It was a big scare in the 80s and 90s. People were spreading rumors that you could get HIV from the toilet seat after merely using the toilet after someone with AIDS, no bodily fluid exchange necessary. I was taught that in fifth grade health. We had a guest teacher the first day. The second and third days, we did not have a guest teacher, we had the vice principal. Someone else had also told the administration that bullshit we had been taught and the guest teacher was dismissed.

So like, I don't know what the rumors were in the 70s, but in the late 80s it was AIDS.