@ArthurP with this said, if you know your geography the Congo was a protectorate of France during that period. That is why the flight went from France to the Congo. Also, not Thabo Mbeki, but the illiterate Jacob Zuma and trust me, South Africans were in an uproar due to his misguided sense of judgement and knowledge. All he was good for was corruption and stealing billions. The main reason for our countries now junk status. Thabo was actually one of the best presidents spending the least money and achieving more in his short term than any other to date.

@Lee124 I fear your knowledge of RSA's HIV/AIDS policy is sadly mistaken. I agree that in many ways, Mbeki was the last really effective president, but not in connection with the spread of AIDS. South Africa’s heavy toll from HIV can be directly laid at the feet of Mbeki, who delayed launching an antiretroviral (ARV) drug program, charging that the drugs were toxic and an effort by the West to weaken his country. Mbeki withdrew government support from clinics that had started using AZT to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. He also restricted the use of a pharmaceutical company’s donated supply of nevirapine, another drug that helps keep newborns from contracting HIV. It was, ironically, the thug Zuma who finally reversed the situation. On October 29, 2009, Zuma, who had been elected president the previous May, gave a speech which was seen as the final reversal of Mbeki's AIDS denialism. In the speech, Zuma acknowledged HIV/AIDS as one of South Africa's most serious problems, saying that "...all South Africans need to know their HIV status, and be informed of the treatment options available to them.

These are FACTS.

By the way, where are you suggesting AIDS originated? France? When all scientific evidence makes a direct trans-species transmission in the central African region.

@ArthurP Thank you for your responses. I'm not adverse to learning and grateful you made me go back and do some further research. My initial response regarding France was from my 76 year aunt and decided to air her views on the subject.

As for SA's handling of the virus and Zuma - administration and research started way before Zuma. He though, was the cause of many child rapes in SA when he publically stated that sleeping with a virgin can cure you of AIDS or taking a shower after will avoid contraction of the virus.

https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-official-government-hivaids-policy-south-africa

Here is a link of how the HIV pandemic was handled throughout government administration.

@Cierzo I wish I could say the same about you

@Cierzo Science does not work by consensus. There was once a consensus by scientists that continents do not move and have always been where they are now for entire history of the planet.

@Mugin16 I hate the word consensus more and more. It has become a synonime for 'my funded minions (scientists, journalists, artists or whoever) will tell what is right or wrong, and if you move from that belief, you are a dangerous individual'

@novembermoon well said.

@novembermoon Great answer. Some people are saying this is a war. It is not. Virus do not choose whom they attack. Armies and governments do.

Putting adjectives to natural catastrophes is distraction, and often there are dark interests behind it.

@Sssslm I have always hated that 1918 influenza has been called 'Spanish flu', as if we had been guilty of infecting the same world. And cannot help noticing that all this branding has always the same origin 🇱🇷. Other countries are the bad guys, and they are the saviours.

@Reflection2 It is unfair for America the same way Covid-19 is for China or 1918 flu was for Spain

@Cierzo I don't know who did it but at least some relief to know it's lab created by some sick head scientists. If it is a result of natural mutation than we should be ready for such outbreaks every few years. This world is too mixed up, even with animal kingdom to avoid such more lethal mutated viruses spreading in human.

@TheFlippantSide The first cases were not made public in Africa.

The same way Spanish flu did not originate in Spain but in Kansas.

@Cierzo wrong on both fronts

“We don't know and will probably never know,” John M. Barry, the author of "The Great Influenza," a history of the 1918 flu, told USA TODAY. In his book, Barry advanced the theory that the virus began in rural Kansas, but “work since then has caused me to back away from that. The best evidence points to China. Other theories suggest France or Vietnam.”