Yet SARS-CoV-2 is a very different virus from those in the way that it seems to affect our immune systems.

But despite how devastating SARS-2 can be to the immune system, many people on social media, especially Twitter, have begun describing COVID as "airborne AIDS" or "airborne HIV." AIDS stands for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome while HIV is the sexually-transmitted Human Immunodeficiency Virus, that weakens the immune system, increasing the risk of fatal diseases and cancers.

One professor tweeted that "airborne AIDS" might "just be what makes humanity go extinct," while others have echoed various levels of fear that a muted government response to COVID is going to sicken and kill everyone in an avalanche of illness.

Salon spoke with epidemiologists and immunologists about these theories about what COVID does to the immune system, and the "airborne AIDS" label.

"For years, I've been saying these repeat infections have the potential to harm our immune systems," Leonardi said.

Anthony Leonardi, an immunologist specializing in T cells and a master of public health student at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said that describing SARS-CoV-2 as "airborne AIDS" is "extremely hyperbolic and emotionally evocative.".

"When you use so much hyperbole, you actually do a disservice to true and real statements that SARS-CoV-2 actually can be harming the immune system," Leonardi told Salon.

"For years, I've been saying these repeat infections have the potential to harm our immune systems," Leonardi said.

But Leonardi argues that this is no reason to compare COVID to AIDS.

"When you use so much hyperbole, you actually do a disservice to true and real statements that SARS-CoV-2 actually can be harming the immune system," Leonardi told Salon.

He emphasized that just because a virus can harm the immune system or even deplete T cells like SARS-CoV-2 does not make it analogous to HIV.