<h1>The plague was worse... a lot worse...</h1>

The worst epidemic of AIDS we know of or have known of is the South African plague, which has as its highest infection rate only an excess of 15% ([source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_in_Africa)).  Assuming 100% lethality, that's only a 15%+ infection rate in small parts of Africa.  [The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60% of Europe's **total population**.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death)

AIDS is likely more lethal than the Black Death, but it's only transitted sexually.  To achieve the kill rate of the Plague, the average person would need to be sleeping around so much that you could easily connect the average person to any other average person through sexual activity in the same way we play [Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Degrees_of_Kevin_Bacon).

While I have little doubt the average person is permissive in their behavior, I have a substantial problem believing the average person is *that* permissive.  Far more common and easier to contract sexual diseases existed in the Medieval ages and yet had no where near the infection rate necessary to judge AIDS more deadly to the population of that time.

**In the end, the issue is not the lethality of the disease, but the ease with which it can be contracted.  The Plague was the proverbial million times easier to contrat than AIDS ever was or is.  Conclusion: the plague was worse... a lot worse...**