White people/the West would care if they had not heard it mostly impacts the poor, POC and marginalized people. Once they heard that, everyone went back to brunch.

At the same time covid is a virus that is spread around the world by tourists, in my country an entire wave was seeded by upper class/wealthy people doing tourism. But it doesn't affect them enough so they don't care.

I don't think making it about being an STD would cause anything more than more othering towards the same marginalized groups.