I grew up at around the same time and you seem to have forgotten that the press - not government education, the press - loved to write about the relation between AIDS and sex, especially among gay man. Whether that's a good or bad thing is another story, but the press loving sex stories is as ancient as hot water.

>The “Hype” over HIV and its prevalence in the news of the 80’s was simply that it was newly detected, spreading expediently, had no treatment and nobody knew the scale of how big the “underlying threat” was already hidden in society.

Pretty sure that the fact that HIV was associated with promiscuous sex, gay relationships and drug abuse had at least as much to do with the "hype factor".

Edit: I mean in terms how the press was eager to pay attention to it. That kind of "hype".

>To me the idea of herding an animal good in running like horses as a walking human seems ridiculous.

Why? Herding is not running behind fleeing animals. Herding is making them accustomed to you with lots of patience, not scaring them by trying run after them. Quite a lot domesticated animals run faster than humans. No-one can outrun a cow. Even sheep are way faster than most humans. But we did domesticate and herd them.

It's so strange, I'm starting to suspect these movies are fictional.