I had very supportive parents that made the way for me even at a time when there were very few women - no women really maybe two or three women - and very few fewer than that African-American women heading in this direction so there were very few people to look up to. You just had to have faith.
There's no one place a virus goes to die - but that doesn't make its demise any less a public health victory. Throughout human history viral diseases have had their way with us and for just as long we have hunted them down and done our best to wipe them out.