Answer:
The initial response was making fun of it. And only after 4 years of the health crisis did the Reagan administration accept the severity of the epidemic. there began researches, awareness programs, medicinal trials, and the urge to find a cure for it.
Step-by-step explanation:
When the HIV AIDS epidemic first began in the early 1980s, the Reagan administration seemed to find it hilarious and even made jokes about it. The acceptance of the epidemic came only by 1985 when the President publicly acknowledged the epidemic as a "top priority".
In the recently unearthed documentary "When AIDS was Funny" by Scott Calonico was released, the Press Secretary to the President, Larry Speakes seemed to take it as a joke about the epidemic that killed one in every three people. Referred to as "gay plague", Speakes as well as members of the media would take it as a joke and make fun of it. It would be after a couple of says that the president would openly accept the epidemic as a serious threat.
The health emergency would be openly accepted by the leaders of the country after 4 years since it began. It was then that the issue would be met with medicines, research, and various awareness programs.