: Since the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta report is going to… Larry Speakes: Lester is beginning to circle now. Here is audio from 1984, when more than 4,200 had died: Later exchanges include more joking and apathy about AIDS, including from members of the press, even after more was known about the seriousness of the epidemic. Larry Speakes: No, I don't know anything about it, Lester. Lester Kinsolving: Does the president - in other words, the White House - look on this as a great joke? Larry Speakes: You didn't answer my question. Lester Kinsolving: You don't have it? Well, I'm relieved to hear that, Larry! And I wonder if the president was aware of this. One in every three people that get this have died. Lester Kinsolving: Over a third of them have died. Larry Speakes: AIDS? I haven't got anything on it. Lester Kinsolving: Does the president have any reaction to the announcement by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta that AIDS is now an epidemic in over 600 cases? Here's the first exchange between Speakes and journalist Lester Kinsolving from 1982, when nearly 1,000 people had died from AIDS: In a new documentary short by Scott Calonico called When AIDS Was Funny, posted by Vanity Fair, audio of press conferences reveals Ronald Reagan's press secretary, Larry Speakes, and members of the media joking about the HIV/AIDS epidemic - which they called "gay plague" - and laughing about one of the reporters potentially having it. When the HIV/AIDS epidemic began in the 1980s, the Reagan administration's first reaction was chilling: It appeared to treat the epidemic as a joke.